Candidus of Fulda

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For a near-contemporary scholar, see Candidus (Wizo).

Candidus Bruun of Fulda was a Benedictine scholar of the ninth-century Carolingian Renaissance of letters. He received his first instruction from the learned Aegil, Abbot of Fulda, 817-822. Abbot Ratger (802-817) sent the gifted scholar to Einhard at the court of Charlemagne, where he most probably learned the art he employed later in decorating with pictures the apse to which, in 819, the remains of St. Boniface were transferred. When Rabanus Maurus was made abbot (822), Candidus succeeded him possibly as head of the monastic school of Fulda. Some scholars saw Candidus even as a philosopher. But, as Christine Ineichen-Eder has pointed out, the so-called "Dicta de imagine mundi" or "Dei", twelve aphoristic sayings strung together without logical sequence, are the work of Candidus-Wizo, a pupil of Alcuin. The doctrine is taken from the works of St. Augustine, but the frequent use of the syllogism marks the border of the age of Scholasticism. In his last saying Candidus makes somewhat timidly the first attempt in the Middle Ages at a proof of God's existence. This has a striking similarity to the ontological argument of St. Anselm. (Man, by intellect a better and more powerful being that the rest, is not almighty; therefore a superior and almighty being — God — must exist). The third saying, which denies that bodies are true, since truth is a quality of immortal beings only, is based on that excessive realism which led his contemporary, Fredegisus, to invest even nothingness with being. The other sayings deal with God's image in man's soul, the concepts of existence, substance, time, etc. The philosophy of Candidus marks a progress over Alcuin and gives him rank with Fredegisus, from whom he differs by rarely referring to the Bible in philosophical questions, thus keeping apart the domains of theology and philosophy. The only complete edition of the "Dicta Candidi" is in Hauréau. There is a more critical edition of part in Richter. Candidus Wizo, not Brun Candidus of Fulda, is also the autor of an "Exposition Passionis D.N.J. Chr." and of a letter concerning the question, quod Christus dominus noster, in quantum homo fuit, cum hic mortalis inter mortales viveret, Deum videre potuisset. The preserved "Life" of Abbot Aegil of Fulda (d. 822) in prose and verse and the lost "Life" of Abbot Baugolf of Fulda (d. 802) are in fact works of Brun Candidus of Fulda. The "Life" of Abbot Aegil, an opus geminum and the first illustrated biography we know of, written circa 840, is an outstanding specimen of biography from the time of the karolingian renaissance and an important source for the monastic reform of Benedikt of Aniane.

[edit] External Links

  • Opera Omnia by Migne Patrologia Latina with analytical indexes
  • Gereon Becht-Jördens: Vita Aegil abbatis Fuldenis a Candido ad Modestum edita prosa et versibus. Ein Opus geminum des IX. Jahrhunderts. Einleitung und kritische Edition (phil. Diss. Heidelberg), Marburg (Selbstverlag) 1994.
  • Gereon Becht-Jördens: Die Vita Aegil abbatis Fuldensis des Brun Candidus. Ein opus geminum aus dem Zeitalter der anianischen Reform in biblisch figuralem Hintergrundstil, Frankfurt am Main 1992 (ISBN3-7820-0649-6).
  • Gereon Becht-Jördens: Litterae illuminatae. Zur Geschichte eines literarischen Formtyps in Fulda. In: Gangolf Schrimpf (Ed.): Kloster Fulda in der Welt der Karolinger und Ottonen (Fuldaer Studien 7), Frankfurt am Main 1996 (ISBN 3-7820-0707-7), p. 325-364.
  • Gereon Becht-Jördens: Die Vita Aegil des Brun Candidus als Quelle zu Fragen aus der Geschichte Fuldas im Zeitalter der anianischen Reform. In: Hessisches Jahrbuch für Landesgeschichte 42, 1992, p. 19-48.
  • Christine Ineichen-Eder: Künstlerische und literarische Tätigkeit des Candidus-Brun von Fulda. In: Fuldaer Geschichtsblätter 56, 1980, p. 201-217 (without notes but with illustrations of considerable value also in: Winfrid Böhne (Ed.): Hrabanus Maurus und seine Schule. Festschrift der Rabanus-Maurus-Schule 1980, Fulda 1980, p. 182-192).

This article incorporates text from the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia article "Candidus" by John M. Lenhart, a publication now in the public domain. Some corrections and additions are made by Gereon Becht-Jördens.