GERHOH OF REICHERSBERG. - German theologian, b. at Polling (Bavaria) in 1093, d. at Reichersberg on 27 June 1169. He studied at Freising, Moosburg and Hildesheim. In 1119 he was at Augsburg as master of the cathedral school. In 1121, having abandoned the simoniacal bishop, he became a regular canon at Rottenbuch (diocese of Regensburg). Once the bishop of Augsburg had been reconciled with Pope Callixtus II, G. returned to Augsburg in 1123 and in the same year accompanied the bishop to the Lateran Council. A priest in 1126, he was for some time parish priest at Cham (Bavaria).
In 1132 he was made provost of the regular collegiate church of Reichersberg by Bishop Conrad I of Salzburg. In 1143, together with Arnold of Brescia, he accompanied the papal legate to Bohemia and Moravia; the following year he disputed in Rome over the Donatio Constantini. A supporter of Pope Alexander III, he was outlawed by Barbarossa. Noteworthy above all is his politico-religious activity in defense of the rights of the Holy See against emperors and antipopes. He labored indefatigably alongside St. Bernard for the reform of the simoniacal and Nicolaitan clergy. It is to this that his numerous works are for the most part directed. In his moral works he tends to bring the spirit of the Gospel back into public and private life, appealing to tradition, which he knows profoundly, with a strong conservative concern. Also noteworthy is his tendency to allegorize, for moral purposes, the historical part of the Bible. In his dogmatic works, adhering to the most genuine orthodoxy, he condemns the bold speculations of Abelard, of Gilbert de la Porrée and of Eberhard of Bamberg; indeed, even Peter Lombard does not seem to him orthodox, whom he regards as the heir of Abelard's Christological nihilism, and he holds to the theory of the assumptus homo.
(phot. Alinari)
Works: Liber de aedificio Dei (PL 194, 1187-1336); Adversus duas haerees (ibid. 1164-84); Liber de simoniae (ibid. 1335-72); Liber epistolaris ad Innocentium II Pont. Max. (ibid. 1375-1420); De novitatibus huius saeculi ad Hadrianum IV Papam (MGH, Lib. De Lite, III, pp. 288-304); De investigatione Antichristi II. 3 (partly in PL 194, 1443-80; MGH, Lib. De Lite, III, pp. 309-95); De quarta vigilia noctis (ibid., pp. 503-25); Commentarius in Psalmos (PL 193, 619-1814, 194; 9-1066; his masterpiece, valuable for knowledge of the period). The separate commentary on Ps. 64 formed the Liber de corrupto Ecclesiae statu, dedicated to Eugene III (PL 194, 9-120); Epistola ad Eberhardum episc. Bambergensem, de aequalitate Patris et Filii (ibid. 1065-72); Opusculum de gloria et honore Filii Hominis (ibid. 1073-1160); Opusculum contra discipulos Petri Abaelardi ad Episc. Frisingensem Othonem (cf. C. Ottaviano, Novità abelardiana, in Sophia, 1 [1933], pp. 99-101). Opera Omnia: PL 193, 194; MGH, Lib. De Lite, III, pp. 131-525; F. Scheibelberger, G. Opera adhuc inedita, Linz 1875.