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 HEn^SBRONN

199

HEINRICH

Heilsbronn, Monk op. — This name indicates the unknown author of some small mystical treatises, written about the beginning of the fourteenth century at the Cistercian Abbey of Heilsbronn (between Ans- bach and Nuremberg; not to be confounded with Heilbronn on the Neckar). The Monk cites St. Bonaventure and Albert the Great (d. 1280) and draws largely on the works of Conrad of Brundel- sheim (Soccus), Abbot of Heilsbronn in 130.3 (d. 1321), whose preaching was so efficacious in the diffusion of the spiritual doctrines of St. Bernard. The date of the composition of the treatises is determined by these borrowings and quotations; they are w-ritten in Middle German with some traces of the Bavarian dia- lect. The first, in verse, is " The Book of the Seven Degrees" (Das Buch der siben Grade), which com- prises 221S lines, and has only been preserved in one manuscript — that of Heidelberg, transcribed in 1390 by a priest, Ulric Currifex of Eschenbach. In it the author, taking as his starting point the vision of Ezechiel (xl, 22), describes the seven degrees which make the pure soul mount up to the realms of heaven: prayer, penitence, charity, the habitual thought of God, with the devotion, which purifies and which ravishes, union and conformity with God, contem]3la- tion of God. Has the author utilized a treatise of the same nature attributed to David of Augsburg? This question is still under discussion; in any case, how- ever, his originality is undeniable.

The other work is in prose with a prologue and an epilogue in verse, and it is in this prologue that the author calls himself the "Monk of Heilsbronn" (einem Muniche von Hailsprunne) and asks the prayers of the reader. The title of the treatise is the " Liber de corpore et sanguine domini" (or " Das Puch on den VI namen des Fronleichnams", or also the " Goldene Zunge"). In it the author sets himself to give us a collection of the flowers gathered by the Fathers from the broad meadows of Scripture with the purpose of teaching us how to receive and how to conduct our- selves towards the Sacred Flesh of the Saviour. He then passes in review six different names given to the Blessed Sacrament : Eucharist, Gift, Food, Communion, Sacrifice, Sacrament; he gives the reasons for these names and suggests considerations on the Divine love, union with God, etc. (cf. supra), especially when speaking of the second and the sixth names. He cites St. Bernard, "his father", very frequently, while much less frequently Augustine and Gregory are quoted. We find the same work also in Latin trans- lations. A third work "On Love" (Das Puch von der Minne), if it ever existed, has not been recovered. Two other treatises which are found in the manu- script of Heidelberg have been attributed to the same author; they are "The Daughter of Sion" (Tochter Syon), a short poem of 596 lines, in the Alamannian dialect, rich in matter and full of emotion; it treats of the mystical union of the soul with God, a theme frequently dealt with in the poetry of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The second work (von Sante Alexis) gives us in 456 lines the well-known legend of St. Alexis. However, peculiarities of lan- guage, rhyme, and verse, coupled with an original fashion of conceiving things (e.g. the idea of soul and spirit), forbid us to consider the " Monk of Heilsbronn" as the author of these two poems. In his writings, the Monk of Heilsbronn shows a very great humility, an attractive simplicity which draws us towards him, and a really practical good sense; his poetry is full of imagery and rich in comparisons which render the Latin of the Bible very happily. His mystical con- ceptions, which by no means betray the influence of Eckhart, show a close relation to St. Bernard and to Hugo of St. Victor.

Merzdorf, Der MoiicA von Heilsbronn (Berlin, 1870); W.lG- NER. Ueberrlen M.vonH. (Strasburg, 1.S76) ;Denifle in ^rtjfiffer fiir deutschesAUkerthum und deutsche Litteralur, II (1876), 300-

313; BiRLlXGER in Alemannia, III (1S75), lOS sqq.; WiMMER, BeilrSge zur Kritik und Erkldrunff der Werke des Munchs von Heilsbronn (Kalksburg, 1895).

J. DB GhELLINCK.

Helm, Francois Joseph, French historical painter, b. near Belfort, 17S7; d. in Paris, 1865. This clever painter commenced work when eight years old, and gained the first prize for drawing in Strasburg before he was eleven. He was a pupil of Vincent in 1S03, his people having sent him to Paris to receive the best instruction they could afford. In 1807 he won a prize at the Academy with a picture of Theseus and the Minotaur, and a travelling scholarship with which he W'Cnt to Rome. On his return to Paris he carried off the gold medal at the Academy, became a full mem- ber in 1829, and a professor in 1831. He was ap- pointed painter to the Institute of France, and exhib- ited over sixty portraits of members, the drawings for which are now in the Ijouvre. His historical and religious paintings were very attractive. The best of them, representing Jacob in Mesopotamia, was exe- cuted in 1814, and is now to be seen at Bordeaux. Two of the ceilings in the Louvre, and three of the ceilings in the Senate house in Paris are his work, and his pictures are also to be found at Versailles and Strasburg.

A priv.itclv printed essav from the Strasburg Artislic Society^s Proceedings (1901).

Geohge Chaeles Williamson.

Heinrich der Glichezare (i. e. the hypocrite, in the sense of one who adopts a strange name or pseu- donym), a Middle High German poet, author of a narrative poem "Reinhart Fuchs" (Reynard the Fox), the oldest German beast-epic that we possess. The date of its composition is about 1180. It is based on a French poem, part of an extensive "Roman de Renart", but older than any of the branches of this romance that have come down to us. Of the Cierman poem in its original form, entitled "Isengrines not" (Isengrin's trouble), only a few fragments are pre- served in a mutilated manuscript discovered in 1839 in the Hessian town of Melsungen. We pos.sess, how- ever, a complete version made by an unknown hand in the thirteenth century and preserved in two manu- scripts, one at Heidelberg and one belonging to the archiepiscopal library of Kalocsa. This version is very faithful, the changes made therein pertaining apparently only to form and versification. Its title is " Reinhart Fuchs". In the beginning of this poem the fox is anj'thing but a successful impostor, being generally outwitted by far weaker animals. But later on this changes. Rejojard plays outrageous pranks on most of the animals, especially on Isengrin, the wolf, but escapes punishment by healing the sick lion. This the fox accomplishes at the expense of his adversaries. In the end he poisons the lion, his bene- factor, and the poem closes with a reflection on the success attending craft and falsehood while honesty goes unrewarded. The story is told in a plain, straight- forward manner; compared with the French model the German poem shows abbreviations as well as additions, so that it is not a mere translation. The order in which the different incidents are related has also been changed, and occasional touches of satire are not wanting. The poem of der Glichezare is the only beast-epic of Middle High German literature. The famous later versions of this material are Low Ger- man. It is on one of these latter that Goethe based his well-known " Reineke Fuchs". The complete poem (from the Heidelberg MS.) was edited by J. Grimm under the title "Reinhart Fuchs" (Berlin, 1834), and together with the older fragments by K. Reissenberger in " Paul's Altdeutsche Textbiblio- thek", VII (Halle, 1886). The Kalocsa MS. was published by Mailath and Kiiffinger (Budapest, 1S17). Selections are found in P. Piper's "Die Spielmanns-