Placidus from Nonantola

Placidus von Nonantola was a monk in the Northern Italian Abbey Nonantola (St. New Year's Eve) near Modena . There are only two documents from 1117 and 1123 for Placidus, so that the monk died after 1123. A Nekrologeintrag of the 12th century from the Piacenza Monastery San Savino has Placidus the Nov. 4 as dying day to and reported also that the monk also priests had been.

Liber de Honore Ecclesiae

Placidus von Nonantola is famous for his writing Liber de Honore Ecclesiae (“Book on the honor of the Church”), which has come down to us in several medieval manuscripts . a. in two from the Admont Abbey and the Göttweig Abbey . Incidentally, these two manuscripts are the only ones to name Placidus as the author .

The Liber was written in the year 1111 / 1112 and therefore took direct reference to the events between the German monarchy and the papacy , between King and Emperor Henry V (1106-1125) and Pope Paschal II. (1099-1118) in the Investiture Controversy (negotiations between King and Pope, "Privilege" of April 11, 1111, Emperor Henry V's coronation, Lateran Council 1112 ). But the canonical writing goes beyond current references to the normative principle, if it defends the connection between church office and church property as a central point or emphasizes the independence of the individual churches from the laity, but also against the papacy. This took place in the form of a compilation-legal problem discussion, which was mostly based on canonical and patristic books available in the monastery library of Nonantola and was probably related to the Bolognese school of law that was developing at that time (alleged "Nonantolaner school of law", Margravine Mathilde von Canossa ).

The Liber thus belongs to the series of "journalistic" writings of the investiture dispute and was probably a position taken by the Nonantola Abbey towards the papal policy before the Lateran Synod of 1112.

literature

• Jörg W. Busch : The Liber de Honore Ecclesiae des Placidus of Nonantola. A canonical discussion of problems from the year 1111. The working method of its author and his templates (= sources and research on law in the Middle Ages. Vol. 5). Thorbecke, Sigmaringen 1990, ISBN 3-7995-6085-8 (also: Mainz, University, dissertation, 1987).
• Glauco Maria Cantarella: Placidus of Nonantola . In: Lexicon of the Middle Ages (LexMA). Volume 6, Artemis & Winkler, Munich / Zurich 1993, ISBN 3-7608-8906-9 , column 2194 f. (Reprinted in Stuttgart 1999).