Radulfus Niger

Radulfus Niger (* before 1146; † around 1200) was an English theologian and lawyer.

After studying in Paris with Johannes von Salisbury and Gerardus Puella, Niger acquired the title of magister around 1166 . He was related to Archbishop Thomas Beckett of Canterbury and then entered the service of Henry II of England, with whom he broke after the assassination of Thomas. From 1173 he lived in France again. It was here that his Bible commentaries and his anti-crusade tract were written. He wrote his chronicles in England, where he returned after Henry's death in 1189, as well as his treatise on the interpretation of Hebrew names ( Philippicus ), for which he was able to avail himself of the help of a baptized Jew, probably from York . He financed his living through a canonical in Lincoln .

He criticized the Crusades based on biblical reasons . Among other things, he wrote a pamphlet De re militari in 1188 , which deviated greatly from the prevailing doctrines.

expenditure

• Radulfus Niger: Chronica. An English world chronicle of the 12th century . Edited by Hanna Krause. Univ. Diss., Lang, Frankfurt am Main-Bern-New York 1985, ISBN 3-8204-8440-X .
• De re militari et triplici via peregrinationis Ierosolimitane . Introduction and edition by Ludwig Schmugge. de Gruyter, Berlin – New York 1977, ISBN 3-11-006827-3 (Contributions to the history and source studies of the Middle Ages; Vol. 6).

literature

• Ludwig Schmugge : Radulfus Niger . In: Lexicon of the Middle Ages . Vol. 7, Col. 394.
• Ludwig Schmugge: Thomas Becket and King Heinrich II in the view of Radulfus Niger . In: Deutsches Archiv 32, 1976, pp. 572-579.
• Ludwig Schmugge: Legal problems in the work of Radulfus Niger. A contribution to the connection between theology and jurisprudence in the 12th century . In: Stephan Kuttner (Ed.): Proceedings of the Fourth International Congress of Medieval Canon Law, Toronto, August 21-25, 1972 . Pp. Xxiv, 541. Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Città del Vaticano 1976, pp. 495-509 (Monumenta Iuris Canonici, series C: subsidia, 5).
• Daniel Staub: Radulfus Nigers "Philippicus" . Univ. Diss., Zurich 1993.
• P. Buc: Exégèse et pensée politique: Radulphus Niger (vers 1190) et Nicolas de Lyre (vers 1330) , in: Joël Blanchard (ed.): Représentation, pouvoir et royauté à la fin du Moyen Age (Paris: Picard, 1995 ), Pp. 145-164

Web links

• Literature by and about Radulfus Niger in the catalog of the German National Library
• Publications on Radulfus Niger in the Opac of the Regesta Imperii