, or Berenger, the celebrated archdeacon of Angers, was born at Tours in the beginning
, or Berenger, the celebrated archdeacon of Angers, was born at Tours in the beginning of
the eleventh century, of an opulent family, and became
the disciple of the famous Fulbert of Chartres, under whom
he made rapid progress in grammar, rhetoric, dialectic, and
what were then called the liberal arts. On his return to his
country in 1030, he was appointed scholastic, or master
of the school of St. Martin. His reputation soon reaching
foreign parts, the number of his scholars greatly increased,
and many of them were afterwards advanced to high rank
in the church; nor did he quit his school when made archdeacon of Angers in 1039. The opinions, which have
given him a name in ecclesiastical history, were said to
have been first occasioned by a pique. In a dispute with
Lanfranc, archbishop of Canterbury, on a very trivial question, he happened to be defeated, and what was worse,
his scholars began to go over to that rival. Berengarius,
on this, took Erigena for his model, and attacked the mystery of the eucharist, as the popish writers term it, but in
plain language, the doctrine of transubstantiation. Bruno,
bishop of Angers, Hugh, of Langres, and Adelman, of
Brescia, in vain endeavoured to cure him of his heresy,
and his writings, which were taken to Rome, were condemned in two councils held by pope Leo IX. in 1050, and
himself excommunicated. He then went to the abbey of
Preaux in Normandy, hoping to be protected by duke
William, surnamed the Bastard, but that young prince
summonsed a meeting of the ablest bishops and divines,
who again condemned Berengarius, and the council of
Paris, in Oct. 1050, deprived him of all his benefices.
This loss he is said to have felt more severely than their
spiritual inflictions, and it disposed him to retract his sentiments in the council of Tours, in 1055, in consequence
of which he was received into church-communion. In 1059
he was cited to the council at Rome, by pope Nicholas II.
and having been confuted by Abbo and Laniranc, he
abjured his errors, burnt his books, yet had no sooner
reached France, than he protested against his recantation,
as extorted by fear, and returned to his studies with the
same spirit of inquiry. At length, however, Gregory VII
having called a new council at Rome in 1078, Berengei
more seriously abjured his opinions, returned to France,
and passed the remaining years of his life in privacy and
penance. He died Jan. 6, 1088, aged ninety. There
have been many disputes betwixt protestant and popish
authors, as to the reality or sincerity of his final recantation. His sentiments, however, did not perish on his recantation, or his death, and he may be considered as having contributed to that great reformation in the church
which afterwards was carried into lasting effect by his successors. The greater part of his works are lost, but some
are preserved among the works of Lanfranc, in the collections of d'Acheri and Martenne; and, in 1770, Lessing discovered and published his answer to Lanfranc, “De corpore et sanguine Jesu Christi.
”