Hendrik Herp

Hendrik Herp ( * ca 1400/1410, † February 22, 1477 or 1478 in Mechelen) was a Flemish Franciscan ( Observant ) and author of mystical meditation literature of the Modern Devotion. His most famous work, which was translated into several languages ​​, was the Spigelian the volcomenheit ( Mirror of Perfection). His writings and collected sermons were widely translated, printed and distributed after his death and were in the 16th and 17th centuries, especially in the Netherlands, France, Italy and Spain of great influence.

Life

Herp was probably (now part of the municipality of Veghel ) born in North Brabant Erp in 1410, but it may also have been Erp in Düren. About his early years almost nothing is known. In 1429 he is said to have enrolled at the University of Leuven. In 1445 his name was mentioned for the first time in a document when he of the Common Life ( " Frater Men " ) was rector of the brethren in their house " Jerome Thal " in Delft. He was a famous preacher, and the Brothers of the Holy Spirit in Gouda asked him to keep them Collationen. Since he as rector of Delft could not do this himself, he sent another preacher there, and proclaimed this as rector of a new Frater men's office in Gouda. This was done without the consent of his superiors and his confreres in Delft, and so it came to disputes. They finally suggested him to resign the rectorship in Delft. He did so and was from 1446 to 1450 Rector of the Convention in St. Paul Gouda. Nevertheless, it seems to have its foundation in Gouda still denied full recognition and to have met him with suspicion.

In 1450 he went on pilgrimage to Rome, probably to perform a long been cherished plan: he was in the Franciscan convent of Santa Maria in Aracoeli. No doubt he had met in Gouda Franciscan Observant, because almost the same time, when he went to Gouda, the Observant there founded a branch, and the watchers were consistent with Frater Men in lively relationship. Three or four years later he became Guardian of the Franciscan convent in Mechelen, a post which he subsequently more times ( 1467, 1473-77 ) held. Also in Antwerp, he was temporarily (1460-1462) Guardian of the Convention. From 1470 to 1473 he was Vicar Provincial of the Province of Cologne. During this time he established Franciscan houses in Boetendaal in Brussels ( 1467/71 ), Amersfoort ( 1471 ), Herentals ( 1471/74 ) and Haarlem ( 1471 ). He then returned again as a Guardian to Mechelen, where he died in 1478.

The Franciscan Arthur you Monstier called Hendrik Herp in his martyrology Franciscanum (2nd edition, Paris, 1653) a blessed ( " Beatus "); However, he thought well pretty much all in his collection with the name " Beatus " or " Sanctus ".

Works

Herp wrote both oratorical and ascetic- mystical works. Only one of his works was printed during his lifetime, the Speculum aureum decem praeceptorum Dei (Mainz, 1474 ), a collection of 213 of his sermons on the Ten Commandments. Ten years later, a second collection of 222 sermons published under the title Sermones de tempore, de Sanctis, de tribus partibus poenitentiae, de Adventu ( Speyer, 1484 ). Both works cite very often from the works of Thomas Aquinas, Alexander of Hales and Bernard of Clairvaux and were repeatedly reprinted.

His main work was the Spigelian the volcomenheit, which was addressed to his daughter, a pious widow, and was built during 1455-1460. The work was first printed in 1501, 1513 translated into Latin and printed along with several shorter essays on related topics under the title Directorium Aureum contemplativorum in Cologne, and then translated into Italian, Spanish and German. In this paper bundles Herp thoughts and teachings of Bonaventure, Thomas Aquinas, Hugo de Balma, Rudolf von Biberach, Jan van Ruysbroek, Rulman Merswin, Johannes Tauler, and others.

Appeared in 1538 in Cologne, published by the Carthusian Dietrich Loher, the Theologica Mystica, a Latin translation of the collection of his most important mystical works. The issue consisted of three main parts: Soliloquium divini Amoris, Directorium Aureum contemplativorum, and Paradisus contemplativorum, the second part was a remake of the pressure of 1513. Loher's edition of 1556, which was dedicated to Ignatius of Loyola, landed in 1559 on the index. The following issues were therefore edited, but also in 1580 and 1583, the work was still indexed. In the edition of 1586 then the Spigelian the volcomenheit by Pieter Blommeveen was translated into Latin. Until 1611 Theologica Mystica at least five times was reprinted and also translated into German and French.

Herps significance lay not in the originality of his teaching, but in the far-reaching influence of his main work, the mirror of perfection. His mystical theology handle different streams of spirituality, the Franciscan, Cistercian, Carthusian monk Dionysius of the van Rijkel that the Dominican John Tauler, but especially that of the Augustinian Regularkanonikers Jan van Ruysbroek. Herp preached the " unione mystica ", the union of the soul with God, and described with great accuracy the different internal states of the soul in its quest for the mystical union with God. His works were still in 1633 declared at the General Chapter of the Franciscans in Toledo as the official textbook of mysticism for the whole Franciscan Order.

Name

Hendrik Herp first name also appears in the form Henricus, Hendricus, Henry, Enrique, Henri, Henry and Hendrick. There is a lot more to his surname variants: Herp, Herp de, of Herp, Herp from Van Herp, Erp, de Erp, van Erp, Herpf, de Herpf, de Herph, Herpius, Herphius, Hervius, Harp, Harpf, Harff, Harph, de Harph, de la Harpe, Harpius, Harphius and hellenized: Citharoedus, Citharaedus.