Meinwerk, Bishop of Paderborn
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Blessed Meinwerk (c. 975 – 5 June 1036) was the Bishop of Paderborn from 1009 until his death. He was granted his see on the understanding that his property would pass to the diocese on his death. He is known as "the Second Founder of Paderborn."
In 1014 and 1015, Meinwerk had two meetings with the Emperor Henry II to urge the continued reform of the Abbey of Corvey.
In 1017, he successfully won a dispute with the Ekkehardinger over the rights to the abbey of Helmarshausen. A gathering of nobles under the king declared in his favour, though the sources give differing reasons for this. It is probable that as Helmarshausen was too poor to provide the proper servitium regis to the king and whereas it lay within the diocese of Paderborn and therefore the bishop had episcopal responsibilities to it, it made sense to formally grant it over to the diocese. It was thus granted away because it lacked any value to the monarch on account of its poverty, the bishop of Paderborn was competent to protect it from the nobiliy, and because he was a member of the royal chapel, the monastery retained its historic link to the monarchy.
He was highly suspicious of the wandering hermit of unfree origins, Haimerad, whom he had arrested and beaten and his prayer-book burnt.
His competence in Latin is questionable. He was the butt of a practical joke of the Henry II's design. The emperor having altered the words famulis et famulabis, meaning "male and female servants," to mulis et mulabis, "male and female mules," in a liturgical manuscript, it was nevertheless read unhesitatingly by the bishop.
The Vita Meinwerci is a biography of him and his times.
[edit] Sources
- Reuter, Timothy. Germany in the Early Middle Ages 800–1056. New York: Longman, 1991.
- Bernhardt, John W. Itinerant Kingship and Royal Monasteries in Early Medieval Germany, c. 936–1075. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993.
