Felix Hemmerlin

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Felix Hemmerlin after a woodcut from 1497

Felix Hemmerlin , mostly Felix Hemmerli (also Felix Malleolus and Felix Hemmerlein ; * 1388/89 in Zurich ; † between 1458 and 1461 in Lucerne ) was a Swiss theologian, lawyer, provost and cantor as well as an important church politician and heraldist , who wrote about 40 writings one of the most productive Upper German authors of his time. He is considered to be an important contemporary witness of the upheavals at the turn of the 15th and 16th centuries and at the same time one of the most important philosophers of the early Confederation.

Life

Hemmerlin studied from 1413 canon law in Erfurt , where he took the Baccalaureus iuris canonici in 1418 , and in Bologna , where he graduated in 1424 with the Doctor decretorum . In 1414 he became a notary and in 1430 he was ordained a priest.

From 1411 to 1437 Hemmerlin was canon in the St. Mauritius monastery in Zofingen , from 1412 to 1454 he was also canon at the Grossmünster in Zurich, where he held the office of cantor from 1429 to 1454. From 1421 to 1455 he was provost at the Cathedral of St. Ursus et Victor in Solothurn .

In 1414 Hemmerlin attended the Council of Constance . From 1432 to 1435 Hemmerlin was active in the committee for church reform at the Council of Basel . In 1454 Hemmerlin was arrested in Zurich and removed from his offices for disobedience by the Bishop of Constance Heinrich von Hewen . He was imprisoned in the Franciscan monastery in Lucerne , where he may have died between 1458 and 1461. His last known writings, the registrum queralae and the Tractat de religiosis proprietariis praecepta domini praedicantibus (1457), apparently refute the presumption that he died in custody during this time, rather it is to be indicated that he wrote them after regained freedom. In any case, he died before 1464, probably around 1460–1461, as canon of Solothurn and Zofingen and pastor of Penthaz , perhaps in the latter place under the protection of the benevolent Bishop of Lausanne, Georg von Saluzzo .

plant

Hemmerlin took a detailed position on the legal and political questions of his time. He was a direct witness of the Old Zurich War and the associated fault within the Limmat city .

Under the influence of these events in 1444 his main work, the "Book of the nobility" ("De nobilitate et rusticitate dialogus"), in which he lets a peasant and a nobleman lead a long argument about the merits of the nobility. It is Archduke Albrecht VI. Dedicated by Habsburg (1418–63). The previously largely unedited font was later used by Enea Silvio Piccolomini , Sebastian Brant , Peter von Andlau , Felix Fabri and in the 'White Book of Sarnen'. According to the Hemmerli researcher Konstantin Langmaier and the Swiss historian Guy P. Marchal, it is one of the great desiderata of Swiss late medieval research. Hemmerli took over into the plant, among other things. 73 coat of arms descriptions in double verses (altogether 146 verses) of the coat of arms poem "Clipearius Teutonicorum" written by Konrad von Mure shortly before 1250, which is only passed down here.

He owed his heraldic knowledge to the font "De armis et insigniis" by the lawyer Bartolus de Saxoferrato . The topic of the struggle between the confederates and the pro-Habsburg forces he led in the shortly after 1444 and Friedrich III. "Processus iudicarius" (printed 1493/1500) dedicated to it: In heaven the Zurich dead complain against the confederates with Charlemagne and the city saints as advocates.

Hemmerlin wrote the Tractatus de balneis naturalibus around 1450, one of the earliest works on bathing medicine in German-speaking countries.

literature

Lexicon article

Representations

  • Frank Fürbeth : A moralist as a poacher. Felix Hemmerli's 'Tractatus de balneis naturalibus' (around 1450) and its reception in Germany. In: Sudhoff's archive . 77: 97-113 (1993).
  • Colette Halter-Pernet: Felix Hemmerli, Zurich's militant scholar in the late Middle Ages. With translations from Latin by Helena Müller and Erika Egner Eid. Chronos, Zurich 2016, ISBN 978-3-0340-1349-9 .
  • Konstantin M. Langmaier: Felix Hemmerli and the dialogue about the nobility and the peasant (De nobilitate et rusticitate dialogus). Its importance for research into the nobility mentality in the 15th century. In: Journal for the history of the Upper Rhine . Vol. 166 (2018), pp. 21-76.
  • Balthasar Reber : Felix Hemmerlin from Zurich . Zurich 1848 ( online in the Google book search).
  • Heinrich Walter (Ed.): The exorcism treatise of Felix Hemmerlin. In: Mediaevistik. International journal for interdisciplinary research on the Middle Ages. Vol. 20 (2007), pp. 215-273, DOI: 10.3726 / 83008_215 ( JSTOR 42586487 ).

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ Konstantin M. Langmaier: Felix Hemmerli and the dialogue about the nobility and the peasant (De nobilitate et rusticitate dialogus). Its importance for research into the nobility mentality in the 15th century. In: Journal for the history of the Upper Rhine. Vol. 166 (2018), pp. 21–76, here: p. 21
  2. ↑ https://www.philosophie.ch/philosophie/highlights/philosophie-in-der-schweiz/die-geschichte-der-philosophie-in-der-schweiz/erste-spuren
  3. ↑ Konstantin M. Langmaier: Hatred as a historical phenomenon: Atrocities and desecrations of the church in the Old Zurich War using the example of a Lucerne source from 1444. In: German Archives for Research into the Middle Ages 73/2, 2017, pp. 639–686, here: p. 670 -672.
  4. ↑ https://hls-dhs-dss.ch/de/articles/011936/2018-02-13/
  5. ↑ Frank Fürbeth: Bibliography of the German or in the German area published baths of the 15th and 16th centuries. In: Würzburg medical history reports. Volume 13, 1995, pp. 217-252, here: pp. 217 and 221. Cf. also https://www-app.uni-regensburg.de/Fakultaeten/PKGG/Philosophie/Gesch_Phil/alcuin/work.php? id = 32351
personal data
SURNAME Hemmerlin, Felix
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Malleolus, Felix von; Hemmerlein, Felix; Hemmerli, Felix
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss church politicians and heraldists
DATE OF BIRTH 1388 or 1389
PLACE OF BIRTH Zurich
DATE OF DEATH between 1458 and 1461
Place of death Lucerne