HEROLT, JOHANN. - Dominican preacher, born c. 1380, probably in Nuremberg, died during a journey in the Convent of Regensburg in August 1468.
H. was a zealous follower of regular observance and a most active preacher. Lecturer and prior (1438) in the Convent of Nuremberg, he was also confessor at the celebrated Dominican convent of St Catherine in the same city. He gathered homiletic and catechetical materials and composed refined cycles of sermons under the humble title Discipulus. H. is neither speculative nor mystical, but clear, simple, popular, and accessible to all classes, and he illustrates everything with examples.
His works enjoyed extraordinary circulation in manuscripts and incunabula. A complete edition appeared in 3 vols. at Mainz in 1612. Besides a volume of German sermons collected under the title Rosengart, the following works in Latin are known by him: Liber de eruditiones Christifidelium (1416), on the 10 commandments, the 7 capital sins, the Pater, Ave, Credo, 7 Sacraments, 7 gifts, and other subjects suitable for preaching; Sermones de tempore (1418); Promptuarium exemplorum; Promptuarium de miraculis b.M.V.; Promptuarium de festii sanctorum; Quadragenimale (1435); Postilla super evangelia dominicalia et de sanctis (1437); Sermones super epistolas dominicales (1444); Applicationes ad sermones secundum proprietates rerum naturalium (1463).