Notker of Liège

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For homonyms, see Notker

Notger von Lüttich or Notker of Liège (940–10 April 1008) was a Benedictine monk, Provost of St. Gall in Switzerland and later was bishop (972-1008) and first prince-bishop (980-1008) of the Bishopric of Liège with a capital Liège/Lüttich, (now in Belgium).

[edit] Biography

Notger was born about 940. He is not mentioned by the otherwise prolix historians of St. Gall. He probably belonged to a noble Swabian family. In 969 he was appointed imperial chaplain in Italy. In 972 he was nominated by Otto II, Holy Roman Emperor bishop of Liège, a suffragan of the Archbishop of Cologne.

When he received in 980 the countship of Huy, he obtained simultaneously secular power for the see and thus became the first prince-bishop of Liège. After receiving secular power from Otto II, Notger transform the episcopal city into the capital of an ecclesiastical principalty in the Holy Roman Empire. He built a new cathedral, the Saint Lambert Cathedral, seven collegiate churches, including St. John's in Liège, after the model of the Aachen cathedral, two abbeys and a city wall.

Through him the influence of St. Gall abbey was extended to wider circles. He laid the foundation of the fame of the Liège Schools, to which studious youths soon flocked from all Christendom. By procuring the services of Leo the Calabrian and thus making possible the study of Greek, Notker gave notable extension to the Liège curriculum. Among Notker's pupils, who extended the influence of the Liège schools to ever wider circles, may be mentioned Hubald, Gunther of Salzburg, Ruthard and Erlwin of Cambrai, Heimo of Verdun, Hesselo of Toul, and Adalbald of Utrecht. A noteworthy architectural activity also manifested itself under Notker.

In Folcwin's opinion Notker's achievements surpass those of any of his predecessors. He developed the urban structure of the city, its fortifications, commerce and education. Under his rule, the city of Liège was sometimes called the Northern Athens.

Praiseworthy also were his services as a politician under Otto III and Henry II. He adhered faithfully to the cause of the emperor Otto, whom he accompanied to Rome. It was also he who brought back the corpse of the young emperor to Germany.

The Gesta episcoporum Leodiensium have been frequently wrongly attributed to him, although he merely suggested its composition, and lent the work his name to secure it greater authority.

Johannes Fried considers Notger von Lüttich, not Johannes Canaparius, as the author of Vita sancti Adalberti episcopi Pragensis on Adalbert von Prag (* 956 - † 997), writen around 1000, which for the first time mentions Danzig/Gdansk as „urbs Gyddanyzc“.

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