WALTER von Speyer (GUALTIERO di SPIRA). — German poet and cleric, born c. 965, disciple of Bishop Walderich at the monastery of St. Gall.
Having been educated in the seven liberal arts and ordained as a subdeacon, in 983 he wrote a Life of St. Christopher in five books (1,272 verses) and 29 chapters, preceded by 271 hexameters narrating his course of studies in the cloister. In 1014 he accompanied Emperor Henry II of Saxony to Rome for his coronation; around that time he became bishop of Speyer. It was once thought that he was the bishop who attended the ceremony in 1030 when Conrad II the Salian laid the first stone of Speyer Cathedral; recent studies, however, indicate that he died in 1027. His style, laden with learning and rhetorical ornamentation, is typical of the medieval cloister culture, revealing familiarity with Latin classics including Virgil, who was the object of mystical veneration. This enthusiasm for antiquity, which was opposed by the more zealous clergy as the work of the devil, continued to flourish at Speyer under Emperor Conrad II the Salian.