Hendrik Herp

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Hendrik Herp (* ca. 1400 / 1410 ; † 22. February 1477 or 1478 in Mechelen ) was a Flemish Franciscan (Observant) and author of mystical meditation literature of the Modern Devotion . His most famous work, which has been translated into several languages, was the Spieghel der volcomenheit (mirror of perfection). His writings and collected sermons were translated, printed and distributed many times after his death and were of great influence in the 16th and 17th centuries, especially in the Netherlands , France , Italy and Spain .

Life

Herp was probably born in Erp (now part of the Veghel municipality ) in North Brabant around 1410, but it may also have been Erp near Düren . Almost nothing is known about his early years. In 1429 he is at the University of Leuven have enrolled. His name is mentioned for the first time in 1445 when he was rector of the Brothers of Common Life ("Fraterherren") in their house "Hieronymusthal" in Delft . He was a famous preacher and the Brothers of the Holy Spirit in Gouda asked him to make the collations for them too. Since he could not do this himself as the rector of Delft, he sent another preacher there and appointed him rector of a new brotherhood in Gouda. This happened without the consent of his superiors and his confreres in Delft, and a dispute arose. He was finally advised to resign from the rectorate in Delft. He did this and was rector of the convent of St. Paul in Gouda from 1446 to 1450. Nevertheless, his foundation in Gouda seems to have continued to be denied full recognition and met with suspicion.

In 1450 he made a pilgrimage to Rome, probably to carry out a long-cherished plan: he became a Franciscan in the Convent of Santa Maria in Aracoeli . No doubt he had met Franciscan Observants in Gouda, because almost at the same time as he went to Gouda, the Observants established a settlement there, and the Observants were in close contact with the Fraternal Lords. Three or four years later he became Guardian of the Franciscan Convent in Mechelen, an office which he held several times (1467, 1473-77) in the following. In Antwerp he was temporarily (1460–1462) guardian of a convent. From 1470 to 1473 he was provincial vicar of the Cologne Franciscan Province ( Colonia ). During this time he established Franciscan monasteries in Boetendaal near Brussels (1467/71), Amersfoort (1471), Herentals (1471/74) and Haarlem (1471). He then returned to Mechelen as a Guardian, where he died in 1478.

The Franciscan Arthur du Monstier called Hendrik Herp in his Martyrologium Franciscanum (2nd edition, Paris, 1653) a blessed ("Beatus"); however, he probably referred to pretty much everyone in his collection as “Beatus” or “Sanctus”.

Works

Herp wrote both oratorical and ascetic-mystical works. Only one of his works was printed during his lifetime, the Speculum aureum decem praeceptorum Dei ( Mainz , 1474), a collection of 213 of his sermons on the ten commandments. Ten years later, a second collection of 222 sermons appeared under the title Sermones de Tempore, de Sanctis, de tribus partibus poenitentiae, de Adventu ( Speyer , 1484). Both works quote very often from the works of Thomas von Aquin , Alexander von Hales and Bernhard von Clairvaux and have been reprinted again and again.

His main work was the Spieghel der volcomenheit , which was addressed to his daughter-in-law, a pious widow, and was written between 1455 and 1460 . The work was first printed in 1501, translated into Latin in 1513 and printed together with a few shorter treatises on related subjects under the title Directorium Aureum contemplativorum in Cologne, and then translated into Italian, Spanish and German. In this book, Herp bundles the thoughts and teachings of Bonaventure , Thomas von Aquin, Hugo de Balma , Rudolf von Biberach , Jan van Ruysbroek , Rulman Merswin , Johannes Tauler and others.

In 1538 the Theologica Mystica , a Latin translation of the collection of his most important mystical works, was published in Cologne, edited by the Carthusian Dietrich Loher . The edition consisted of three main parts: Soliloquium divini Amoris , Directorium Aureum contemplativorum , and Paradisus contemplativorum , the second part being a reprint of the print from 1513. Loher's 1556 new edition, dedicated to Ignatius von Loyola , landed on the index in 1559 . The following editions were therefore edited, but the work was still indexed in 1580 and 1583. In the edition of 1586 the Spieghel der volcomenheit was translated into Latin by Pieter Blommeveen . To 1611 which was Theologica Mystica least five times reprinted and also translated into German and French.

Herp's importance was not in the originality of his teaching, but in the far-reaching influence of his main work, the mirror of perfection . His mystical theology took up various currents of spirituality, such as the Franciscan, the Cistercian, that of the Carthusian Dionysius van Rijkel , that of the Dominican Johannes Tauler, but above all that of the Augustinian regular canon Jan van Ruysbroek. Herp preached the "unione mystica" , the union of the soul with God, and described with great accuracy the various inner states of the soul in its striving for the mystical union with God. His works were declared in 1633 at the General Chapter of the Franciscans in Toledo as the official textbook of mysticism for the entire Franciscan order.

Names

Hendrik Herps first name appears in the other forms Henricus, Hendricus, Heinrich, Enrique, Henri, Henry and Hendrick. There are many more variants of his surname: Herp, de Herp, of Herp, from Herp, van Herp, Erp, de Erp, van Erp, Herpf, de Herpf, de Herph, Herpius, Herphius, Hervius, Harp, Harpf, Harff, Harph, de Harph, de la Harpe, Harpius, Harphius, as well as engraved: Citharoedus, Citharaedus.

literature

  • F.-Servais Dirks: Histoire littéraire et bibliographique des Frères Mineurs de l'Observance de Saint-Francois en Belgique et dans les Pays-Bas , Antwerp, 1885
  • Patricius Schlager : Contributions to the history of the Cologne Franciscan Order Province in the Middle Ages , JP Bachem, Koln, 1904
  • Patricius Schlager: On the life of the Franziskaners Heinrich Harp , in: Der Katholik, magazine for Catholic science and church life , 85th year, 1905, third volume, volume XXXI, (Mainz, 1905), pp. 46-48.
  • Edmond Bruggeman: Les Mystiques flamands et le renouveau catholique français , Valentin Bresle, Lille, 1928
  • Heinrich Gleumes: Heinrich Herp, his life and his works , in: Zeitschrift für Aszese und Mystik , 12th year, 1937 (pp. 222–225), Publishing House Tyrolia, Innsbruck / Vienna / Munich
  • Desiderius Kalverkamp: The doctrine of perfection of the Franciscan Heinrich Herp (1477) , ( Franziskanische Forschungen , 6th issue), Dietrich Coelde Verlag, Werl, 1940

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ universalis.fr
  2. ↑ heiligenlexikon.de
personal data
SURNAME Herp, Hendrik
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Henricus Hervius; Heinrich Herpf; Henricus Herpius
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Flemish theologian and preacher
DATE OF BIRTH around 1400
DATE OF DEATH February 22, 1477 or 1478
Place of death Mechelen