SIGEBERT OF GEMBLOUX

Teacher, hagiographer, historian; b. c. 1030; d. Gembloux, Oct. 5, 1112. He entered the Benedictine monastery

of gembloux as a child and was trained by Abbot Olbert (d. 1048), who conducted a good school and systematically built up an excellent library. At the request of Folcwin, Abbot of St. Vincent's, Sigebert went to Metz, where he was schoolmaster for 20 years and where his long literary career began with composing the Lives of the saints of Metz, of the Passion of St. Lucia, and the Sermon on her translation. Late in 1070 Sigebert returned home. He then began a series of hagiographical and historical works for his own monastery, Gembloux, and his diocese, Liège. The lengthy Passion of the Theban Martyr Legion, in hexameters, shows not only his vast acquaintance with classical and Christian literature but also some genuine poetic expression. Sigebert's Life of Wicbert, founder of Gembloux, and the lives of other local notables are found in the Gesta of the Abbots of Gembloux.

Although Sigebert wrote only three tracts (Monumenta Germanica Libelli di Lite 2:436–464) during the 30 years the investiture struggle was at its height, his position is made clear through his extant letter of 1075 in which he charges Pope gregory vii with the ills produced by his innovations. Further, Sigebert's letter directed against Pope paschal ii (1103) upholds the clergy of Liège and supports royal and imperial investiture against usurping popes. It was in his last decade that he produced two major works to crown his scholarly career. The Chronica (Monumenta Germanica Scriptores 6:300–374) attempted to establish a correct chronology of historical events from 381 to 1111 (but failed), while the De viris illustribus sought to provide a compendium of all important ecclesiastical writers as had the similar works of St. jerome and gennadius. Sigebert's De viris illustribus is one of the most important works of its kind in the Middle Ages and ranks with the summae of abelard and gratian.

Bibliography: Patrologia Latina 160:57–834, works. Geschichte der lateinischen Literatur des Mittelalters 3:332–350. É. de moreau, Histoire de l'Église en Belgique (2d ed. Brussels 1945) 2:95–99, 156–158, 277–281. Deutschlands Geschichtsquellen im Mittelalter 1.4:727–737. a. boutemy, Deutches Archiv für Erforschung des Mittelalters 10 (1953) 534–535. j. leclercq, Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche ² 9:746.

[s. williams]