DAVID OF AUGSBURG

Franciscan ascetical-mystical theologian; b. Augsburg, c. 1200; d. there, Nov. 19, 1272. He probably joined the Friars Minor in Regensburg, and studied and taught at the studium generale in Magdeburg; from 1235 to 1250 he was master of novices in Regensburg. In 1246 he was named visitator together with Berthold of Regensburg, and from about 1250 accompanied Berthold on his preaching missions. He also served as inquisitor against the Waldensians. As a spiritual writer, he ranks among the greatest of his time, both for the quality of his German and Latin prose and for his sober and circumspect mystical theology. His influence on the Schwabenspiegel (1268), devotio moderna, the Spanish Franciscan mystics, and the German mystics of the 14th century has been noted, although he has nothing in common with the extravagances of the last mentioned. His most important work, De exterioris et interioris hominis compositione libri III (Quaracchi 1899), appeared in more than 370 editions after 1240. His other Latin works include: Tractatus de oratione and Expositio Regulae OFM, Zeitschrift für Kirchengeschicte 19 (1898) 341–359; De haeresi pauperum de Lugduno, Abhandlungen des Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften (Munich 1835–) 14 (1878) 181– ; De septem gradibus orationis, Revue d'ascétique et de mystique 14 (1933) 146–170. Pfeiffer attributed eight German works to him: Die sieben Vorregeln der Tugend; Der Spiegel der Tugend; Christi Leben unser Vorbild; Die vier Fittiche geistlicher Betrachtung; Von der Anschauung Gottes; Von der Erkenntnis der Wahrheit; Von der unergründlichen Fülle Gottes; and Betrachtungen und Gebete.

Bibliography: f. pfeiffer, Deutsche Mystiker des vierzehnten Jahrhunderts (Leipzig 1845). f. hecker, Kritische Beiträge zu David von Augsburg: Persönlichkeit und Schriften (Göttingen 1905). d. stÖckerl, Bruder D. von A., ein deutscher Mystiker aus dem Franziskanerorden (Munich 1914). m. bihl, "Survey of Scholarship on D. of A.," Archivum Franciscanum historicum 7 (1914) 765–769; 18 (1925) 143–147; 26 (1933) 527–531. v. de peralta, "Mistocos Franciscanos," Estudios Franciscanos 24 (1920) 275–283. c. smits, "D. van A. en le invloed van zijn Profectus op de moderne Devotie," Collectanea Franciscana Neerlandica 1 (1927) 171–203. j. heerinckx, "Theologica mystica in scriptis D. ab A.," Antonianum 8 (1933) 49–83. a. rayez, Dictionnaire de spiritualité ascétique et mystique. Doctrine et histoire, ed. m. viller et al. (Paris 1932–) 3:42–44.

[m. f. laughlin]