Arnoldi, Heinrich

ARNOLDI, HEINRICH. - Carthusian ascetical writer. Born in 1407 at Alfeld (whence the appellation de Allevaldia) in Saxony, he pursued brilliant studies in Rome and entered the papal court as "corsitanus urbis Romae." He took part, in the capacity of notary, in the Council of Basel. Having entered around 1437 the charterhouse of Valle S. Margherita at Basel, he was prior there from 1450 to 1480; he died there on 5 June 1487.

He was most devoted to the Madonna (many of his writings refer to the sorrows of Mary) and to St. Joseph. He introduced into his charterhouse the Marian feasts of the Presentation (1470), of the Immaculate Conception (1471) and of the Compassion (1477), and composed the offices for them. He wrote no fewer than 25 works, remarkable for doctrine and for piety. Among his printed writings we recall: Tractatus de modo perveniendi ad veram et perfectam Dei et proximi dilectionem (1472), in which he follows the school of the Victorines (the pamphlet is often, erroneously, attributed to Denis the Carthusian); Contra Turcos specialis litania (Basel 1476); De conceptione immaculata virginis Mariae (Antwerp 1527). He also wrote a chronicle of his convent, which was continued and completed by M. Stroulin and G. Zimmermann, religious of the same monastery, and printed, in Chronique de la chartreuse de Bâle, in the collection Basler Chroniken (I, Leipzig 1872, pp. 248-305). Various other works remained in manuscript (complete list in Nicklès, pp. 144-147, 152).

Anselmo Musters