Burchard of Worms

Statue of Burchard at Wormser Dom (Cathedral of St. Peter).

Burchard of Worms (ca. 950 – August 20, 1025) was the Roman Catholic bishop of Worms in the Holy Roman Empire, and author of a Canon law collection in twenty books, known as Decretum Burchardi, also Decretum, or Collectarium canonum. Decretum means decree and also means judgment, decision, principle, statute, and doctrine.

Life

Burchard was educated in Coblenz. He was ordained as a deacon by Archbishop Willigis of Mainz, and was eventually elevated to primate of Mainz. In 1000, Emperor Otto III appointed Burchard as the bishop of Worms, an elevation confirmed by Willigis within days. In a biography written shortly after Burchard's death, it was claimed that two priests who had been appointed to the position before Burchard both died within days. The same account also indicates that Worms was in disrepair, and regularly attacked by both wolves and robbers.

Burchard oversaw the rebuilding of the walls of Worms, the creation of many monasteries and churches, and took part in the destruction of the fortifications of Otto I, Duke of Carinthia. Duke Otto was believed to be housing criminals, and was an enemy of Burchard's. According to Burchard's biographer, "many limbs were hacked off and many murders occurred on both sides" of the conflict. Burchard adopted a child from the enemy household, who would grow up to become Emperor Conrad II. After gaining the aid of King Henry II of Bavaria and engaging in negotiations, Duke Otto's castle was dismantled and rebuilt to become a monastery in honour of St. Paul. In 1016, Burchard rebuilt the town's Cathedral of St. Peter. Burchard also spent time educating students in the cathedral's school.

Burchard died in 1025, leaving to his sister a hair shirt and an iron chain as a memento mori.

Works

Burchard is best known as the author of a twenty-book collection of canon law. Begun in 1008, the materials took him four years to compile. Burchard wrote it while living in a small structure on top of a hill in the forest outside Worms, after his defeat of Duke Otto and while raising his adopted child. The collection, which he called the Collectarium canonum or Decretum, became the primary source for canon law. It came to be referred to as the Brocardus (Latin for 'Burchard'), from which the legal term 'brocard' originates. Along with numerous documents from a variety of sources, including the Old Testament and Augustine of Hippo, Burchard also included the 10th-century penitential known as Canon Episcopi.

Burchard probably completed his Decretum by 1012. An important surviving manuscript is Codex 119 of the Dombibliothek in Cologne (Dom Hs. 119), dated to ca. 1020, and thus completed still during Burchard's lifetime. The text was first printed in 1548, probably on the basis of this manuscript. Codex 119 is missing Burchard's prologue, book 1, and parts of books 2, 19 and 20. Apart from these passages, the manuscript is the most authoritative source of the text. The twenty books of the work are divided as follows:

1. De primatu ecclesiae ("on the primate of the Church")

2. De sacris ordinibus ("on the holy orders")

3. De aeclesiis ("on the congregations")

4. De baptismo ("on baptism")

5. De eucharistia ("on the eucharist")

6. De homicidiis ("on homicides")

7. De consanguinitate ("on consanguinity")

8. De viris et feminis Deo dicatis ("on men and women dedicated to God")

9. De virginibus et viduis non velatis ("on virgins and widows who are not veiled")

10. De incantatoribus et auguribus ("on enchanters and augurs"; see also Canon Episcopi)

11. De excommunicandis ("on those to be excommunicated")

12. De periurio ("on perjury")

13. De ieiunio ("on fasting")

14. De crapula et ebrietate ("on over-eating and inebriety")

15. De laicis ("on laymen")

16. De accusatoribus ("on accusers")

17. De fornicatione ("on fornication")

18. De visitatione infirmorum ("on the visitation of the infirm")

19. De paenitentia ("on penitence" = "Corrector Burchardi")

20. speculationum liber ("book of speculations)

Book 19 is the so-called "Corrector Burchardi", a penitential or confessor's guide, probably a work of the 10th century which is added by Burchard as a sort of appendix to his work. Book 20, entitled speculationum liber, discusses dogmatic questions, especially on eschatology.

As the source of canon law, Burchard's Decretum was supplanted around 1150 by the Decretum Gratiani, a much larger collection that further attempted to reconcile contradictory canon law.

Burchard spent the years 1023 to 1025 promulgating Leges et Statuta familiae S. Petri Wormatiensis, also known as Lex familiae wormatiensis ecclesiae, a collection of religious laws he endorsed as fair and hoped to see adopted with official approval.

References

• H. Hoffmann and R. Pokorny, Das Dekret des Bischofs Burchard von Worms. Textstufen – Frühe Verbreitung – Vorlagen, Munich 1991.

External links

• Biography in the Catholic Encyclopedia
• Translation of The Life of Burchard of Worms
• Opera Omnia by Migne Patrologia Latina with analytical indexes
• Burchard's Lex Familie Wormatiensis
• Dom Hs. 119