Berthold, a Calabrian who went to Mount Carmel about the middle of the 11th century and founded the order of Carmelites (q. v.).
Berthold, the apostle of Livonia, died in 1198. After the death of the first missionary and bishop of the Livonians, Meinhard (1196), Berthold, who was at that time abbot of the Cistercian convent Loccum, was ordained missionary bishop for the Livonians by Archbishop Hartwig of Bremen and Hamburg. Hav- ing arrived at Yxkull on the Dana, he at first tried to win over the Letts by clemency, but was forced to leave the country. He then returned at the head of an army of crusaders from Lower Saxon}', and tried to conquer the Letts, and compel them by force of arms to submit to baptism. In a battle in 1198, Ber- thold was slain ; but the crusaders were victorious, and the Letts had for a time to submit ; but as soon as the crusaders had left their country they returned to pa- ganism.— Brockhaus, Conversations- Lexicon, s. v.
Berthold of Ratisbon, also called Berthold the Franciscan, a Franciscan monk, and one of the most powerful preachers that ever spoke in the German tongue. He is supposed to have been born about 1225 in Regensburg, where he died in 1272. His theological education he received chief!}' in the Franciscan con- vent of Ratisbon, where a pious and learned mystic, Brother David of Augsburg, was professor of theology and master of the novitiate. It is doubtful whether, as has been asserted by some (Dr. Schmidt, in Studien iniil Kritiken, see below), he continued his studies in Paris and Italy. His first public appearance, as far as we know, was in the year 1246, when the papa] legate, Philippus of Ferrara, charged him, Brother Da- vid, and two canons of Ratisbon, with the visitation of the convent of Niedermiinster. His labors as a travelling preacher began in 1250 (according to others in 1251 or 1252) in Lower Bavaria, and extended to Alsatia, Alemannia (Baden), Switzerland, Austria, Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia, Thuringia, Franconia, and perhaps Hungary. When he was unacquainted with the language of the country he used an interpreter. Rudelbach, in the Zeits. fur Luth. Theol. 1859, calls Berthold "the Chrysostom of the Middle Ages." No church was large enough to hold the multitudes that flocked to hear him ; from a pulpit in the fields he often
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addressed 60,000 hearers. He fearlessly rebuked sin- ners of all ranks. He was especially severe against the preachers of indulgences, whom he styled " penny preachers" and "the devil's agents." A volume of his sermons, edited by Kling, was published at Berlin in 1824 (/?. d s Franciscam-r's I'n digteu). The first com- plete edition of his sermons was published by F. Pfeif- fer (Vienna, 2 vols. 1862 sq.). A translation of his sermons from medieval into modern German was pub- lished by Gobel, with an introduction by Alban Stolz (2 vols. 8vo). Recently the German jurists have found that the sermons of Berthold are of the greatest importance for the history of the German law. The passages in these sermons which agree with the popu- lar law-book called the Sch/ndienyjiii gel are so numer- ous that some (as Laband, Be it rage zur Geschichte des Schcabeiupi<g:'ls, Berlin, 1861) have regarded Berthold as its author. The best treatise on Berthold is by Schmidt, B. der Francisaaner in Studien und Kritiken (1864, p. 7-82). See also Kling, in Herzog, ReaJ-En- cyMop. ii, 101, and Wagenmann, in Herzog, Supplem. i, 183; Jakrhucher fur deutsche Theol gie, 1863, p. 386 sq. ; Piper, Ernng. Kalend.for 1853 ; Pleiffer, Deutsche Mystiker (vol. i, p. xxvi sq.) ; Kehrein, Gesch. dt r hath. Kanzelbercdsamkeit (2 vols. Ratisbon, 1843) : Neander, Ch.IIist.iv, 318, 351.
Berthold of Rohrbach, a layman wdio preached at Wurzburg about 1336 against the bad practices of I the clergy. Having been arrested by the Inquisition, ! he recanted and was released. Preaching again at i Spires, he was condemned and burnt in 135G. His teachings seem to have been of a mystical and extrav- agant tendency ; e. g. that man can reach such a de- ] gree of perfection in this life that prayer and fasting I are no longer necessary for him. Trithemius calls him a Beghard (q. v.); Mosheim classes him with the " Brethren of the Free Spirit" (q. v.). See Mosheim, J De Beghanli.i, p. 325 sq. : Landon, s. v.
! Berthold, bishop of Chiemsee, whose original name j was Pirstinger, was born in 1465, at Salzburg. He was for some time a canon at Salzburg, and in 1508 was elected bishop of Chiemsee, where lie displayed j an indefatigable zeal for the reformation of the de- ! moralized clergy. He is the author of the celebrated j work entitled Dewtsch Thenlogey, one of the best works of the Middle Ages on scientific theology (latest edi- I tion, with notes, a dictionary, and a biography of Berthold, ed. by W. Reithmeier, with a preface by Dr. Fr. Windishmann, Munich, 1852). He is probably, also, the author of the Opus Ecclesia; a description of the corruption pervading the whole Church (Landshut, 1524; last edit. 1620).— Pierer, Univ. Lex. xix, 811.
Berthold, Leonhard, a German theologian, was born May 8, 1774, at Emskirchen, in Bavaria. He became in 1805 professor in the philosophical, and in 1806, in consequence of his commentary on Daniel (Erlangen, 2 vols. 8vo, 1806-'08), in the theological I faculty of the University of Erlangen. He was a prominent representative of the Rationalistic school. His foremost works are an Introduction into the Bible {[list. Kritische Einleitung in die sdmmtlichen kanon- ischen und apocry) hischen Schriften des A. und X. Testa- ments, 5 vols. Erlangen, 1812-19. 8vo); Theolog. 11 7s- senschnftskunde od. Ein'eitung in die ih< «l. W i ssenschafU n (Erlangen, 1821-22, 2 vols. 8vo) ; A History of Doctrines (//miilhiich der Dogmengeschichte ( Erlangen, 1822-23, j 2 vols. 8vo). He died on March 31, 1822. In 1814 Berthold became editor of the Kritische Journal der neuesten deutschen Theolor/ie, of which he published vol. v to vol. xiv. A collection of his " Opuscula Academ- ica" was published by his successor Winer (Leipzic, 1824, 8vo).— Herzog, Supplem. i, 185.