Berthold of Ratisbon
Berthold of Ratisbon
A Franciscan of the monastery of that city and the most powerful preacher of repentance in the thirteenth century, b. about 1210; d. at Ratisbon, 14 December, 1272. He was probably a member of a well-to-do middle class family of Ratisbon named Sachs. The excellence of his literary training is proved by his sermons which show more than common acquaintance with the ancient classics. From his knowledge of the usages of secular life, it may be inferred that he was a man of mature age before he entered the monastery. The first fixed date in BertholdÕs life is 1246, when the papal legate appointed him and David of Augsburg inspectors of the convent of Niederm?nster, a proof of the high regard in which Berthold was then held. One of his contemporaries, the Abbot of Niederaltaich, who is a reliable historian, speaks in 1250 of the great reputation that Berthold had in Bavaria as a preacher. Four years later the missionary trips of this preacher extended as far as the valley of the Rhine, Alsace, and Switzerland. During the next ten years Berthold’s apostolic labours led him eastward into Austria, Moravia, Bohemia, and Silesia. In 1263 Pope Urban IV appointed him to preach the Crusade and Albert the Great was designated as his assistant. When speaking to Slavonic audiences, Berthold naturally employed an interpreter, just as St. Bernard, in his day, made use of an interpreter in Germany. Notwithstanding any difficulties that might arise as to speech, wherever he went Berthold exerted an extraordinary power of attraction over his hearers so that the churches were not able to hold the great crowds of plain people who came from all quarters to his services, and he was often obliged to preach in the open air. When this was the case, a pulpit was generally arranged under the spreading branches of a linden tree. Long after his day “Berthold’s linden” was to be seen at Glatz. About 1270 he seems to have returned to Ratisbon where he remained the rest of his life. The Franciscan martyrology includes his name among the blessed of the order, and his remains form the most precious relic among the treasures of the cathedral at Ratisbon. The poets and chroniclers of his time made frequent reference to Berthold. He was called “sweet Brother Berthold”, “the beloved of God and man”, “a second Elias”, “the teacher of the nations”; all of these expressions are proofs of the high esteem in which his activities were held. The secret of the preacher’s success lay partly in the saintliness of his life and partly in his power to make use of the language of humble life. He became the great master, it may be said, the classic of homely speech, and this rank has been maintained by his sermons to the present day. One of his two popular discourses on the Last Judgment became a favourite book of the people under the title “The Valley of Josaphat”. There is no doubt that Brother Berthold preached in German. For a long time, however, scholars disagreed as to how his sermons had been preserved. It is now generally accepted that the sermons were often written down afterwards in Latin, frequently with marginal comments in German; these reports of the sermons, as they may be called, partly German, partly Latin, or at times in the language in which they were delivered, are what have been handed down to posterity. The discourses thus preserved are of the greatest importance for the history of the development of the literature of homiletics; they are of equal value as rich sources for determining the condition of education and culture in the thirteenth century. It is difficult, therefore, to understand how this greatest of German preachers to the poor could have been forgotten for centuries. It was not until some of Brother Berthold’s sermons were published in 1824 that attention was called to the eloquent Franciscan. Since this date, the enthusiasm for Berthold has grown steadily so that he has become a favourite, both of Germanic scholars and of the historians of the development of German civilization. He is also regarded as the great pattern of homely pulpit eloquence.
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KLING, Bertholds, des Franziskaners, deutsche Predigten (Berlin, 1824); PFEIFFER UND STROBL, Berthold von Regensburg (Vienna, 1862, 1880); G…BEL, Die Missionspredigten des Franziskaners Berthold von Regensburg, in jetziger Schriftsprache (Ratisbon, 1873); H…TZL, Beati Fr. Bertholdi a Ratisbona sermones ad religiosos (Munich, 1882); UNKEL, Berthold von Regensburg (Cologne, 1882); STROMBERGER, Berthold von Regensburg (G?terslob, 1877); MICHAEL, Gesch. des deutschen Volkes vom 13. Jahrh. bis zum Ausgange des M. A. (Freiburg im Br., 1897), II, III, 144-180.
N. SCHEID Transcribed by Gerald Rossi
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume IICopyright © 1907 by Robert Appleton CompanyOnline Edition Copyright © 2003 by K. KnightImprimatur. +John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York
Fuente: Catholic Encyclopedia
Berthold of Ratisbon
also called Berthold the Franciscan, a Franciscan monk, and one of the most powerful preachers that ever spoke in the German tongue. He is supposed to have been born about 1225 in Regensburg, where he died in 1272. His theological education he received chiefly in the Franciscan convent of Ratisbon, where a pious and learned mystic, Brother David of Augsburg, was professor of theology and master of the novitiate. It is doubtful whether, as has been asserted by some (Dr. Schmidt, in Studien und Kritiken, see below), he continued his studies in Paris and Italy. His first public appearance, as far as we know, was in the year 1246, when the papal legate, Philippus of Ferrara, charged him, Brother David, and two canons of Ratisbon, with the visitation of the convent of Niedermunster. His labors as a travelling preacher began in 1250 (according to others in 1251 or 1252) in Lower Bavaria, and extended to Alsatia, Alemannia (Baden), Switzerland, Austria, Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia, Thuringia, Franconia, and perhaps Hungary. When he was unacquainted with the language of the country he used an interpreter. Rudelbach, in the Zeits fur Luth. Theol. 1859, calls Berthold the Chrysostom of the Middle Ages. No church was large enough to hold the multitudes that flocked to hear him; from a pulpit in the fields he often addressed 60,000 hearers. He fearlessly rebuked sinners of all ranks. He was especially severe against the preachers of indulgences, whom he styled penny preachers and the devil’s agents. A volume of his sermons, edited by Kling, was published at Berlin in 1824 (B. des Franciscaner’s Predigten). The first complete edition of his sermons was published by F. Pfeiffer (Vienna, 2 vols. 1862 sq.). A translation of his sermons from medieval into modern German was published by Gobel, with an introduction by Alban Stolz (2 vols. 8vo). Recently the German jurists have found that the sermons of Berthold are of the greatest importance for the history of the German law. The passages in these sermons which agree with the popular law-book called the Schwabenspiegel are so numerous that some (as Laband, Beitrage zur Geschichte des Schwabenspiegels, Berlin, 1861) have regarded Berthold as its author. The best treatise on Berthold is by Schmidt, B. der Franciscaner in Studien und Kritiken (1864, p. 7-82). See also Kling, in Herzog, Real-Encyklop. 2, 101, and Wagenmann, in Herzog, Supplem. 1, 183; Jahrbucher fur deutsche Theologie, 1863, p. 386 sq.; Piper, Evang. Kalend for 1853; Pfeiffer, Deutsche Mystiker (vol. 1, p. 26 sq.); Kehrein, Gesch. der kath. Kanzelberedsankeit (2 vols. Ratisbon, 1843): Neander, Ch. Hist. 4, 318, 351.