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Ludolph of Saxony

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Vita Christi Vol. 1, folio
Ludolph of Saxony
Philosophical work
Era Renaissance philosophy
Region Western philosophy
Institutions Carthusians

Ludolph of Saxony (c. 1295 – 1378), also known as Ludolphus de Saxonia and Ludolph the Carthusian, was a German Roman Catholic theologian of the fourteenth century.

His principal work, first printed in the 1470s, was the Vita Christi (Life of Christ).[1] It had significant influence on the development of techniques for Christian meditation by introducing the concept of immersing and projecting oneself into a biblical scene portraying the life of Jesus, which became popular among the Devotio Moderna community and later influenced Ignatius of Loyola.[2][3]

Biography

Little is known about Ludolph of Saxony's life. He may have been born about 1295, but this is uncertain.[4] We have no certain knowledge of his native country; for in spite of his surname, "of Saxony", he may well, as Jacques Échard remarks, have been born either in the Diocese of Cologne or in the Diocese of Mainz, which then belonged to the province of Saxony. He first joined the Dominicans, possibly in about 1310,[5] passed through an excellent course of literary and theological studies, and may have learnt the science of the spiritual life at the school of Johannes Tauler and Henry Suso, his contemporaries and companions in religion.

After about thirty years spent in the active life, he was in 1340 given permission to become a Carthusian, on the grounds that he felt a calling to the stricter life of silence and solitude practiced by that order;[6] in that year he entered the Charterhouse (Carthusian monastery) of Strasburg. Three years later he was called upon to govern the newly founded (1331) Charterhouse of Koblenz; but scruples of conscience led him to resign his office of prior in 1348. Having again become a simple monk, first at Mainz and afterwards at Strasburg, he spent the last thirty years of his life in retreat and prayer, and died on 13 April 1378 an octogenarian, universally esteemed for his sanctity, although he never seems to have been honoured with any public cult.

Works

Ludolph is principally remembered for two works:

  • A Commentary upon the Psalms, concise but excellent for its method, clearness and solidity. He especially developed the spiritual sense, according to the interpretations of Jerome, Augustine of Hippo, Cassiodorus and Peter Lombard. This commentary, which was very popular in Germany in the Middle Ages, has passed through numerous editions, of which the first dates from 1491, and that of Montreuil-sur-Mer is from 1891.
  • The Vita Christi, his principal work, is not a simple biography, but a history, a commentary on the Gospels with large texts borrowed from the Fathers, a series of dogmatic and moral dissertations, of spiritual instructions, meditations and prayers, in relation to the life of Christ, from birth to his Ascension. It has been called a summa evangelica, so popular at that time, in which the author has condensed and resuméd all that over sixty writers had said before him upon spiritual matters.

It is possible that Ludolph also wrote the Speculum Humanae Salvationis.[7] Other treatises and sermons now either lost or very doubtful have also been attributed to him.

Influence

At times, the Imitation of Christ has been attributed to Ludolph of Saxony. The 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia assesses this attribution as mistaken, but agrees that the Imitation draws on Ludolph's thought.[1]

Pope Francis sees Ludolph's work as influencing the development of devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus within monastic settings, in advance of its wider permeation throughout the Catholic church.[8]

Resources

From the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia

Ludolph of Saxony — (Ludolph the Carthusian).

An ecclesiastical writer of the fourteenth century, date of birth unknown; d. 13 April, 1378. His life is as little known as his works are celebrated. We have no certain knowledge of his native country; for in spite of his surname, "of Saxony", he may well, as Echard remarks, have been born either in the Diocese of Cologne or in that of Mainz, which then belonged to the Province of Saxony. He first joined the Dominicans, passed through an excellent course of literary and theological studies, and may have learnt the science of the spiritual life at the school of the celebrated doctors Tauler and Suso, his contemporaries and companions in religion. After about thirty years spent in the active life, he entered the Charterhouse of Strasburg towards the year 1340. Three years later he was called upon to govern the newly founded (1331) Charterhouse of Coblentz; but scruples of conscience led him to resign his office of prior in 1348; and, having again become a simple monk, first at Mainz and afterwards at Strasburg, he spent the last thirty years of his life in retreat and prayer, and died almost an octogenarian, universally esteemed for his sanctity, although he never seems to have been honoured with any public cult.

Ludolph is one of the many writers to whom the authorship of "The Imitation of Christ" has been assigned; and if history protests against this, it must nevertheless acknowledge that the true author of that book has manifestly borrowed from the Carthusian. Other treatises and sermons now either lost or very doubtful have also been attributed to him. Two books, however, commend him to posterity: (1) A "Commentary upon the Psalms", concise but excellent for its method, clearness, and solidity. He especially developed the spiritual sense, according to the interpretations of St. Jerome, St. Augustine, Cassiodorus, and Peter Lombard. This commentary, which was very popular in Germany in the Middle Ages, has passed through numerous editions, of which the first dates from 1491, and the last (Montreuil-sur-Mer) from 1891. (2) The "Vita Christi", his principal work. This is not a simple biography as we understand such to-day, but at once a history, a commentary borrowed from the Fathers, a series of dogmatic and moral dissertations, of spiritual instructions, meditations, and prayers, in relation to the life of Christ, from the eternal birth in the bosom of the Father to His Ascension. It has been called a summa evangelica, so popular at that time, in which the author has condensed and resumed all that over sixty writers had said before him upon spiritual matters. Nothing shows better the great popularity of the "Vita Christi" than the numerous manuscript copies preserved in libraries and the manifold editions of it which have been published, from the first two editions of Strasburg and Cologne, in 1474, to the last editions of Paris (folio, 1865, and 8vo, 1878). It has besides been translated into Catalonian (Valencia, 1495, folio, Gothic), Castilian (Alcala, folio, Gothic), Portuguese (1495, 4 vols., folio), Italian (1570), French, "by Guillaume Lernenand, of the Order of Monseigneur St. François", under the title of the "Great Life of Christ" (Lyons, 1487, folio, many times reprinted), and more recently by D. Marie-Prosper Augustine (Paris, 1864) and by D. Florent Broquin, Carthusian (Paris, 1883). St. Teresa and St. Francis de Sales frequently quote from it, and it has not ceased to afford delight to pious souls, who find in it instruction and edification, food for both mind and heart.

QUETIF AND ECHARD, Scriptores Ordinis Praedicatorum, I, 568; BROQUIN, Introductory Notice to his tr. of the Vita Christi, I (Paris, 1883), i-xxvii; DOREAN, Ephemerides of the Carthusian Order, IV (Montreuil-Sur-Mer, 1900), 384-93.

References

  1. Back to citation occurrence 1.0 Back to citation occurrence 1.1 Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Ludolph of Saxony". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
  2. Back to citation Alister E. McGrath (1999), Christian Spirituality: an Introduction, ISBN 978-0-631-21281-2, pages 84–87
  3. Back to citation Emily A. Ransom, “St. Ignatius in the Affective School of Ludolph of Saxony,” Studies in the Spirituality of Jesuits 53, no. 3 (2021). https://doi.org/10.6017/ssj.v53i3.14705.
  4. Back to citation The older Catholic Encyclopedia says 1300; for the estimate of 1295, see Charles Abbott Conway, The Vita Christi of Ludolph of Saxony and late medieval devotion centred on the incarnation: a descriptive analysis, (Salzburg, 1976), p1
  5. Back to citation This is supposition, based on his estimated date of birth, and how old he is likely to have been on joining the Dominicans.
  6. Back to citation Charles Abbott Conway, The Vita Christi of Ludolph of Saxony and late medieval devotion centred on the incarnation: a descriptive analysis, (Salzburg, 1976), p1
  7. Back to citation Adrian Wilson and Joyce Lancaster Wilson (1984), A Medieval Mirror, Berkeley: University of California Press, CDlib.org p.26-7.
  8. Back to citation Pope Francis, Dilexit nos, paragraphs 111-112, published on 24 October 2024, accessed on 1 February 2025
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