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Document Details : Title: Familiensache Subtitle: Elisabeth und Eckbert von Schönau im Streit mit den Katharen Author(s): MÜLLER, Daniela Journal: Ephemerides Theologicae Lovanienses Volume: 99 Issue: 2 Date: 2023 Pages: 217-246 DOI: 10.2143/ETL.99.2.3291843 Abstract : Eckbert – monk and abbot of the Benedictine monastery of Schönau – was not the only person in his family who was engaged in the fight against the heretics who kept the city of Cologne and its citizens on their toes from 1143 onwards. His sister Elisabeth – a renowned mystic and nun at the same double monastery of Schönau – also had concerns about the 'poisoning serpents' which she identified explicitly as Cathars. Eckbert’s 14 Sermones contra Kataros – written most probably in 1164 – represent the first systematic refutation of the so-called Cathars. Eckbert was a sharp observer and an astute theologian relying on Augustine to describe the origins of the Cathars without confusing or identifying the Cathars of his own time with the Manicheans. Elisabeth, his sister, seems to have been the driving force behind her brother’s decision to leave secular life behind. They worked closely together: Eckbert was the one who re-visited, translated when necessary, edited and published his sister’s visions, leaving some visions out of his publications. Eckbert and Elisabeth shared the same impetus to reform the clergy and therewith fight against what they believed to be the dangerous adversaries of the Church, known to them as Cathars. |
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