RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Berengar Bergier
etood in a purely rationalistic sense. But it would be going quite too far to see in rationalism Berengar's main standpoint, to attribute to 5. Beren- him the deliberate design of subvertgar's Sig- ing all religious authority — Scripture, nificance. the Fathers, popes, and councils. This would be to ascribe to a man of the eleventh century views of which his age knew nothing, which it even had no terms to express. The contrast which he sets forth is not between reason and revelation, but between rational and irrational ways of understanding revelation. He did not recognize the right of the prevailing theology to claim his assent, because it made irrational assertions; the authorities to which he refused to submit were, in his judgment, only human authorities. He spoke bitterly and unjustly of popes and councils, unable to forgive them for making him untrue to himself; but this meant no rejection of the Catholic conception of the Church. His opposition was limited to the eucharistic doctrine of his time, and he controverted the theory of Paschasius not least because he believed it was contrary to Scripture and the Fathers, and destructive of the very nature of a sacrament. (A. Hauck.)
Bibliography: An edition of Berengar's works was begun by A. F. and F. T. Vischer, vol. i only was published -containing his De sacra ccena, Berlin, 1834; cf. Mansi, Collectio, xix, 761 sqq.; the works are also in Bouquet, Recueil, xiv, 294-300. A collection of letters relating to him (one of his own) was published by E. Bishop in Historisches Jahrbuch der Gorres-Gesellschaft, i, 272-280, Minister, 1880. For his life consult H. E. Lehmann, Berengarii Turonensis vital ex fontibus haustat, part i , Rostock, 1870 (no more published); J. Schmitzer, Berengar von Tours, sein Leben und seine Lehre, Munich, 1890. Consult the works of Bernold of San Bias, in Labbe, Concilia, ix, 1050, in Bouquet, Recueil, xiv, 34-37, and in MPL, cxlviii; B. Haureau, Histoire de la philosophic scolastique, i, 225 sqq., Paris, 1872; Hefele, Conciliengeschichte, vols, iv, v; KL, ii, 391-404; Neander, Christian Church, iii, 502-521, iv, 84, 86, 92, 335, 337, 355.
BERENGOZ : Abbot of St. Maximin's at Treves in the twelfth century; d. about 1125. In the records of the abbey he is first mentioned as abbot in 1107, and for the last time in 1125. The register of deaths contains his name against the date of Sept. 24, without naming the year; but as his successor, Gerhard, was installed in 1127, he must have died either in 1125 or 1126. He rendered considerable services to the monastery by procuring from Henry V the restitution of a number of alienated fiefs, and, besides five sermons for saints' days, wrote two larger works: three books De laude et inventione sanctce cruris, and a series of discourses De mysterio ligni dominici et de luce visibili et invisibili per quam antiqui patres olim meruerunt illustrari. In the former he treats of the legend of the discovery of the cross of Christ by Helena, the mother of Constantine the Great, adducing a large number of Old Testament types of the cross. The latter deals with Christ under the aspect of the light of the world, shining from the beginning of its history. Whether the commentary on the Apocalypse which the Benedictines of St. Maur printed as an appendix to the second volume of their edition of St. Ambrose, ascribing it to a certain Berengaudus, is his or not must remain uncertam- (A. Hauck.)
Bibliogbaphy: Berengoz's works were edited by Christophorus, Cologne, 1555, and appear in M. de la Bigne, Magna bibliotheca, vol. vii, ib. 1618, also in MPL, clx! Consult J. Marx, Geschichte des Erzstifts Trier, ii, 95, Trierj 1860; H. V. Sauerland, Trierer Geschichtsquellen ' Trier' 1889; Hauck, KD, iii, 971-972.
BERGEN FORMULA {Das bergische Buch). See Formula of Concord.
BERGER, DANIEL : One of the United Brethren in Christ; b. near Reading, Pa., Feb. 14, 1832. He studied privately at Springfield, O., taught school 1852-58, and served as pastor 1858-64. From 1864 till 1897 he was editor in the publishing house of the United Brethren in Christ at Dayton, O., having charge of the denominational Sundayschool literature 1869-93, and was a member of the International Sunday-School Lesson Committee from 1884 to 1896. In theology he is an Arminian. He wrote the History of the Church of the United Brethren in Christ for the American Church History Series (New York, 1894), and a larger work with the same title (Dayton, 1897), which is the official history of the denomination.
BERGER, bar"zhe', SAMUEL: French Lutheran; b. at Beaucourt (10 m. s.s.e. of Belfort), France, May 2, 1843; d. in Sevres July 13, 1900. He studied at Strasburg and Tubingen; in 1867 became assistant preacher in the Lutheran Church in Paris; in 1877, librarian to the Paris faculty of Protestant theology. He was the author of F. C. Baur, les origines de I'ecole de Tubingue et ses principes (Paris, 1867); La Bible au seizieme siecle, etude sur les origines de la critique (1879); De glossariis et compendiis biblicis quibusdam medii eevi (1879); Du rule de la dogmatique dans la predication (1881); La Bible fran- (jaise au moyen age (1884); De Vhistoire de la Vulgate en France (1887); Le Palimpseste de Fleury (1889); Quam notitiam lingum Hebraicce habuerint Christiani medii cevi temporibus in Gallia (1893); L'Histoire de la Vulgate pendant les premiers siecles du moyen age (1893); Notice sur quelques textes latins inedits de I'Ancien Testament (1893); Un Ancien Texte latin des Actes des Apotres (1895); Une Bible copiee a Porrentruy (Etudes de Theologie et d'Histoire, 1901, 213-219); and Les Prefaces jointes aux livres de la Bible dans les manuscrits de la Vulgate, memoire posthume (1902).
BERGIER, bar"zhye', NICOLAS SYLVESTRE:
French Roman Catholic; b. at Darnay (18 m. s.e. of Mirecourt), Lorraine, Dec. 31, 1718; d. at Paris Apr. 19, 1790. He gained repute while a teacher at the college at Besancon by essays in philology and mythology; abandoned this line of study to devote himself to Christian apologetics, and polemics against the Encyclopedists. In 1765-68 he published at Paris Le Deisme refute par lui-mtme (2 vols.) and in 1768 the Certitude des preuves du christianisme (2 vols.), which achieved a great success and called forth replies from Voltaire and Anacharsis Cloots. In 1769 followed Apologie de la religion chretienne (2 vols.) against Holbach, in 1771 Examen du materialisms (2 vols.), and in 1780 Traite historique et dogmatique de la vraie religion avec la refutation des erreurs qui lui ont ete opposees dans les difjirens siecles (12 vols.). He also wrote a Diction-
Berg-ius
Bernard of Botone