Hildebert of Lavardin ( * 1056 - † 1133 )
Archbishop of Tours
Hildebertus Cenomannensis, Hildebertus de
Lavertino, Hildebert of Lavardin. Hildebert, one of the most distinguished
Latin poets of the entire Middle Ages, saw the light of the world at the castle
of Lavardin near Montoire-sur-Loire. His father, also called Hildebert, was the
servant of Solomon of Lavardin, and his mother bore the name of Beresindis.
Hildebert was made a student of Berengar of Tours, to whom he composed an
epitaph; Unfortunately nothing is reported to us about Hildebert's literary
career. He appears first (after 1085) as a scholar of the cathedral school of
Le Mans; In 1091, he was promoted to Archidiakonus by Bishop Hoël, and after
his death (July 1096), he was elected by the bishops of Le Mans in an
ambivalent election. The lord of Le Mans, Élie de la Flèche, agreed, the feudal
lord, William the Red of England, rejected them; It was not until Christmas
that the consecration could take place. When, three years later, the king came
to Le Mans after the second feud against Élie de la Flèche, he led Hildebert to
England in a kind of captivity, because the bishop refused to settle the towers
of his cathedral The king claimed that his troops had been shot. The death of
William (August 2, 1100) gave Hildebert freedom. He used it for a trip to Rome,
asked for his removal from Paschal II, but returned home with rich resources
for the expansion of his cathedral (Pentecost, 1101).
Kupferstich des 18. Jh.
A fictitious representation of the frontispiece of
issue 1708
In 1112 Hildebert was imprisoned in
Nogent-le-Rotrou by Hubert, Truchess of Count Rotrou du Perche, and held in
custody until March 1113. In 1116, in Le Mans, just as Hildebert took his
second trip to Rome, Henry of Lausanne, asked for permission to preach in the
diocese, and took the opportunity to stir it up against the absent bishop. When
Hildebert returned for Pentecost, the fanatical sectarian escaped from the city
to Saint-Calais and soon from the Sprengel, but the prelate had long to do
until the waves which had excited him had softened.
On 25 April 1120, Hildebert experienced the
pleasure of conjoining the essentially completed cathedral; In 1123 he traveled
a third time to Rome to Calixt II, and in all likelihood lived according to the
Laterankonzile of this year. Certainly his presence at the Council of Chartres
in 1124. After the death of Gislebert of Tours, he was unanimously elected
successor by the clergy and the people of the Archbishopric. For a long time he
hesitated whether he should accept the election; An order of the pope and the
recognition of the King of France put an end to his wavering. Even these last
years of Hildebert were not without disturbances; They brought him into
conflict with the king, who claimed the right to forgive the dignities of the
parish; With the bishop of Dol, who raised claims on the Metropolitan dignity
over the Breteno dioceses. In the Roman schism of 1130, Hildebert assumed a
position to be awaited; In February he consecrated a chapel of the convent of
Redon; On the eighteenth of December, he went to Tours, seventy-seven years
old. See Hildebert's life Dieudonné, Hildebert de Lavardin,
évèque du Mans, archévèque de Tours (1056 to 1133). Sa vie, ses lettres. Paris
1898.
From Hildebert's poetic works, we have only one
complete (unfortunately, complete) edition, which was published by Beaugendre
(1708), which was re-edited by Bourassé in 1854 (Migne EP, p. 171); Both
editors have given Hildebert things which the author has never written without
justification and proof, and often without the attempt of such a man. This led
Hauréau to his exemplary investigations: Les Mélanges Poëtiques d'Hildebert de
Lavardin, Paris, 1882. Only a few disappearing under Hildebert's lyric poems
can be counted among the hymns (in a broad sense). This little is found in
Anal. Hymn L, 408-422. If we have little in Hymns from Hildebert, then only a
few whole books of hymns and poems will weigh up this. If he had only had the
Oratio ad ss. Trinitatem, a poem with its theological depth in the first part
and the depth of feeling in the last sections would suffice to count him
forever to the best hymnos of all tongues. A German translation can be found in
my book: The Church of the Latins in their Songs, Kempten, 1908, p. 86.
(Guido Maria Dreves, Clemens Blume, A Thousand
Thousand Latin Hymn-poetry, Part One,
