Bernold of Constance (c. 1054–

Schaffhausen Schaffhausen (; gsw, Schafuuse; french: Schaffhouse; it, Sciaffusa; rm, Schaffusa; en, Shaffhouse) is a list of towns in Switzerland, town with historic roots, a municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in northern Switzerland, and the ...

, September 16, 1100) was a chronicler and writer of tracts, and a defender of the Church reforms of

Pope Gregory VII Pope Gregory VII ( la, Gregorius VII; 1015 – 25 May 1085), born Hildebrand of Sovana ( it, Ildebrando di Soana), was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 22 April 1073 to his death in 1085. He is venerated as a saint ...

Life

He was educated at

Constance Constance may refer to: Places *Konstanz, Germany, sometimes written as Constance in English *Constance Bay, Ottawa, Canada * Constance, Kentucky * Constance, Minnesota * Constance (Portugal) * Mount Constance, Washington State People * Consta ...

under the renowned teacher Bernard of Constance. He attended the Lenten Synod of Rome, in 1079, at which

Berengarius of Tours Berengar of Tours (died 6 January 1088), in Latin Berengarius Turonensis, was an 11th-century French people, French Christianity, Christian theologian and archdeacon of Angers, a scholar whose leadership of the cathedral school at Chartres set a ...

retracted his errors. Remaining in Italy till 1084, he likely attended the

Council of Piacenza The Council of Piacenza was a mixed synod of ecclesiastics and laymen of the Roman Catholic Church, which took place from March 1 to March 7, 1095, at Piacenza. The Council was held at the end of Pope Urban II's tour of Italy and France, which he m ...

, on the proceedings of which he is the main authority. Once more at Constance, he attended the ordination of bishop Gebhard and was ordained priest himself by the papal legate. In 1086 he went with Bishop Gebhard as counsellors to Herman, contender for the Imperial crown, at the

Battle of Pleichfeld Battle of Pleichfeld, in 1086, was the last major battle of the Great Saxon Revolt (1077–1088), a nobles' rebellion against the emperor Henry IV in the Holy Roman Empire. The battle was a victory for the rebel forces.Nikola Gažević, Vojna en ...

. About the same time, he entered first the Benedictine Abbey of St Blasien in the

Black Forest The Black Forest (german: Schwarzwald ) is a large forested mountain range in the state of Baden-Württemberg in southwest Germany, bounded by the Rhine Valley to the west and south and close to the borders with France and Switzerland. It is t ...

and then, in 1091, the Abbey of All Saints nearby in Schaffhausen, where he died.

Works

He wrote seventeen surviving tracts which are mostly

apologetics Apologetics (from Greek , "speaking in defense") is the religious discipline of defending religious doctrines through systematic argumentation and discourse. Early Christian writers (c. 120–220) who defended their beliefs against critics and ...

for the pope's policy, defences of papal supremacy or vindications of men who advocated or enforced it in Germany. Chief among these are: ''De prohibendâ sacerdotum incontinentiâ'' (against married clergy); ''De damnatione schismaticorum'' and ''Apologeticus super excommunicationem Gregorii VII'' (justifying

excommunication Excommunication is an institutional act of religious censure used to end or at least regulate the communion of a member of a congregation with other members of the religious institution who are in normal communion with each other. The purpose ...

of schismatics and of

Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV (german: Heinrich IV; 11 November 1050 – 7 August 1106) was Holy Roman Emperor from 1084 to 1105, King of Germany from 1054 to 1105, King of Italy and Burgundy from 1056 to 1105, and Duke of Bavaria from 1052 to 1054. He was the son ...

and his partisans). Of broader interest is Bernold's chronicle, ''Chronicon,'' the latter part of which is a terse record of contemporary events by a knowing and intelligent observer in the extreme Papal camp. The chronicle covers the years AD 1054-1000, with the earlier years being composed of brief summaries until the AD 1070’s, the remaining yearly annals are much longer and expansive. The chronicle mostly focuses on Papal court politics and the rivalry with the German clergy/nobility. Important current events like warfare, famines and deaths of public figures are also briefly recounted. Bernold was the author of ''Micrologus de ecclesiasticis observationibus'' (c. 1085), a lengthy commentary on the papal liturgy that became an important medieval liturgical treatise. Thanks to him, the German church was provided with a fairly common

sacramentary In the Western Church of the Early and High Middle Ages, a sacramentary was a book used for liturgical services and the mass by a bishop or priest. Sacramentaries include only the words spoken or sung by him, unlike the missals of later cent ...

throughout the Empire. The form of the mass given in ''Micrologus'' was established for

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia a ...

, too, about 1100, by order of the local bishops.

Sources

External links

''Catholic Encyclopedia'':
Bernold of Constance {{DEFAULTSORT:Bernold of Constance 1050s births 1100 deaths German chroniclers 11th-century German historians 11th-century Roman Catholic priests German Benedictines 11th-century Christian monks 11th-century Latin writers People from Schaffhausen