Bernward

BERNWARD: Bishop of Hildesheim 993–1022. He came of a noble Saxon family, being the grandson of the count palatine Adalbero and the nephew of Bishop Folkmar of Utrecht. He was educated at the cathedral school of Hildesheim by Thangmar, later his biographer, and ordained by Willigis of Mainz. In 987 he became chaplain at the imperial court and tutor to the young Otto III. On Jan. 15, 993, he was consecrated bishop of Hildesheim. He protected his diocese vigorously from the attacks of the Normans, and only once took a wrong step as a temporal magnate—when, at the accession of Henry II, he took the side of Margrave Ekkehart, whose death, however, saved him from the consequences of his mistake. He rendered great services to literature and art. He died Nov. 20, 1022, a few weeks after the consecration of the magnificent church of St. Michael which he had built. Celestine III canonized him in 1193.

(A. Hauck.)

Bibliography: The Vita by Thangmar is in MGH, Script., iv, 754–782, the Miracula, ib. pp. 782–786, Hanover, 1841; the continuation of the Vita by Wolfherius, ib. xi, 165–167, 1854. Consult: A. Schultz, Der heilige Bernward . . . und seine Verdienste, Leipsic, 1879; W. A. Neumann, Bernward von Hildesheim und seine Zeit, in Mittheilungen des kaiserlichen österreichischen Museums für Kunst, v, 73–80, 97–104, 124–130, 141–152, 168–173, Vienna, 1890; B. Sievers, Der heilige Bernward, in Studien und Mittheilungen aus dem Benedict- und dem Cisterz.-0rden, xiv (1893), 398–420; Wattenbach, DGQ, i (1893), 318, 346–350, ii, 25, 360, 511; S. Beissel, Der heilige Bernward von Hildesheim, Hildesheim, 1895.