Narcissus Herz of Berching

NARCISSUS HERZ OF BERCHING. - Theologian, b. at Berching (diocese of Eichstätt), at the end of the 14th century, d. at Vienna on 2 Oct. 1442. He was probably a secular priest, even though in codex 474 of Eichstätt he is designated as belonging to the Benedictine Order. He was one of the most eminent professors of theology at the University of Vienna in the first half of the 15th century. Magister artium (1412-1430), he taught Aristotelian philosophy, natural sciences and chronology; procurator of the Roman nation (1415), he became professor of theology in 1430. He was dean of the liberal arts (1423, 1428, 1430) and rector in 1423 and in 1431.

In 1427 he compiled a report on the doubtful election (1423) of the bishop of Passau. In 1431 he was elected orator of the University of Vienna to the Council of Basel, where he was certainly present in 1435. The Vienna Library preserves a report of his: Consilium pro Concilio Basileensi et papa Felice V. He also wrote a Determinatio ca. materiam unionis principium ad servandam neutralitatem inter Concilium Basileense et papam Eugenium. In 1442 he was sent to the Diet of Pressburg to reject the claims of King Vladislaus of Poland to the throne of Hungary. His Commentary on the third book of the Sentences of P. Lombard, considered one of the best works of late Scholasticism, was widely circulated, and many manuscripts of it exist in European libraries.

Hermine Kühn-Steinhausen