Burchard of Worms

BURCHARD OF WORMS: Bishop of Worms; d. Aug. 20, 1025. He was a Hessian by birth, and was educated at Coblenz and under the famous Olbert in the Flemish monastery of Laubach. Willigis of Mainz ordained him, and employed him in a number of important affairs. Otto III. gave him the bishopric of Worms (1000), which had fallen into a bad condition. He improved the city in many ways; established the episcopal power more firmly and even increased it; demolished the fortress of Duke Otto and built a monastery with the stones from it, placing over the door the inscription Ob libertatem civitatis. In 1014 Henry II. gave him secular jurisdiction over the inhabitants, which he used to promote uniformity and security of law. He rebuilt the cathedral, consecrating it in 1016; but his fame rests chiefly on his collection of canon law, which had a very wide circulation not only in Germany but in Italy.

(A. Hauck.)

Bibliography: The Decretorum libri viginti are in MPL, cxl. Materials for a life are in Lex. familiæ Wormatiensis ecclesiæ, MGH, Legum, section iv., Constitutiones et acta, ed. L. Weiland, i. (1893) 639, no. 438; and the anonymous Vita ed. G. H. Pertz in MGH, Script iv. (1841) 829–846, and MPL, cxl. 507–536. Consult: Hauck, KD, iii, 435; H. G. Gengler. Das Hofrecht des Burchard von Worms, Erlangen, 1859; A. M. Königer, Burchard I. von Worms, Munich, 1903.