Berthold of Regensburg

c.1210-1272. Franciscan preacher. Educated probably at Magdeburg Studienanstalt, he became lector then preacher (1240) in the Franciscan monastery in Regensburg. Thereafter he preached throughout Bavaria, the rest of Germany, Switzerland, Czechoslovakia, and in Hungary (1262-63) where he was later, according to legend, reckoned a saint. In 1263 Urban IV ordered him to preach against heresy. He went through Germany and Switzerland, reaching Paris and meeting Louis IX. Knowing the writings of Augustine, Gregory the Great, and Bernard of Clairvaux, as well as having an interest in natural science, he preached didactic, moral sermons to huge crowds, mostly outdoors. He sought repentance and moral betterment by emphasizing the negative: seven capital sins, violations of the Commandments. Some of his sermons were taken down in Latin by clerics and religious present, and later edited by himself as Sermones de Dominicis, de Sanctis, de Communi, ad Religiosos et quosdam alios, speciales et extravagantes, though not all of these are his.