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WALAFRID 1 See also: German See also: monk and theological writer, was
See also: born about 8o8 in See also: Swabia
.
He was educated at the monastery of See also: Reichenau, near See also: Constance, where he had for his teachers Tatto and See also: Wettin, to whose visions he devotes one of his poems
.
Then he went on to See also: Fulda, where he studied for some See also: time under Hrabanus Maurus before returning to Reichenau, of which monastery he was made See also: abbot in 838
.
There is a story—based, however, on no
See also: good evidence—that Walafrid devoted himself so closely to letters as to neglect the duties of his office, owing to which he was expelled from his See also: house; but, from his own verses, it seems that the real cause of his See also: flight to See also: Spires was that, notwithstanding the fact that he had been tutor to See also: Charles the Bald, he espoused the
See also: side of his elder See also: brother See also: Lothair on the See also: death cf See also: Louis the Pious in 84o
.
He was, however, restored to his monastery in 842, and died on the 18th of
See also: August 849, on an See also: embassy to his former pupil
.
His epitaph was written by Hrabanus Maurus, whose elegiacs praise him for being the faithful See also: guardian of his monastery
.
Walafrid See also: Strabo's See also: works are theological, See also: historical and poetical
.
Of his theological works the most famous is the See also: great exegetical compilation which, under the name of Glosa ordinaria or the Glosa, ,emained for some 500 years the most widespread and important See also: quarry of See also: medieval biblical science, and even survived the Re-formation, passing into numerous See also: editions as See also: late as the 17th century (see Hist. litteraire de la See also: France, t. v. p
.
59 ff.)
.
The See also: oldest known copy, in four folio volumes, of which the date and origin are unknown, but which is certainly almost entirely Walafrid's See also: work, gives us his method
.
In the See also: middle of the pages is the Latin text of the See also: Bible; in the margins are the " glosses," consisting of a very full collection of patristic excerpts in See also: illustration and explanation of the text
.
There is also an exposition of the first twenty psalms (published by Pez in Anecdota nova, iv.) and an epitome of Hrabanus Maurus's commenta:y on See also: Leviticus
.
An Expositio quatuor Evangeliorum is also ascribed to Walaf rid . Of singular See also: interest also is his De exordiis et incrementis rerum ecdesiasticarum, written between 84o and 842 and dedicated to Regenbert the librarian
.
It deals in 32 chapters with ecclesiastical usages, churches, altars, prayers, bells, pictures, See also: baptism and the See also: Holy Communion
.
Incidentally he introduces into his explanations the current German expressions for the things he is treating of, with the See also: apology that See also: Solomon had
i In the oldest See also: MSS. this is always spelt " Walahfrid."set him the example by keeping monkeys as well as peacocks at his See also: court
.
Of See also: special interest is the fact that Walafrid, in his exposition of the Mass, shows no trace of any belief in the See also: doctrine of See also: transubstantiation as taught by his famous contemporary Radbertus (q.v.); according to him, Christ gave to his disciples the sacraments of his See also: Body and See also: Blood in the substance of See also: bread and See also: wine, and taught them to celebrate them as a memorial of his Passion
.
Walafrid's chief historical works are the rhymed Vita sancti Gatti, which, though written nearly two centuries after this See also: saint's death, is still the See also: primary authority for his See also: life, and a much shorter life of St Othmar, abbot of St See also: Gall (d
.
759).2 A critical edition of them by E
.
See also: Dummler is in the Monumenta Germaniae hist
.
Poetae See also: Latini, ii
.
(1884), p
.
259 if
.
Walafrid's poetical works also include a See also: short life of St Blaithmaic, a high-born monk of See also: Iona, murdered by the Danes in the first See also: half of the 9th century; a life of St Mammas; and a Libor de visionibus Wettini
.
This last poem, like the two preceding ones written in hexameters, was composed at the command of " See also: Father " Adalgisus, and based upon the See also: prose narrative of Heto, abbot of Reichenau from 806 to 822
.
It is dedicated to Wettin's brother Grimald
.
At the time he sent it to Grimald Walafrid had, as he himself tells us, hardly passed his eighteenth See also: year, and he begs his correspondent to revise his verses, because, as it is not lawful for a monk to hide anything from his abbot," he fears he may be beaten with deserved stripes
.
In this curious vision Wettin saw Charles the Great suffering purgatorial tortures because of his incontinence
.
The name of the ruler alluded to is not indeed introduced into the actual text, but " Carolus Imperator " See also: form the initial letters of the passage dealing with this subject
.
Many of Walafrid's other poems are, or include, short addresses to See also: kings and queens (Lothair, Charles, Louis, See also: Pippin, See also: Judith, &c.) and to See also: friends (See also: Einhard, Grimald, Hrabanus Maurus, Tatto, Ebbo, archbishop of See also: Reims, Drogo, See also: bishop of See also: Metz, &c.)
.
His most famous poem is the Hortulus, dedicated to Grimald
.
It is an account of a little garden that he used to tend with his own hands, and is largely made up of descriptions of the various herbs he grows there and their medicinal and other uses
.
See also: Sage holds the place of honour; then comes rue, the antidote of poisons; and so on through melons, See also: fennel, lilies, poppies, and many other See also: plants, to See also: wind up with the See also: rose, " which in virtue and See also: scent surpasses all other herbs, and may rightly be called the flower of See also: flowers." The curious poem De Imagine Tetrici takes the form of a See also: dialogue; it was inspired by an equestrian statue of See also: Theodoric the Great which stood in front of Charlemagne's palace at See also: Aix-la-Chapelle
.
For a bibliography of Walafrid's historical works, and of writings dealing with them, see See also: Potthast, Bibliotheca hist. med. aevi (Berlin, 1894), p
.
1102 if
.
Walafrid's works are published in See also: Migne's Patrologia See also: Latina, vols. cxiii. and cxiv
.
For further references see the article by Eduard Reuss and A . Hauck in Herzog-Hauck, Realencyklopadie (See also: Leipzig, 1908), xx
.
790
.
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