RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Bernard Berquin
1079 when Berengar was condemned. The next certain date is his ordination by the cardinal-legate Otto of Ostia at Constance in 1084. From 1086 to 1091 he was certainly an inmate of the monastery of St. Blaise in the Black Forest; in the latter year he migrated to Schaffhausen, where he remained (though not without interruption, as his presence at the battle of Pleichfeld shows) until his death. He was a versatile author. His Chronicon (ed. G. Waitz, ia MGH, Script., v, 1844, 385-467) is a valuable source for his own lifetime, though colored by his partizan support of Gregory VII. His treatise De Berengarii hceresiarchx damnatione multiplici is interesting for the light which it throws on the attitude of German theology before the beginning of the strictly scholastic period. Most of his extant works, however, are of a practical nature, dealing with the vexed questions of the church life of his time. Though a zealous upholder of the reforming papacy, he was not a fanatic.
Carl Mirbt.
Bibliography: C. Mirbt, Die Publizistik im Zeitalter Oregon VII, Leipsic, 1894; A. Ussermann, Germanics sacrce prodromus, ii, 432-437, Freiburg, 1792; E. Strelau, Leben und Werke des Mbnches Bernold von St. Blasien, Jena, 1889; G. Meyer von Knonau, Jahrbilcher des deutschen Reichs unter Heinrich IV und Heinrich V, Leipsic, 1890-1904.
BERNWARD: Bishop of Hildesheim 993-1022. He came of a noble Saxon family, being the grandson of the count palatine Adalbero and the nephew of Bishop Folkmar of Utrecht. He was educated at the cathedral school of Hildesheim by Thangmar, later his biographer, and ordained by Willigis of Mainz. In 987 he became chaplain at the imperial court and tutor to the young Otto III. On Jan. 15, 993, he was consecrated bishop of Hildesheim. He protected his diocese vigorously from the attacks of the Normans, and only once took a wrong step as a temporal magnate — when, at the accession of Henry II, he took the side of Margrave Ekkehart, whose death, however, saved him from the consequences of his mistake. He rendered great services to literature and art. He died Nov. 20, 1022, a few weeks after the consecration of the magnificent church of St. Michael which he had built. Celestine III canonized him in 1193.
(A. Hauck.)
Bibliography: The Vita by Thangmar is in MGH, Script., IV, 754-782, the Miracula, ib. pp. 782-786, Hanover, 1841; the continuation of the Vita by Wolfherius, ib. xi, 165- 167, 1854. Consult: A. Schultz, Der heilige Bernward . und seine Verdienste, Leipsic, 1879; W. A. Neumann, Bernward von Hildesheim und seine Zeit, in Mittheilungen des kaiserlichen osterreichischen Museums fur Kunst, v, 73-80, 97-104, 124-130, 141-152, 168-173, Vienna, 1890; a bievers, Der heilige Bernward, in Studien und Mittheilungen aus dem Benedict- und dem Cisterz.-Orden, xiv (189o), 398-420; Wattenbach, DGQ, i (1893), 318, 346- 350, ii, 25, 360, 511; S. Beissel, Der heilige Bernward von Hildesheim, Hildesheim, 1895.
BERCEANS OR BARCLAYITES. See Barclay, John.
BERQUIN, bar"kan', LOUIS DE: French Reformer; b. at Passy-Paris June, 1490; d. at Paris Apr. 17, 1529. He belonged to a noble family of Artois and was lord of the estate of Berquin, near
Abbeville. In 1512 he came to Paris to finish his studies, became acquainted with Lefevre d'Etaples and the publisher Josse Badius, and was introduced to Marguerite of Valois, sister of Francis I, through whom he gained the king's favor. He belonged to that group of godly humanists who wished a reformation of the Church, but without a rupture with Rome. He hated equally the ignorance of the monks and the coarseness of Luther. Erasmus seemed to him the true Reformer; with him therefore he opened correspondence and translated several of his tracts, as well as Luther's De votis monasticis. The doctors of the Sorbonne denounced him as a heretic and on May 13, 1523, the trial was held before the Parliament. Seven of Berquin 's writings and one of his translations from Luther and Melanchthon were condemned by the theological faculty and by the Parliament. On Aug. 1, he was made prisoner, but was set free by order of the king, Aug. 8. The Parliament had already burned his papers and books. The siege of Pavia and the captivity of the king (Feb., 1525) increased the Parliament's power, and the queen regent, Louise de Savoie, established (May 20) an extraordinary court to judge the heretics. On the same day three of Erasmus's treatises were censured. Berquin would have been permitted to retire and live on his estates if he had consented to keep silence. But he could not help speaking the truth and (Jan. 8, 1526), being denounced by the bishop of Amiens, he was again imprisoned. His books were again judged and forty of his propositions were declared heretical. He defended himself by saying that his propositions were taken from Erasmus and nobody adjudged the latter a heretic. His books were nevertheless condemned and he would have been burned with them if Marguerite of Valois had not invoked the clemency of her brother. Aug. 17 Francis sent a letter to the Parliament commanding them to take no definite steps without his advice. Although Erasmus advised silence, Berquin, confident of the king's favor, resumed the struggle and quoted from Noel Beda's writings against Erasmus, against the Sorbonne, and LefSvre d'Etaples, twelve propositions as false and heretical, and asked the king to allow the Parliament to give judgment. From July, 1528, until March, 1529, Berquin lived in security. He was then again imprisoned and Parliament condemned him " to have his tongue branded with a. red-hot iron and to remain a prisoner for the rest of his life." Apr. 16 Berquin appealed to the king,, and the next day Parliament, taking advantage of the king's absence at Blois, ordered Berquin to be burned at the Place deGreve. He was the first Protestant martyr of France. Theodore Beza said of him: " If Francis had upheld him to the last, he would have been the Luther of France." Berquin's original works are all lost, only a few of his translations being left: Enchiridion du chevalier chrestien (Antwerp, 1529); Le vraymoyen de bien et catholiquement se confesser, par Erasme (Lyons, 1542); Paraphrases sur le Nouveau Testament, and Le symbole des apotres (both from Erasmus, n.p., n.d.).
G. Bonet-Maurt.
Berruyer Berthold