Burchard of Worms  

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"Burchard tells us how, for the amusement of Cesare, of the Pope, and of Lucrezia, these fifty courtesans were set to dance after supper with the servants and some others who were present, dressed at first and afterwards not so. He draws for us a picture of those fifty women on all fours, in all their plastic nudity, striving for the chestnuts flung to them in that chamber of the Apostolic Palace by Christ’s Vicar--an old man of seventy--by his son and his daughter." --The Life of Cesare Borgia (1912) by Rafael Sabatini, on the Banquet of Chestnuts


"The "Decretum" of Burchard, Bishop of Worms (about 1020), and especially its 19th book, often known separately as the "Corrector", is another work of great importance. Burchard, or the teachers from whom he has compiled his treatise, still believes in some forms of witchcraft - in magical potions, for instance, which may produce impotence or abortion. But he altogether rejects the possibility of many of the marvellous powers with which witches were popularly credited. Such, for example, were the nocturnal riding through the air, the changing of a person's disposition from love to hate, the control of thunder, rain, and sunshine, the transformation of a man into an animal, the intercourse of incubi and succubi with human beings. Not only the attempt to practise such things but the very belief in their possibility is treated by him as a sin for which the confessor must require his penitent to do a serious assigned penance."--Sholem Stein

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Burchard of Worms (c.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, the "Collectarium canonum" or "Decretum".

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 robbersTemplate:Ref.

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"Template:Ref label 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.

Authorship

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 included the Canon Episcopi in this collection, under the belief that it dated from a bishop's "Council of Anquira" in 314, but no other evidence of this council existsTemplate:Ref. Because of this inclusion, Burchard has been described as something of a rationalistTemplate:Ref. 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, a collection of religious laws he endorsed as fair and hoped to see adopted with official approval.



Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Burchard of Worms" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.

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