Manegold of Lautenbach (c. 1030 – c. 1103) was a religious and polemical writer and
Augustinian canon
Canons regular are priests who live in community under a rule ( and canon in greek) and are generally organised into religious orders, differing from both secular canons and other forms of religious life, such as clerics regular, designated by a ...
from
Alsace
Alsace (, ; ; Low Alemannic German/ gsw-FR, Elsàss ; german: Elsass ; la, Alsatia) is a cultural region and a territorial collectivity in eastern France, on the west bank of the upper Rhine next to Germany and Switzerland. In 2020, it had ...
, active mostly as a teacher in south-west Germany.
William of Champeaux
Guillaume de Champeaux (18 January 1121 in Châlons-en-Champagne), known in English as William of Champeaux and Latinised to Gulielmus de Campellis, was a French philosopher and theologian.
Biography
William was born at Champeaux near Melun. ...
may have been one of his pupils, but this is disputed. He was one of the first ''magisters'', recognised masters of theology.
Life
He engaged in a controversy with
Wenrich of Trier Wenrich of Trier was a German ecclesiastico-political writer of the eleventh century.
Biography
He was a canon at Verdun, and afterwards scholasticus at Trier.
Sigebert of Gembloux ('' Patrologia Latina'', CXL, 584 sq.) calls him also Bishop of ...
, taking the papal side in the era of the
Investiture Controversy
The Investiture Controversy, also called Investiture Contest ( German: ''Investiturstreit''; ), was a conflict between the Church and the state in medieval Europe over the ability to choose and install bishops ( investiture) and abbots of mona ...
. He also attacked
Wolfhelm of Brauweiler.
Towards the end of his life (1094) he was a reformer at the religious community at
Marbach.
Writings
His ''Ad Gebehardum liber'' of 1085 was a comprehensive discussion of
kingship
King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king.
*In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...
, original and much commented on, and clarifying some of the political arguments most centrally used by the papal supporters; it argued that kingship was an office from which the king could be deposed; his
functionalist analogy was with the position of
swineherd, held at the pleasure of the employer. This work, dedicated to
Gebhard, archbishop of Salzburg, was intended to refute a polemic letter of Wenrich on behalf of
Emperor Henry IV, written c.1080-1. A strong supporter of
Pope Gregory VII, and the
Gregorian revolutionary reforms, Manegold shared with others of his time the view in political thought that secular rulers held their power on the basis of some kind of
pact
A pact, from Latin ''pactum'' ("something agreed upon"), is a formal agreement between two or more parties. In international relations, pacts are usually between two or more sovereign states. In domestic politics, pacts are usually between two or ...
with the ruled. Further, when the pact could be considered broken, the oath of allegiance could be considered null, a theory of resistance adapted to aristocratic arguments that had not long previously been topical in
Saxony
Saxony (german: Sachsen ; Upper Saxon: ''Saggsn''; hsb, Sakska), officially the Free State of Saxony (german: Freistaat Sachsen, links=no ; Upper Saxon: ''Freischdaad Saggsn''; hsb, Swobodny stat Sakska, links=no), is a landlocked state of ...
; this theory had been documented in the 1082 ''Bellum Saxonicum'' of
Bruno of Merseburg Bruno the Saxon (Latin: ''Bruno Saxonicus''), also known as Bruno of Merseburg (German: ''Brun von Merseburg'') or Bruno of Magdeburg, was a German chronicler of the eleventh century and author of the ''Historia de Bello Saxonico'' ('History of the ...
. The argument that in the past bad kings had frequently been deposed, typically with papal involvement, derived from a papal letter of 1075 to
Hermann, bishop of Metz.
Manegold's book also contained an account of the life of Gregory VII, reflecting the ''Vita'' by
John the Deacon of
Gregory the Great
Pope Gregory I ( la, Gregorius I; – 12 March 604), commonly known as Saint Gregory the Great, was the bishop of Rome from 3 September 590 to his death. He is known for instigating the first recorded large-scale mission from Rome, the Gregoria ...
; this shares details with chronicles of
Berthold of Reichenau Berthold of Reichenau (died probably in 1088) was a Benedictine monk and chronicler of Reichenau Abbey.
Life
Berthold was a disciple and friend of Hermannus Contractus. When Hermannus saw death approaching, he entrusted to Berthold all the wax tabl ...
and
Bernold of St Blasien, writing in the part of southern Germany in which Manegold had sheltered after having to leave Alsace. Manegold's sources included
St Paul,
Jerome
Jerome (; la, Eusebius Sophronius Hieronymus; grc-gre, Εὐσέβιος Σωφρόνιος Ἱερώνυμος; – 30 September 420), also known as Jerome of Stridon, was a Christian priest, confessor, theologian, and historian; he is co ...
,
Peter Damian
Peter Damian ( la, Petrus Damianus; it, Pietro or '; – 21 or 22 February 1072 or 1073) was a reforming Benedictine monk and cardinal in the circle of Pope Leo IX. Dante placed him in one of the highest circles of '' Paradiso'' ...
and Bernold; also Pseudo-Chrysostom's
''Opus Imperfectum in Matthaeum'', for the way the 'pact' theory was expressed. Along with others arguing from the same side, he used arguments from
Cyprian
Cyprian (; la, Thaschus Caecilius Cyprianus; 210 – 14 September 258 AD''The Liturgy of the Hours according to the Roman Rite: Vol. IV.'' New York: Catholic Book Publishing Company, 1975. p. 1406.) was a bishop of Carthage and an early Christ ...
, ''De unitate ecclesiae'', in a version (of the fourth chapter) supporting
papal primacy
Papal primacy, also known as the primacy of the bishop of Rome, is a Roman Catholic ecclesiological doctrine concerning the respect and authority that is due to the pope from other bishops and their episcopal sees. The doctrine is accepted ...
.
He opposed the uncritical acceptance by Christians of the views of pagan classical writers. He was a critic of
Macrobius, singling out for attack in geography the
spherical earth
Spherical Earth or Earth's curvature refers to the approximation of figure of the Earth as a sphere.
The earliest documented mention of the concept dates from around the 5th century BC, when it appears in the writings of Greek philosophers. ...
theory of four isolated continents of
Crates of Mallus
Crates of Mallus ( grc-gre, Κράτης ὁ Μαλλώτης, ''Krátēs ho Mallṓtēs''; century BC) was a Greek grammarian and Stoic philosopher, leader of the literary school and head of the library of Pergamum. He was described as th ...
, on theological grounds.
[W. G. L. Randles, ''Classical Geography and the Discovery of America'', p. 21 in Wolfgang Haase, Meyer Reinhold (editors), ''The Classical Tradition and the Americas: European Images of the Americas and the Classical Tradition'' (1994).]
Works
*''Ad Gebehardum liber''
*''Ad Wibaldum Abbatem''
*''De psalmorum libro exegesis''
*''Contra Wolfelmum Coloniensem'', English translation: Manegold of Lautenbach, ''Liber contra Wolfelmum''. With an Introduction and Notes by Robert Ziomkowski (
Dallas Medieval Texts and Translations Dallas Medieval Texts and Translations is a book series founded at the University of Dallas and currently co-sponsored by the University of Dallas and Maynooth University in Ireland. The series is published by Peeters, a publishing house based in Le ...
1). Louvain/Paris: Peeters, 2002. .
See also
References
I. S. Robinson (1978), ''Authority and Resistance in the Investiture Contest: The Polemical Literature of the Late Eleventh Century'', New York: Manchester University Press.
Notes
External links
*
{{Authority control
11th-century German writers
1030s births
1103 deaths
11th-century Latin writers