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BERENGARIUS [BERENGAR] (d. io88)

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Originally appearing in Volume V03, Page 769 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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BERENGARIUS [BERENGAR] (d. io88) , See also:medieval theologian, was See also:born at See also:Tours See also:early in the rrth See also:century; he was educated in the famous school of Fulbert of See also:Chartres, but even in early See also:life seems to have exhibited See also:great See also:independence of See also:judgment. Appointed See also:superintendent of the See also:cathedral school of his native See also:city, he taught with such success as to attract pupils from all parts of See also:France, and powerfully contributed to diffuse an See also:interest in the study of See also:logic and See also:metaphysics, and to introduce that See also:dialectic development of See also:theology which is designated the scholastic. The earliest of his writings of which we have any See also:record is an Exhortatory Discourse to the hermits of his See also:district, written at their own See also:request and for their spiritual edification. It shows a clear discernment of the dangers of the ascetic life, and a deep insight into the significance of the Augustinian See also:doctrine of See also:grace. Sometime before 1040 Berengar was made See also:archdeacon of See also:Angers. It was shortly after this that rumours began to spread of his holding heretical views regarding the See also:sacrament of the See also:eucharist. He had submitted the doctrine of See also:transubstantiation (already generally received both by priests and See also:people, although in the See also:west it had been first unequivocally taught and reduced to a See also:regular theory by Paschasius Radbert in 831) to an See also:independent examination, and had come to the conclusion that it was contrary to See also:reason, unwarranted by Scripture, and inconsistent with the teaching of men like See also:Ambrose, See also:Jerome and See also:Augustine. He did not conceal this conviction from his scholars and See also:friends, and through them the See also:report spread widely that he denied the See also:common doctrine respecting the eucharist. His early friend and school See also:companion, Adelmann, archdeacon of See also:Liege, wrote to him letters of expostulation on the subject of this report in 1046 and 1048; and a See also:bishop, See also:Hugo of See also:Langres, wrote (about 1049) a refutation of the views which he had himself heard Berengar See also:express in conversation. Berengar's belief was not shaken by their arguments and exhortations, and See also:hearing that See also:Lanfranc, the most celebrated theologian of that See also:age, strongly approved the doctrine of Paschasius and condemned that of " Scotus " (really See also:Ratramnus), he wrote to him a See also:letter expressing his surprise and urging him to reconsider the question. The letter, arriving at Bec when Lanfranc was absent at See also:Rome (r050), was sent after him, but was opened before it reached him, and Lanfranc, fearing the See also:scandal, brought it under the See also:notice of See also:Pope See also:Leo IX. Because of it Berengar was condemned as a heretic without being heard, by a See also:synod at Rome and another at See also:Vercelli, both held in 1050.

His enemies in France See also:

cast him into See also:prison; but the bishop of Angers and other powerful friends, of whom he had a considerable number, had sufficient See also:influence to procure his See also:release. At the See also:council of Tours (10J4) he found a See also:protector in the papal See also:legate, the famous See also:Hildebrand, who, satisfied himself with the fact that Berengar did not deny the real presence of See also:Christ in the sacra-See also:mental elements, succeeded in persuading the See also:assembly to be See also:con-See also:tent with a See also:general See also:confession from him that the See also:bread and See also:wine, after See also:consecration, were the See also:body and See also:blood of the See also:Lord, without requiring him to define how. Trusting in Hildebrand's support, and in the See also:justice of his own cause, he presented himself at the synod of Rome in 1059, but found himself surrounded by zealots, who forced him by the fear of.See also:death to signify his See also:acceptance of the doctrine " that the bread and wine, after consecration, are not merely a sacrament, but the true body and the true blood of Christ, and that this body is touched and broken by the hands of the priests, and ground by the See also:teeth of the faithful, not merely in a sacramental but in a real manner." He had no sooner done so than he bitterly repented his weakness; and acting, as he himself says, on the principle that " to take an See also:oath which never ought to have been taken is to estrange one's self from See also:God, but to retract what one has wrongfully sworn to, is to return back to God," when he got safe again into France he attacked the transubstantiation theory more vehemently than ever. He continued for about sixteen years to disseminate his views by See also:writing and teaching, without being directly interfered with by either his See also:civil or ecclesiastical superiors, greatly to the scandal of the multitude and of the zealots, in whose eyes Berengar was "ille apostolus Satanae," and the See also:academy of Tours the " Babylonnostri temporis." An See also:attempt was made at the council of See also:Poitiers in 1076 to allay the agitation caused by the controversy, but it failed, and Berengar narrowly escaped death in a tumult. Hildebrand, now pope as See also:Gregory VII., next sumrnoned him to Rome, and, in a synod held there in 1078, tried once more to obtain a See also:declaration of his orthodoxy by means of a confession of faith See also:drawn up in general terms; but even this strong-minded and strong-willed pontiff was at length forced to yield to the demands of the multitude and its leaders; and in another synod at Rome (1079), finding that he was only endangering his own position and reputation, he turned unexpectedly upon Berengar and commanded him to confess that 'he had erred in not teaching a See also:change as to substantial reality of the sacramental bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ. " Then," says Berengar, " confounded by the sudden madness of the pope, and because God in See also:punishment for my sins did not give me a steadfast See also:heart, I threw myself on the ground, and confessed with impious See also:voice that I had erred, fearing the pope would instantly pronounce against me the See also:sentence of condemnation, and, as a necessary consequence, that the populace would See also:hurry me to the worst of deaths." He was kindly dismissed by the pope not See also:long after, with a letter recommending him to the See also:protection of the bishops of Tours and Angers, and another pronouncing See also:anathema on all who should do him any injury or See also:call him a heretic. He returned See also:home overwhelmed with shame and bowed down with sorrow for having a second See also:time been guilty of a great impiety. He immediately recalled his forced confession, and besought all See also:Christian men " to pray for him, so that his tears might secure the pity of the Almighty." He now saw, however, that the spirit of the age was against him, and hopelessly given over to the belief of what he had combated as a delusion. He withdrew, therefore, into solitude, and passed the See also:rest of his life in retirement and See also:prayer on the See also:island of St C8me near Tours. He died there in io88. Berengar See also:left behind him a considerable number of followers. All those who in the See also:middle ages denied the substantial presence of the body and blood of Christ in the eucharist were commonly designated Berengarians.

They differed, of course, in many respects, even in regard to the nature of the supper. Berengar's own views on the subject may be thus summed up: r. That bread and wine should become flesh and blood and yet not lose the properties of bread and wine was, he held, contradictory to reason, and therefore irreconcilable with the truthfulness of God. 2. He admitted a change (conversio) of the bread and wine into the body of Christ, in the sense that to those who receive them they are transformed by grace into higher See also:

powers and influences —into the true, the intellectual or spiritual body of Christ. The unbelieving receive the See also:external sign or sacramentum; but the believing receive in addition, although invisibly, the reality re-presented by the sign, the res sacramenti. 3. He rejected the notion that the sacrament of the See also:altar was a constantly renewed See also:sacrifice, and held it to be merely a See also:commemoration of the one sacrifice of Christ. 4. He dwelt strongly on the importance of men looking away from the externals of the sacrament to the spirit of love and piety. The transubstantiation doctrine seemed to him full of evil, from its tendency to See also:lead men to overvalue what was sensuous and transitory. 5.

He rejected with indignation the miraculous stories told to confirm the doctrine of transubstantiation. 6. Reason and Scripture seemed to him the only grounds on which a true doctrine of the Lord's supper could be rested. He attached little importance to See also:

mere ecclesiastical tradition or authority, and none to the voice of majorities, even when sanctioned by the See also:decree of a pope. In this, as in other respects, he was a precursor of Protestantism. The opinions of Berengar are to be ascertained from the See also:works written in refutation of them by Adelmann, Lanfranc, Guitmund, &c.; from the fragments of the De sacr. coena adv. Lanfr. See also:liber, edited by Staudlin (1820-1829) ; and from the Liber posterior, edited by A. F. and F. T. See also:Vischer (1834). See the collection of texts by Sudendorf (185o) ; the See also:Church Histories of See also:Gieseler, ii. 396-411 (Eng. trans.), and See also:Neander, vi.

221-26o (Eng. trans.) ; A. See also:

Harnack's See also:History of See also:Dogma; See also:Haureau's Histoire de la philosophie scolastique, i. 225-238; See also:Hermann See also:Reuter, Geschichte der religiosen Aufkldrung See also:des Mittelalters, vol. i. (See also:Berlin, 1875) ; L. See also:Schwabe, Studien zur Geschichte des Zweiten Abendmahlstreits (1887); and W. Broecking, " See also:Bruno von Angers and Berengar von Tours," in Deutsche Zeiischrift See also:fur Geschichtswissenschaft (vol. xii., 1895).

End of Article: BERENGARIUS [BERENGAR] (d. io88)

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