Rather from Verona

Rather (center), Palais Provincial , Liège

Rather von Verona , lat. Ratherius , (* around 887 near Liège ; † April 25, 974 in Namur ) was a teacher, abbot of Lobbes (953–955), three times bishop of Verona (931–934; 946–948; 961– 968) and Bishop of Liège (953–955).

Life

Career, two failures as Bishop of Verona

Rather was of aristocratic descent and was first a Benedictine oblate , then a monk in Lobbes under Abbot Hilduin . He followed this in 926 to the court of Hugos I of Italy , from whom he in 931 at the instigation of Pope John XI. as the successor of his abbot, who went to Milan as archbishop , was called to the bishop of Verona . However, Rather soon fell out with the king and was arrested by him in Pavia in 934 after the failure of Arnulf's campaign in Italy because of his positive attitude towards Arnulf the Evil , and then exiled to Como from 936 to 939 . The diocese went to the Archbishop of Milan, Manasseh .

After his release, Rather temporarily hired himself as a hiking instructor in Provence and finally returned to his monastery in Hainaut in 944 . In 946 Hugo gave him back his diocese of Verona. This time Rather split with the nobility and clergy as well as Hugo's son and successor as king, Lothar II , whereupon he had to leave the field again in 948 under pressure from his opponents, according to Rather's own account, above all Count Milo from Verona - Rather continues that his removal by Lothar had taken place in order to avert worse dangers for himself, which had threatened him from the intriguing count. For a time he tried in vain from Germany to regain his office; when Manasse sold the diocese to Milo in 950, his path again led him to the Lobbes monastery.

Episcopates in Liège and again in Verona, return to monastic life

Rather's handwritten marginal notes in a Livius manuscript from the 10th century. Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana , Plut. 63.19, fol. 7r

In 952, Rather accepted Otto I's call to his court to work as a teacher for Otto's younger brother Brun (* 925). Brun became Archbishop of Cologne in 953 , while Rather received the Lüttich episcopate in September of the same year . There, however, he met the resistance of Count Reginar III of Hainaut . and other nobles, which in turn moved Rather to quit his office in March 955 and move to the court of Archbishop Wilhelm von Mainz , one of Otto's sons. He was temporarily abbot of the Aulne Benedictine monastery .

Around December 961, his sponsor Otto, for the second time on an army campaign in Italy, reinstated him as bishop of the strategically important Verona after he had forced the eponymous nephew Count Milos out of office. There Rather was in dispute with the clergy and the nobility, which may have induced Emperor Otto, with whom Rather visited the Synod of Ravenna in 967, to issue a special declaration of protection ( egenus et advena ) on November 5th of that year . Nevertheless, legal disputes, including with his own cathedral chapter , forced the bishop out of office as early as the autumn of 968. Rather returned to his homeland, where he failed as a monastery reformer: after he had been abbot of Lobbes again in 970/971, he spent his old age in the Aulner Abbey.

plant

Rather is considered a stylistically idiosyncratic author v. a. autobiographical reflections in which he makes reflections in the spirit of that serious, monastic piety which distinguished him in the fight against the ostentatious clergy of his time. In addition, he dealt with philology and calligraphy . Furthermore, saints' lives, sermons, letters, documents, etc. have been handed down by his hand.

Most important writings

• Praeloquia (scripture on moral teaching )
• Phrenesis
• Conclusion deliberativa
• Excerptum ex dialogo confessionali
• Qualitatis coniectura
• Vita S. Ursmari

Editions

• Fritz Weigle , The letters of Bishop Rather von Verona , Weimar 1949 ( MGH The letters of the German Empire 1)
• Raterio di Verona, Qualitatis coniectura , edizione critica, traduzione e commento a cura di Benedetta Valtorta, Firenze, SISMEL - Edizioni del Galluzzo 2016 ( Edizione Nazionale dei Testi Mediolatini d'Italia , 39)

literature

• Hans Martin Klinkenberg : Attempts and investigations into the autobiography with Rather von Verona , in: Archive for cultural history , No. 38, 1956, pp. 265-314.
• Max Manitius : History of Latin Literature in the Middle Ages Part II (1911–1931; 1976) pp. 34–52.
• Hans Martin Schaller : Rather from Verona . In: Lexicon of the Middle Ages . Volume 7, Col. 457f
• Gerhard Schwartz: The occupation of the dioceses imperial Italy under the Saxon and Salian emperors . Teubner, Leipzig 1913. [1] Digitized version largely illegible!
• Hubertus Seibert :  Rather v. Verona. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 21, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-428-11202-4 , pp. 176-178 ( digitized version ).
• Albrecht Vogel: Ratherius von Verona and the tenth century . 2 volumes. Mauke, Jena 1854 ( digitized version )
• Albrecht Vogel:  Ratherius . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 27, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1888, pp. 350-352.

Web links

• Ratherius Veronensis in the repertory "Historical Sources of the German Middle Ages"
• Rather from Verona .  Publications in the bibliographic database of the Regesta Imperii .