BERNOLD OF CONSTANCE

Noted chronicler (known also as Bernold of St. Blaise); b. c. 1050; d. Schaffhausen, Sept. 16, 1100. He was educated in the cathedral school of Constance, attended the 1079 Lenten synod in Rome, and was ordained in Constance in 1084 by Cardinal Legate Otto of Ostia. As an opponent of Emperor henry iv in the investiture struggle, he presumably took part in 1085 in the Quedlinburg Synod of anti-Emperor Hermann of Salm and certainly was at the battle of Pleichfeld in 1086. After 1085 Bernold called himself ultimus fratrum of sankt blasien, and from about 1091 he lived in All Saints monastery in Schaffhausen.

In his first treatise, written in 1074, Bernold came out strongly against the married clergy (see celibacy, cleri cal history of), and he later composed a number of polemical tracts as a partisan of gregory vii. In the Apologeticus he defended the authority of the papal decrees against all other sources of Canon Law. Bernold's chief work was his chronicle (MS Munich, Clm 432), accepted as his own work. After extracts from older chroniclers, this work presents Bernold's own account of historical events beginning from 1075 and extending to Aug. 3, 1100. It is strongly slanted against Henry IV. Bernold also wrote a liturgical work called the Micrologus and compiled a treatise on the Eucharist from texts used in the condemnations of berengarius of tours.

Bibliography: j. autenrieth, Neue deutsche Biographie 2:127–128; Die Domschule von Konstanz zur Zeit des Investiturstreits (Stuttgart 1956); Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, ed. j. hofer and k. rahner (2d new ed. Freiburg 1957–65) 2:259. j. r. geiselmann, Bernold von St. Blasien: Sein neuentdecktes Werk über die Eucharistie (Munich 1936). Patrologia Latina, ed. j. p. migne (Paris 1878–90) 151:978–1022, Micrologus. Monumenta Germaniae Historica: Libelli de lite (Berlin 1826—) 2:1–168;3:601–602. Monumenta Germaniae Historica: Scriptores (ibid.) 5:385–467, chronicle. w. wattenbach, Deutschlands Geschichtsquellen im Mittelalter: Deutsche Kaiserzeit, ed. r. holtzmann (Tübingen) 1:521–528. h. weisweiler, Studi gregoriana 4:129–147.

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