HELWICUS, TEUTONICUS

HELWICUS, TEUTONICUS. - Dominican ascetical writer, who lived around 1300.

From the catalogue of Stams (Mon. O. P. hist., XVIII [Roma 1936], p. 65, cf. 124), H. is known as the author of the treatise De mandato maximo ossia De dilectione Dei et proximi, the manuscripts of which are listed by Grabmann (v. BIBLICA., pp. 577-80), and which, from 1480 until our century, was included among the spurious works in the editions of s. Tommaso. The treatise substantially follows Thomistic doctrine; its author is a profound preacher of Eckhartian tendencies. Egenter expounds it in his studies on friendship with God. Grabmann inclines to identify Helwicus Teutonicus with Helwicus “junior” of the nobles of Germar near Mühlhausen in Thuringia.

The catalogue of Stams also attributes to Helwicus Teutonicus a Liber exemplarum, which was often confused with the Liber de exemplis Giovanni (v.) da S. Gimignano (v. Archiv. Pratum Praedicatorum, 9 [1939], pp. 157-61).

BIBL.: Quettl-Echard, I, p. 528; R. Egenter, Die Lehre von der Gottesfreundschaft in der Scholastik u. Mystik des 12. u. 13. Jahrhunderts, Augusta 1928, pp. 176-200; M. Grabmann, Mittelalterliches Geistesleben, II, Monaco 1936, pp. 576-85; E. Hübner, s. V. in Verfasserlexikon, II, cols. 394-95. Angelo Walz
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“HELWICUS, TEUTONICUS.” Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. VI (1951), p. 825. Azione Romana digital edition, https://azioneromana.com/article/helwicus-teutonicus.