Berthold (bishop)

Bertold, Bishop of Livonia (also Berthold , Bertold , Apostle of the Livs , Bertold von Loccum , Bertholdus ;) (* 12th century; † July 24, 1198 ) was the second bishop in Livonia . He was the leader of the first Livonia Crusade and died after two years as bishop in a battle against the Livonia near Riga . He was buried in the Riga Cathedral and venerated as a martyr and saint until the Reformation .

Sources

The sources on Bertold are sparse. The main information about him comes from narrative writings. The chronicler Arnold von Lübeck , who worked during Bertold's lifetime, is next to Heinrich von Lettland , who wrote his work in the 1220s but, unlike Arnold himself, was in Livonia, the most valuable author who provides information about Bertold. In addition, the Cistercian Alberich von Troisfontaines refers to Bertold's preaching activities in Livonia in the middle of the 13th century. The Livonian Rhyming Chronicle was also created in the 13th century, which takes up the oral tradition of Baltic history and provides information about the work of the protagonists, including Bertold.

origin

Bertold probably comes from the influential Schulte ministerial family, who lived in the Archbishopric of Bremen and were active in the colonization in the vicinity of Stade . An early tradition as well as the matching lead name Bertold speaks for this descent .

Loccumer Dept.

In 1187 Bertold is mentioned as the fourth abbot of the Cistercian monastery of Loccum . Because he is not listed in the medieval abbot catalog of the Loccum monastery, it can be assumed that he only held the abbot for a very short time. Nothing is known about his further activity in the monastery or his possible dismissal. Bertold could have fallen out of favor with the Cistercians because of his missionary work, as his work as a missionary was difficult to reconcile with the general chapter's ban on preaching . Entry into a Cistercian monastery was not uncommon for the son of a ministerial family at the time. The Loccum monastery was the closest settlement during Bertold's lifetime and, despite belonging to the diocese of Minden, had close ties to the archbishopric of Bremen.

Missionary work in Livonia under Bishop Meinhard

The beginning of Bertold's missionary work in Livonia cannot be precisely dated. The chroniclers Arnold and Alberich report, however, that Bertold had been in Livonia for a long time before his bishopric. He traveled to Livonia for the first time in 1188 at the earliest to support the missionary bishop Meinhard in his conversion plans. It is more likely, however, that he did not set off for Livonia until 1193 or 1194, as Meinhard was privileged by a papal bull on April 17, 1193 to recruit fellow campaigners for the mission in Livonia from religious orders.

Bishop in Livonia

choice

After the death of the first Livonian bishop Meinhard in October 1196, Bertold was appointed his successor by the cathedral chapter in Üxküll and Livonian and German Christians in autumn 1196. It is reported that his way of life was valued by the Livs. That is why they wanted Meinhard's former comrade-in-arms to be their successor. After the election in Livonia, Bertold initially hesitated to take on such an honorable and dangerous job. He then traveled to Bremen in late autumn 1196 or in spring 1197 at the latest to be ordained bishop by Metropolitan Hartwig II , since the suffragan diocese of Livonia belonged to the Archdiocese of Hamburg-Bremen.

1197 Exploratory trip to Livonia

After the ordination he traveled back to his diocese and first went to Üxküll, his bishopric. Thereupon he sailed down the Danube to Holme , where he met fierce resistance from the local population. They assumed that he wanted to enrich himself with the help of the episcopate. The Livs therefore made plans to kill him and Bertold had to flee from the angry population. He sailed back to Lower Saxony via Gotland .

Livonia Crusade 1198 and death

After he was from Pope Celestine III. had received a rescript at his own request , which equated a crusade to Livonia with that to Jerusalem, Bertold began with the crusade sermon in Saxony, Westphalia and Friesland. In addition, his crusade was supported by a papal bull of 1196, which Theodoric von Treyden had obtained from the Pope and which had the content that those who were voluntarily baptized should be forced to remain in the faith. Bertold recruited an army, which gathered in Lübeck in the spring / summer of 1198 . The call to the crusade had been announced in the churches of Lower Saxony, Westphalia and Friesland. After the approximately 1,000-strong army, consisting of knights, clergy and merchants, crossed to Livonia, Bertold led the fighters against the majority of the Livonians, who had fallen away from the faith and opposed his demand for a return to the Christian faith. After interim peace negotiations in which the Livs demanded a peaceful mission, but the bishop insisted on his demand for the Christian confession of all baptized, it came on 24/25. July on a sand dune near what will later become the city of Riga for the battle between the crusader army and the Livs. The Livs had previously not been prepared to hand over hostages to Bertold as proof of their peaceful convictions and had also provoked the attack of the crusader army by attacking some Germans. Bertold, who led the army in the battle, got with his horse among the fleeing Livs, who immediately killed him. His body was buried in the cathedral church of Üxküll and probably transferred to the Riga Cathedral in 1229 or 1230 , where Bertold found his final resting place near the altar next to his predecessor Meinhard.

Posthumous meaning

Immediately after Bertold's death his person began to be glorified. It is reported that his body was found untouched on the battlefield the day after the battle. In the early days of the Livonian Church, Bertold was admired as a martyr and venerated as a blessed and saint. The outstanding position of his person is also shown in the fact that his grave, right next to the Holy Cross Altar, was assigned a central role in the Riga Cathedral. The martyr Bertold was also commemorated within the Cistercian order. He encouraged the missionaries of the day, inside and outside the Order, through his martyrdom. The tomb and the veneration of Bertold did not survive the Reformation.

Research Discussion

The person Bertold and his role in the missionary work of Livonia give rise to controversial discussions in science. So Selart and Zühlke oppose the view that a change in mission policy in Livonia from a peaceful policy under Meinhard to a violent one after Meinhard's death was justified exclusively by Bertold. With Bertold as the leader of the first Livonia Crusade, a symbolic change in missionary activity in Livonia was made, but there are plenty of indications that the preparations for such a train were already made under Meinhard and Bertold was not the sole initiator. Selart points out that armed men were already present at the time of Meinhard's missionary work and that means of violence were inevitably required to secure church property in Livonia, as the disagreements with the Livs could not be resolved peacefully. Zühlke mentions that Pope Celestine III had permission to go to the crusade, which can be derived from the descriptions of Henry of Latvia. Meinhard obtained this bull from the Pope through his colleague Theoderich von Treiden. According to Zühlke, the idea of ​​a crusade against the Livs already existed during Meinhard's lifetime. Meinhard also intervened in the local ruling structures by initiating the construction of castles in Üxküll and Holme. Zühlke draws the conclusion from these events that Meinhard could have come to the conclusion that a purely peaceful live mission was no longer sufficient to guarantee the proselytization of Livonia. In addition, the sending of Theodoric to the Holy See was a deliberate action by Meinhard to obtain the Pope's consent for a Livonia crusade. Hellmann and Hucker investigate the extent to which Bertold was influenced by outside forces in his missionary work. Hucker sees the Hanseatic merchants in the first place, who were interested in securing their trading base in Livonia and who were able to win the bishop over to their interests. Hucker sees the cause as the close connection between clergy, politics and trade in the sail-up Livonia. Close family ties led to a bundling of interests but also to an instrumentalization of the clergy by the merchants, as he proves in his prosopographical studies on the Bremen-Stadic ministeriality and its role in the sailing of Livonia. According to Hellmann, Bertold relied in his missionary work on the support of the Archdiocese of Hamburg-Bremen and the curia , which wanted to promote the mission in Livonia as the gateway to Russian Orthodox territory and thus redirect the idea of ​​a crusade to the east. Lilje also points out that Livonia was of growing interest for the Church and that Bertold's idea of ​​a crusade found its way into this area.

swell

• Albrici monachi Triumfontium Chronicon, ed. von Scheffer-Boichorst, Paul (MGH SS 23), Hanover, 1874
• Arnoldi chronica Slavorum. Ed. JM Lappenberg, in: Monumenta Germaniae historica, Scriptores, Vol. 21, Hanover 1869
• Heinrich of Latvia: Chronicon Livoniae. In: Leonid Arbusow and Albert Bauer (eds.): Scriptores rerum Germanicarum in usum scholarum separatim editi 31: Heinrichs Livländische Chronik (Heinrici Chronicon Livoniae). Hanover 1955, (Monumenta Germaniae Historica; digitized version)
• Livonian rhyming chronicle, ed. von Meyer, Leo, Paderborn, 1876

literature

Lexical articles

• Friedrich Wilhelm Bautz: Berthold, Bishop of Livonia. In: Biographisch - Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon. Volume 1, Hamm 1975, column 553
• August Hermann Francke: Berthold, Apostle of the Livs. In: Wetzer / Welte: Kirchen-Lexikon or Encyclopedia of Catholic Theology, Volume 4, 1850, pp. 470–472
• Manfred Hellmann: Berthold, Bishop of Livonia. In: Lexikon des Mittelalters, Volume 1, Munich 2003, Sp. 2031
• Bertholdus. In: Complete Lexicon of Saints. Edited by Johann Evangelist Stadler and Franz Joseph Heim, Volume 1, Augsburg 1858, p. 473

Monographs and journal articles

• Hermann von Bruiningk : Mass and canonical prayers of the hours according to the custom of the Rigas Church in the later Middle Ages, Riga 1904, p. 373
• Anette Großbongardt, Uwe Klußmann u. Norbert F. Pötzl (Ed.): The Germans in Eastern Europe: Conquerors, Settlers, Expellees. Munich, 2011, p. 51
• Manfred Hellmann, Lettenland in the Middle Ages. Studies on the early East Baltic period and Latvian tribal history, in particular Lettgallens, Münster and Cologne 1954, pp. 112–120
• Bernd Ulrich Hucker: The Cistercian Abbot Bertold, Bishop of Livonia, and the first Livonia crusade. In: Manfred Hellmann (ed.): Studies on the beginnings of the mission in Livonia, Sigmaringen 1989, pp. 39–64
• Hanns Lilje: Berthold, abbot of Loccum, martyr bishop in Livonia. In: Ambrosius Schneider (Ed.): The Cistercienser. History, Spirit, Art, Cologne 1977, pp. 115–117
• Mark R. Munzinger: The profits of the Cross: merchant involvement in the Baltic Crusade (c. 1180-1230) in: Journal of Medieval History . 32 (2006). Pp. 132-165 digitized
• Raoul Zühlke: Bishop Meinhard von Üxküll: A peaceful missionary? Approaches to re-evaluation. A workshop report based on sources. In: Hansische Geschichtsblätter, ed. from the Hanseatic History Association. Volume 127, 2009, pp. 101–121
• Anti Selart: Livonia and the Rus' in the 13th century, Cologne 2007
• Franz Winter : The Cistercians of northeast Germany. A contribution to the church and cultural history of the German Middle Ages. 1st chapter. Reprint of the 1868–71 edition. Aalen 1966, pp. 221-224.

Remarks

1. ↑ Cf. Bernd Ulrich Hucker: The Cistercian Abbot Bertold, Bishop of Livonia, and the first Livonia crusade. In: Manfred Hellmann (ed.): Studies on the beginnings of the mission in Livonia, Sigmaringen 1989, p. 40f.
2. ^ Calenberg document book. Published by Wilhelm von Hodenberg. Third division. Archives of Loccum Abbey. Hannover 1858, Volume 3, Nos. 16, 17; See Hanns Lilje: Berthold, abbot of Loccum, martyr bishop in Livonia. In: Ambrosius Schneider (Ed.): The Cistercienser. History, Spirit, Art, Cologne 1977, p. 115.
3. ↑ See Hucker: Bertold, p. 43.
4. ↑ See Hucker: Bertold, p. 41.
5. ^ Arnoldi chronica Slavorum. Ed. JM Lappenberg, in: Monumenta Germaniae historica, Scriptores, Vol. 21, Hannover 1869, p. 211; Albrici monachi Triumfontium Chronicon, ed. von Scheffer-Boichorst, Paul (MGH SS 23), Hannover, 1874, p. 872.
6. ↑ Cf. Friedrich Georg v. Bunge (Ed.): Liv-, Est- und Kurländisches Urkundenbuch, Volume 1, Reval 1853, No. 11 In the course of this recruitment measure, Bertold probably also came to Livonia.
7. ↑ See Hucker: Bertold, p. 40f.
8. ^ Heinrich von Lettland, II, 2, p. 10.
9. ^ Arnold von Lübeck, V, 30, p. 211.
10. ^ Heinrich of Latvia, I, 12.
11. ^ Henry of Latvia II, 6.
12. ^ Arnold von Lübeck V, 30, p. 212.
13. ↑ See Hucker: Bertold, p. 52; Hermann von Bruiningk : Mass and canonical prayers of the hours according to the custom of the Rigas Church in the later Middle Ages, Riga 1904, p. 373.
14. ↑ See Lilje: Berthold, p. 116; Hucker: Bertold, p. 52f.
15. ↑ Cf. Manfred Hellmann: The Lettenland in the Middle Ages. Studies on the early East Baltic period and Latvian tribal history, especially Lettgallens, Münster and Cologne 1954, p. 119.
16. ↑ See Anti Selart: Livland and the Rus' in the 13th century, Cologne 2007, pp. 71f.
17. ↑ Cf. Raoul Zühlke: Bishop Meinhard von Üxküll: A peaceful missionary? Approaches to re-evaluation. A workshop report based on sources. In: Hansische Geschichtsblätter, ed. from the Hanseatic History Association. Volume 127, 2009, p. 104.
18. ↑ See Zühlke: Bishop Meinhard, p. 118.
19. ↑ See Hellmann: Lettenland, p. 116.
20. ↑ See Lilje; Berthold, p. 115.

predecessor	Office	successor
Meinhard von Segeberg	Bishop of Uexküll 1196 - 1198	Albert von Buxthoeven