Emo by Wittewierum

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Emo von Wittewierum (or von Huizinga ) (* around 1175 probably in Fivelgo ; † 1237 in Jukwerd near Delfzijl , Netherlands ) was a Premonstratensian chorister who reported as an eyewitness of the first Marcellus flood in 1219.

Life

Emo came from near Groningen . After attending a school in a Benedictine monastery , he studied canon law in Paris , since 1190 in Oxford , where he is listed as Emo of Friesland together with his brother Addo as the first foreign student known by name, and then in Orléans .

Wittewierum Church

After his return as a master's degree he was schoolmaster and pastor in Huizinge ( Loppersum (Groningen) ). In 1208 he entered a monastery founded by his cousin Emo van Romerswerf near Groningen and in 1209 obtained its affiliation with the order of Norbert von Xanten . The incorporation of the church of Wierum led to the relocation of the monastery to Wittewierum , as the place was now called after the Premonstratensian white habit, and to a rapid rise of the monastery, which was connected to the women's monastery Campus rosarum (Rozenkamp) to form a double monastery . When the bishop of Münster Otto I von Oldenburg wanted to reverse the foundation of the Wierum church, Emo traveled to Rome to meet his claims with Pope Innocent III. enforce. In 1213 the monastery was officially founded under the name Hortus Floridus (Bloemhof) .

The confrontation with the farmers, who demanded that the monastery for its right on the dike of the Ems situated Vorwerks the entire dike duties should honor the region, ended with a compromise: each landowner was required to keep the dike repaired. The men's convent apparently survived the first Marcellus flood on January 16, 1219 unscathed, while the nuns of the women's convent could only save their lives. Although Emo tried to justify the causes of the flood in a natural-philosophical way with the four-element doctrine , he still saw the flood as God's punishment for people, especially for the farmers who did not want to fulfill their duties. In spite of this, the religious helped the peasants, who were troubled by new floods in the following years, to repair the dikes.

In 1225 Emo became abbot of the monastery. There he set up a large library with works by the church fathers and contemporary theologians. In 1235 the dispute with Bishop Dietrich III led. von Isenberg so far that the bishop imposed excommunication over emo . The Pope decided against Wittewierum. The bishop had to dismiss his official , who was not popular with the population , and did not receive the required taxes.

In 1237 Emo died while visiting the women's convent Campus rosarum .

Chronicon abbatum in Werum

His most important work is Chronicon abbatum in Werum , written by him in medieval Latin and continued by his successors Menko and Folkert until 1296 . The chronicle begins with the foundation of the monastery in 1213. It is a rich source for the history of medieval Friesland , in particular for the area around Groningen. The chronicle contains the only eyewitness account of the first Marcellus flood and reports on Thomas Olivier , who called for a crusade in Friesland from 1210 to 1213 . Emo also reproduces a report by an acquaintance who describes the experiences of Frisian participants in the Damiette crusade in 1217 up to their arrival in Akko . The Stedinger War of 1230 is also dealt with.

The chronicle contains four soliloquia (self-talk) in which emo reflects on his own career and theological topics in the style of Augustine of Hippo . They offer insights into the thinking and mental life of a medieval religious. Emo takes a critical look at the ascetic - monastic ideal and his own role as a priest and also with the question of simony . He also addresses his idea of ​​leaving the monastery for the sake of a woman. His decision to return to the “prison” of the monastery anyway was for him an example of human free will .

From abbatum Chronicon Werum there are two well-preserved written on parchment manuscripts from the 13th and 15th centuries in the archives in Groningen, of which the elderly may be the original.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Elisabeth van Houts: Review of Narrative Sources from the Medieval Low Countries. In: Reviews in History. December 2006 (English).
  2. ^ Wilhelm Kohl: The Diocese of Münster: The Diocese. Volume 3. Göttingen 2003, pp. 271-272.
  3. ↑ Bernd Rieken: "The North Sea is Mordsee". Storm surges and their significance for the history of mentality in the Frisians. Waxmann, Münster 2005, p. 146ff.
  4. ↑ Bernd Rieken: "North Sea is Mordsee", p. 151.
  5. ↑ Bernd Rieken: "North Sea is Mordsee", p. 160ff.
  6. ^ Paul Gerhard Schmidt: The dispute between men and women in the Latin Middle Ages. With an edition of the Altercation inter virum et mulierem. In: Dispute Poems and Dialogues in the Ancient and Mediaeval Near East: Forms and Types of Literary Debates in Semitic and Related Literatures. Leuven 1991, p. 213ff, p. 214.
  7. ↑ HS 116: de kroniek van Wittewierum. De wereld aan boeken blog, March 27, 2008, University Library Groningen .
personal data
SURNAME Emo by Wittewierum
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Premonstratensian Canon
DATE OF BIRTH around 1175
PLACE OF BIRTH Fivelgo
DATE OF DEATH 1237
Place of death Jukwerd near Delfzijl , the Netherlands