OTLONE (OTLOH) of SANT'EMMERANO. - Monk and scholastic of the monastery of S. Emmerano in Ratisbona, who lived between 1010 and 1070.
Among his writings, mention should be made of the Dialogus de tribus quaestionibus and the autobiographical Liber de tentationibus suis, varia fortuna et scriptis, in which he recounts how, while occupied with secular learning, he was assailed by doubt concerning what he read in the sacred books, the nature of God, and His omnipotence and providence; and how he saved himself by keeping away from the tumult of dialectical disputes (which had invaded cathedral and monastic schools) and devoting himself to meditation on Holy Scripture and to the practice of religious life. Like s. Pier Damiani, he too condemns dialectic and secular learning only insofar as he discerns in them a weakening of faith.
Editions: PL 146, 27-434; Sermo de eo quod legitur in psalmis, under the name of Beda, ibid. 93, 1103-28; G. M. Dreves, Anal. hymn., 50 (1907), pp. 320-28.
BBL.: J. A. Endres, O.s von St. Emm. Verhältnis zu den freien Künsten, insbes. zur Dialektik, in Philos. Jahrbuch, 17 (1904), pp. 44-52, 173-84; 19 (1906), p. 29 sgg.; Maninius, II, pp. 83-103. Further references in Überweg, II, p. 697.