HERMANN of LEHNIN. – A monk of the now-vanished Cistercian abbey of Lehnin near Berlin, who lived and composed in Latin his Vaticinium in the 13th century. Various abbots, but no monk of that name, were identified.
The text of the Vaticinium Lehninense consists of 100 leonine hexameters, which foretell the ruin of Protestantism and of the House of Hohenzollern. Vv. 94 sq. read: «Israël infandum scelus audet morte piandum. Et pastor gregem recipit Germania regem». In its present form (preserved in about 30 manuscripts) it is a forgery, a “vaticinium ex eventu”; the verses contain allusions to the end of the 17th century. Some thoughts, common heritage of this literary genre, may go back to an older text. The verses were used as a weapon of battle against the dynasty of the Hohenzollerns, without the question of authenticity having been first clarified. On the other hand, the controversy over authenticity reveals prejudices and ignorance in the face of Catholicism and prophetic charisma.