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[German Version] (c. 1129 – Jun 18, 1164), of noble descent, entered the double …

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[German Version] Since the 12th century, individual convents were founded under the patronage of Mary Magdalene…

[German Version] (Scots Gaelic: Dun Eideann), capital of Scotland. Situated near the Firth of…

[German Version] (c. 1456, Church Oakley, Hampshire – Aug 22, 1532, Hackington, near Canterbury). After studying at New College, Oxford (fellow 1475; LL.D. 1488), Warham had a successful legal career in the civil and ecclesiastical administration and as a diplomat: principal of the School for Civil Law, Oxford (1490), Master of the Rolls (1…

[German Version] (Morus; Feb 6/7, 1477/1478, London – Jul 6, 1535, London), prominent English Humanist, politician, and controversial theologian (Controversial theology). The son of a jurist, he attended school in London and subsequently became a page in the household of Cardinal Archbishop John Morton (1420–1500), who sent him to Oxford to study. In spite of his academic interests, his father insisted on an additional legal training at the Inns of Court. Thomas More worked as a lawyer from 1501 onward, but continued to live in the London Charterhouse. Marriage and a highly successful political and diplomatic career prevented him from following his monastic inclinations and also curtailed his possibilities of engaging in scholarly work: More was a member of parliament, headed several diplomatic missions on the European continent from 1515 to 1529, was one of the advisers of Henry VIII (1519–1532; knighted in 1521), served as undertreasurer from 1521 onward, was appointed chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster in 1525, and succeeded T. Wolsey as Lord Chancellor in 1…

[German Version] (1485, Thurcaston, Leicestershire – Oct 16, 1555, Oxford). The son of a free peasant, Latimer studied theology from 1506 onward at Clare College, Cambridge (B.A. 1510, M.A. 1514). Having initially defended the old faith as a preacher and university lecturer, he joined the Reformation around 1524 under the influence of T. Bilney. Highly esteemed at the court of Henry VIII for a time (appointment as bishop of Worcester in 1535), he fell out of favor from ¶ 1539 during the turmoil surrounding Anne Boleyn; he delivered his most famous sermons under Edward VI. …

[German Version] (1620, Lydeard St. Lawrence – Oct 18, 1677, London). After studying at Wadham College, Oxford (BA 1639), Manton, the son of a clergyman, began to preach and rapidly became the undisputed leader of the Presbyterians in London. He rose ¶ to become a scribe for the Westminster Assembly and often preached before the Long Parliament. After the fall of O. Cromwell, he sympathized with the Restoration under Charles II, but when the hopes of the Nonconformists (Dissenters) for concessions from the Anglicans were dashed, he refu…

[German Version] (Wyclif[f]ites), adherents of the teachings of J. Wycliffe, were persecuted as heretics in England by both the church and the state until 1559. Spread beyond Oxford, initially by Wycliffe himself and later by his students, Wycliffite ideas were evident from 1382 in London, Leicester, Bristol, and elsewhere. This led to a tightening of the heresy laws (esp. stricter controlling of teachers of theology and priests who preached out-¶ side their parishes; a penalty for possessing the English Bible and religious literature in the vernacular) and to initial persecutions. The revo…

[German Version] (Good Friday, 1277, Nuremberg – Dec 27, 1356, Engelthal Convent). The patrician's daughter entered the Engelthal Convent (Dominican) at the age of twelve. Her uncompromising conceptualization of the imitatio Christi and cloistered lifestyle led to corporal suffering and isolation within the community. Beginning in 1291, Ebner had extraordinary spiritual experiences that brought her fame in subsequent decades even outside her convent (1350, visit of Emperor Charles IV (Luxembourg). By 1338 at the latest she was in contact with Henry of Nördlingen, who gave her literary encouragement (Mechthild v. Magdeburg) and put her in contact with likeminded individuals (J. Tauler, M. Ebner). Inspired by her father-confessor, Konrad v. Füssen, she began to record her “revelations” (visions, dialogues with Christ or the Trinity, etc.; unpublished) i…

[German Version] (Stuart of England; May 29, 1630, London – Feb 2, 1685, London), king of England. The son of the executed Charles I of England, he was exiled in 1651, but answered the call of his country to assume the crown in 1660. Thus began the Restoration period, which was characterized by a balance of po…

[German Version] (Waldensis; c. 1372, Saffron Walden,Essex –Nov 2, 1430, Rouen), Carmelite monk. Ordained to the priesthood in 1396, he studied and taught theology in Oxford. He was court preacher to Henr…

[German Version] I. General – II. Non-Christian Religions – III. Christianity – IV. Religion, Society, and Culture in the Present I. General England is part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. It has an area of 130,412 km2 and a population of 48,903,400. London, the capital, is also the largest city in the kingdom (7,074,300 inhabitants), followed by Birmingham (1,017,500). England comprises eight geographical regions (The South East, West Midlands, East Midlands, East Anglia, The North West, …

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[German Version] (c. 1291, Donauwörth – Jun 20, 1351, Maria Medingen). This patrician's daughter entered the Convent of Maria Medingen at a very early age. Constantly ill and isolated within the convent from 1312 on, she understood her illness as her path to God. Prayer, cont…

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[German Version] The founding of Cambridge University probably goes back to members of Oxford University who left Oxford in reaction to the closing of schools in 1209 that resulted from disputes between the city and the university. Although instruction resumed in Oxford in 1214, a few scholars remained in Cambridge. Proximity to the episcopal see of Ely favored the establishment of a permanent institution, and Cambridge and Oxford remained the only English univer…

[German Version] (Matthaeus Parisiensis; c. 1200 – June 1259, St. Albans, Hertfordshire, England). In 1217, he entered the Benedictine Abbey of St. Albans, had contacts with the court of Henry III, and in 1248/1249 reformed the Norwegian monastery of Holm (OSB) on papal commission. As a chronicler, he continued the world chronicle of Roger of Wendover (died 1236) in his main work entitled Chronica maiora. He wrote several works on English history, including Historia Anglorum, and on the history of his own monastery, Gesta Abbatum…

[German Version] (Aug 6, 1504, Norwich – May 17, 1575, Lambeth), son of a well-to-do weaver, studied at Corpus Christi College in Cambridge from 1522 to 1528; he remained close to the college throughout his life, being elected master in 1544. His collection of medieval manuscripts became the core of the college’s Parker Library. At Cambridge Parker was won to the Protestant cause (T. Bilney, H. Latimer). In 1535 Anne Boleyn, the mother of Elizabeth I, appointed Parker, now a well-known preacher, a…

[German Version] (1514 [?], Haddington, East Lothian – Nov 24, 1572, Edinburgh). As a theologian an…

[German Version] is the term for a number of individuals and groups persecuted as heretical; they do not constitute a homogeneous organization, even if some connections exist between individual representatives – mostly laypersons, including a disproportionately large number of women. Nor can a unified doctrinal system be identified. More instructive than the stereotypical lists of heresies, as were produced by the church in the context of persecution, are direct sources from the series of Brothers and Sisters, especially the …

[German Version] (d. after 1351), a diocesan priest from Danube-Ries, acquired significance as a pastor of pious women in convents and lay women and thus influenced the mysticism (III, 3) of women in the…

[German Version] (Peacock; Pavo; c. 1393, Wales – 1460/1461, Thorney Abbey, Cambridgeshire). After studying theology at Oxford (since 1409), Pecock served as a parish priest and later as a bishop (St. Asaph 1444, Chichester 1450). Despite several works against the ¶ Lollards, in 1457 he was charged with heresy; he was forced to recant, and several of his works were burned. After resigning his bishopric in 1459, he lived under house arrest in Thorney and was forbidden to write. Attacking the biblicism of the Lollards,…

[German Version] I. Religious Studies Traditionally research on religion has rarely dealt with women. Exceptions include Moriz Winternitz ( Die Frau in den indischen Religionen, 1915–1916) and F. Heiler ( Die Frau in den Religionen der Menschheit…

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[German Version] (Jul 2, 1489, Aslockton, Nottinghamshire – Mar 21, 1556, Oxford), an English reformer who made a significant contribution to the formation of the via media of the Anglican Church. Stemming from the lower landed gentry, Cranmer studied from 1503 in Cambridge. After his M.A., he was elected in 1515 as a fellow in the Jesus College (consecrated to the priesthood c. 1520); he concluded his studies in 1526 as a D.D. (Doctor of Divinity). In these years, Cranmer was concerned…

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[German Version] (Dec 21, 1120 [?], London – Dec 29, 1170, Canterbury). After studying in Paris, Thomas, the son of a merchant, was accepted into the household of Archbishop Theobald of Canterbury, who named him archdeacon of Canterbury in 1154. In 1155 Henry II appointed him as his chancellor. Thomas was ambitious and lived lavishly but was considered highly talented and incorruptible. As Henry’s confidant, he carried out the king’s policies even against the interests of the church. That changed …

[German Version] (c. 1495, Norfolk – Aug 19, 1531, Norwich) studied both kinds of law in Cambridge. He was ordained as a priest in 1519 and became a fellow of Trinity Hall in 1520. Under the influence of the Latin translation of the New Testament by Erasmus, Bilney began to de…