Rescriptum contra Lanfrannum

When Berengar of Tours died, on January 6, 1088, he left a long refutation of his arch-enemy Lanfranc's work on the Eucharist, which in its turn was directed against Berengar himself. After several condemnations, Berengar must have thought it wiser to keep his manuscript to himself, and so he did for about twenty years. The original author's copy must have disappeared, probably destroyed soon after his death, but another copy had been made from it beforehand, and this one survived miraculously though not without loss of about one-fifth of the text, to be discovered only in 1770 by the poet and librarian Lessing. To mark the 9th centennial of Berengar's death, a new edition (CCCM 84) was published, together with a facsimile of the MS (84A). For the first time, this edition distinguishes typographically between various sorts of additions and deletions, in order to enable historians of religious thought to (try to) follow the different stages of Berengar's work on the text, the summa of his doctrine. Also, the fancy title De sacra coena has been dropped altogether for what the editor, in agreement with Jean de Montclos (1971), thinks may well have been the real intended title. Extensive cross-references between passages and seven detailed indices aim at assisting readers of this most important but difficult treatise.

Berengarius (Beringerius) Turonensis — Rescriptum contra Lanfrannum (facsimile cod. Guelf. 101 Weissenburg) — ed. W. Milde