Berthold (3)
Berthold
(died 1198 ) Bishop and apostle of the Livonians, killed near Riga in a crusade against the pagans who threatened the destruction of the recently established Christian community. He had previously been Cistercian Abbot of Lockum, Hanover, and about 1196 had succeeded Meinhard, first Bishop of Livonia, laboring ten years on the Livonian mission.
Fuente: New Catholic Dictionary
Berthold
Bishop, Apostle of the Livonians, killed 24 July, 1198, in a crusade against the pagan Livonians who threatened destruction to all Christians that lived in their territory. He was previously Abbot of the Cistercian monastery of Lockum in Hanover. At the death of Meinhard, the first Bishop of Livonia (c. 1196), Archbishop Hartwig of Bremen, to whose province belonged the newly converted countries along the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea, appointed Abbot Berthold successor. It seems very probable that, as Damberger asserts in his ÒSynchronistische Geschichte der Kirche und der Welt im MittelalterÓ, when Meinhard came to Bremen in 1186 to obtain help in his apostolic labours in Livonia, Berthold joined the band of missionaries who accompanied him thither. On this assumption, Berthold had been working ten years as a missionary among the Livonians when he became their second bishop and was, therefore, well acquainted with his field of labour.
The Livonian pagans were fanatically opposed to Christianity. Berthold’s predecessor, assisted by merchants from Bremen and Lübeck and a few converted natives, had built fortifications along the River Düna, where Christians held their religious services and could protect themselves against the fury of the pagans. Following in the footsteps of his predecessor, Berthold tried to gain their confidence and good will by kindness. At first they appeared to become less hostile, but soon their old hatred revived. When Berthold attempted to bless the Christian cemetery at Holm, their pagan fanaticism broke loose in all its fury and they decided either to burn the bishop together with his church at Holm or to drown him in the Düna. The Christians fled to their strongholds at Uxküll and Holm, while the bishop escaped in a ship to L?beck.
Pope Celestine III, shortly before his death, was preparing to send a fleet of crusaders to protect the Christians of the Baltic Provinces, and his successor, Innocent III, continued the work. Berthold gained the financial assistance of Archbishop Hartwig and many merchants of Bremen and L?beck. In a short time a large fleet was ready for departure well equipped and loaded with crusaders and many German peasants who were to settle permanently in Livonia. It put to sea at L?beck and crossed the Baltic, entering the River D?na from what is now called the Gulf of Riga. Near the mouth of the D?na the German peasants landed with the purpose of making their homes in the vicinity, and laid the foundations of the city Riga, at present one of the most important commercial seaports in Russia. Berthold, accompanied by the crusaders, sailed up the river as far as Holm, where the pagan Livonians had gathered with the intention of attacking the fleet. Having vainly attempted to come to a peaceful agreement with them, Berthold and his companions sailed some distance down the river, with the Livonians in eager pursuit. Finally, the pagans agreed to a suspension of hostilities to gain time for collecting larger forces. At the first opportunity, however, they fell upon the Christians who ventured outside their fortifications, and hostilities were resumed. The crusaders were victorious, but Berthold’s horse became intractable and galloped into the midst of the fleeing Livonians. A pagan by the name of Ymant thrust his lance into Berthold’s back, inflicting a wound that caused speedy death. The bishop’s body was buried by the crusaders at Uxk?ll whence it was transferred to Riga by Bishop Albert of Apeldern whom Archbishop Hartwig of Bremen had appointed Berthold’s successor. Soon after the death of Berthold many of the vanquished pagans came to the crusaders, expressing their regret at the unhappy occurrence and asked to be baptized. The final conversion of Livonia was effected by Bishop Albert, who was assisted in his apostolic labours by the newly founded Order of the Brothers of the Sword which in 1237 was affiliated with the Teutonic Order.
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GRUBBER, Origines Livoniæ sacræ et civiles (Frankfort and Leipzig, 1740); DAMBERGER, Synchronistische Geschichte der Kirche und der Welt im Mittelalter (Ratisbon, 1856), IX, 328-336, 437-438; SEITERS, in Kirchenlex., s.v.
MICHAEL OTT 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
a Calabrian who went to Mount Carmel about the middle of the 11th century and founded the order of Carmelites (q.v.).
Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
Berthold (2)
the apostle of Livonia, died in 1198. After the death of the first missionary and bishop of the Livonians, Meinhard (1196), Berthold, who was at that time abbot of the Cistercian convent Loccum, was ordained missionary bishop for the Livonians by Archbishop Hartwig of Bremen and Hamburg. Having arrived at Yxkull on the Duna, he at first tried to win over the Letts by clemency, but was forced to leave the country. He then returned at the head of an army of crusaders from Lower Saxony, and tried to conquer the Letts, and compel them by force of arms to submit to baptism. In a battle in 1198, Berthold was slain; but the crusaders were victorious, and the Letts had for a time to submit; but as soon as the crusaders had left their country they returned to paganism. Brockhaus, Conversations-Lexicon, s.v.
Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
Berthold (3)
bishop of Chiemsee, whose original name was Pirstinger, was born in 1465, at Salzburg. He was for some time a canon at Salzburg, and in 1508 was elected bishop of Chiemsee, where he was indefatigable in the reformation of the clergy. He died at Saalfelden, July 19, 1543. He is the author of Tewtsche Theologey, one of the best works of the Middle Ages on scientific theology (latest edition, with notes, a dictionary, and a biography of, Berthold, ed. by W. Reithmeier, with a preface by Dr. Fr. Windishmann, Munich, 1852). He is probably, also, the author of the Opus Ecclesiae, a description of the corruption pervading the whole Church (Landshut, 1524; last ed. 1620). Pierer, Univ. Lex. 19, 811.