Hildebert

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
This article is about the bishop and theologian. For the Frankish nobleman, see Hildebert, Count of Ivois. For the medieval Moravian artist, see Hildebert and Everwin.
Hildebert's letters, from a 16th-century manuscript (Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Vat. lat. 3841, fol. 1r)
Hildeberts's poem, from a 12th-century manuscript (Berlin, Staatsbibliothek, Ms. lat. fol. 591, fol. 77r)

Hildebert of Lavardin

archbishop of Tours
.

Life

Hildebert was born of poor parents at

bishop of Le Mans.[2] He had to face the hostility of a section of his clergy and also of the English king, William II, who captured Le Mans and carried the bishop with him to England for about a year.[3]

Hildebert then (in 1100 or 1103)[4] travelled to Rome and sought permission to resign his bishopric, which Pope Paschal II refused. In 1116 his diocese was thrown into great confusion owing to the preaching of Henry of Lausanne, who was denouncing the higher clergy, especially the bishop. Hildebert compelled him to leave the neighborhood of Le Mans, but the effects of his preaching remained.[3]

In 1125 Hildebert was

bishop of Dol about the authority of his see in Brittany. He presided over the Synod of Nantes, and died at Tours probably on December 18, 1133. Hildebert built part of the cathedral at Le Mans. Some writers have referred to him with the title of saint, but there appears to be no authority for this. He was not a man of very strict life; his contemporaries, however, had a very high opinion of him and he was called egregius versificator by Orderic Vitalis.[3][5]

Works

The extant writings of Hildebert consist of letters, poems, a few sermons, two lives and one or two treatises. An edition of his works prepared by the

Maurist, Antoine Beaugendre, and entitled Venerabilis Hildeberti, prima Cenomanensis episcopi, deinde Turonensis archiepiscopi, opera tam edita quam inedita, was published in Paris in 1708 and was reprinted with additions by J-J Bourassé in 1854. These editions, however, are faulty. They credit Hildebert with numerous writings by others and omit some genuine writings. Revelation of this fact has affected Hildebert's position in the history of medieval thought.[3]

His former standing as a philosopher rested on his supposed authorship of the important Tractatus theologicus—but this is now regarded as the work of

Monumenta Germaniae historica. Libelli de lite ii. (1893),[3][6] but whose attribution to Hildebert is very doubtful.[7]

His poems on various subjects were also very popular. Hildebert attained celebrity also as a preacher both in French and Latin, but only a few of his genuine sermons exist, most of the 144 his editors attributed to him being the work of Peter Lombard and others.[3]

The Vitae Hildebert wrote are the lives of

St Radegunda. His liber de Querimonia et Conflictu carnis et Spiritus seu animae is also undoubtedly his. Hildebert was an excellent Latin scholar, being acquainted with Cicero, Ovid and other authors, and his spirit is rather that of a pagan than of a Christian writer.[3]

He sent letters and poetry to Adela of Normandy advising her on clemency, and praised her regency of Blois.

Editions

  • Hildeberts Prosimetrum de Querimonia und Die Gedichte Eines Anonymus: Untersuchungen und Kritische Editionen, ed. Peter Orth (Vienna, 2000).
  • Hildebertus Cenomannensis Episcopus. Carmina Minora, ed. A. Brian Scott, 2d ed. (Munich and Leipzig, 2001).
  • Hildeberti Cenomanensis Episcopi Vita Beate Marie Egipticae, ed. Norbert Klaus Larsen, Corpus Christianorum Continuatio Mediaevalis 209 (Turnhout, 2004).

References

  1. ^ His name may also be spelled Hydalbert, Gildebert, or Aldebert.
  2. ^ On the date of consecration, see A. Dieudonné, Hildebert de Lavardin, Évêque du Mans, Archevêque de Tours, 1898, Paris, 110-11
  3. ^ a b c d e f g  One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Hildebert". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 2 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 460.
  4. ^ See Dieudonné, loc. cit, 111-13.
  5. ^ Historia ecclesiastica 10 (Chibnall, vol. 5, 236-38)
  6. ^ Digitalised here.
  7. ^ See P. von Moos, Hildebert von Lavardin, 1965, Stuttgart, 338-39.

Further reading

  • Barthélemy Hauréau, Les Mélanges poetiques d'Hildebert de Lavardin (Paris, 1882), and Notices et extraits de quelques manuscrits latins de la Bibliothèque nationale (Paris, 1890–1893)
  • P. de Deservillers, Un évêque au douzième siècle Hildebert et son temps (Paris, 1876)
  • Edward Augustus Freeman, The Reign of Rufus, vol. ii (Oxford, 1882)
  • Tome xi. of the Histoire litteraire de la France,
  • Tome IV. of the Histoire littéraire du Maine (B.Hauréau).
  • H. Böhmer in Band viii. of Herzog-Hauck's Realencyklopädie (1900)
  • Adolphe Dieudonné, Hildebert de Lavardin, évéque du Mans, archévéque de Tours. Sa vie, ses lettres (Paris, 1898); see also : full text from Revue Historique et Archéologique du Maine, coll.DVD-RHAM, Société Historique et Archéologique du Maine, Le Mans, 2006.
  • Wilmart, A., Le florilège de Saint-Gatien. Contribution à l'étude des poèmes d'Hildebert et de Marbode, Revue Bénédictine 48 (1936) 3-40, 147-181, 235-258

External links

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