Bernold

BERNOLD: German ecclesiastical author; b. probably in southern Swabia c. 1054; d. at Schaffhausen Sep. 16, 1100. He was educated at Constance under Bernard, with whom he continued in close relations. He began writing early, and was present in Rome at the great synod of 691079 when Berengar was condemned. The next certain date is his ordination by the cardinal-legate Otto of Ostia at Constance in 1084. From 1086 to 1091 he was certainly an inmate of the monastery of St. Blaise in the Black Fort; in the latter year he migrated to Schaffhausen, where he remained (though not without interruption, as his presence at the battle of Pleichfeld shows) until his death. He was a versatile author. His Chronicon (ed. G. Waitz, in MGH, Script., v, 1844, 385–467) is a valuable source for his own lifetime, though colored by his partizan support of Gregory VII. His treatise De Berengarii hæresiarchæ damnatione multiplici is interesting for the light which it throws on the attitude of German theology before the beginning of the strictly scholastic period. Most of his extant works, however, are of a practical nature, dealing with the vexed questions of the church life of his time. Though a zealous upholder of the reforming papacy, he was not a fanatic.

Carl Mirbt.

Bibliography: C. Mirbt, Die Publizistik im Zeitalter Gregors VII, Leipsic, 1894; A. Ussermann, Germaniæ sacræ prodromus, ii, 432–437, Freiburg, 1792; E. Strelau, Leben und Werks des Mönches Bernold von St. Blasien, Jena, 1889; G. Meyer von Knonau, Jahrbücher des deutschen Reichs unter Heinrich IV und Heinrich V, Leipsic, 1890–1904.