Gehugde, as well as the closely related subject matter,
suggest that the two poems were written by the same
individual, the matter of common authorship continues
to be the subject of lively speculation.
At the end of Vo n des Todes gehugde, in the midst
of a description of Paradise, the following verses ap-
pear: “Lord God, bring to that place [i.e. Paradise] for
the glory of your mother and for the sake of all your
saints Heinrich, your humble servant, and the abbot
Erkenfried” (1029–1033). These few lines represent a
biographical hint, and from them a most ingenious bi-
ography has been constructed for Heinrich. He has been
identifi ed as a conversus, a lay brother associated with
a monastery. The monastery in question was assumed
to be the Benedictine monastery of Melk in Austria,
since an abbot Erkenfried governed that monastery
1122–1163. Because of the sharpness of the poet’s at-
tacks and the depth of his acquaintanceship with courtly
life, Heinrich was thought to be a noble who, becoming
progressively repelled by the world and rejected by un-
grateful children, withdrew to a monastery as an older
man. There, he seemed to have immersed himself in
studies and found it as his duty to admonish all classes
of society, particularly disreputable priests, regarding
their duties as Christians.
Unfortunately, this biography is not accurate. Ab-
bot Erkenfried of Melk could scarcely be Heinrich’s
patron since the two poems exhibit verse and rhyme
techniques that refl ect a period later than 1163 (e.g., a
very high percentage of pure rhymes and a minimum
of overlong lines of twelve to fourteen syllables). In
addition, the contents of the poems underscore con-
cerns such as the validity of sacraments administered
by unworthy priests, and display conventions regarding
court customs and the secular love lyric of a time more
accurately located within the last quarter of the twelfth
century. In the fi nal analysis, there is only reasonable
certainty that the author of both works was a layman,
possibly a conversus, who demonstrated in his writings
many manifestations of the popular piety movement of
the twelfth century. These included his diatribes against
dishonorable priests, criticisms of violations of sump-
tuary laws, invectives against the pride of the nobility,
and general hostility toward worldly affairs when they
interfered with performing one’s Christian duty.
The Heinrich of Vo n des todes Gehugde and Vo m
Priesterleben is a layman who speaks about theological
matters on an equal level with members of the clergy.
He not only addresses a noble lay audience in the one
work, he represents the interests of this group to a cleri-
cal audience in the other. His writing affi rms the worth
of the lay nobility and its view of the vital role it plays
within the Christian order, a role that is becoming a
dominant one in relation to the clergy. This confi dence
and positive self-image fi nds its quintessential expres-
sion in the secular tales of the courtly period, in which
society is improved by the actions of members of the
nobility and not by representatives of the institutional-
ized Church. The path to salvation begins to lead not
solely through priests, but, primarily, through the good
works of each individual.Further Reading
Freytag, Wiebke. “Das Priesterleben des sogenannten Heinrich
von Melk. Redeformen, Rezeptionsmo dus und Gattung.”
Deutsche Vierteljahresschrift 52 (1978): 558–580.
Gentry, Francis G. Bibliographie zur frühmittelhochdeutschen
geistlichen Dichtung. Berlin: Schmidt, 1992, pp. 233–239.
——. “Owe armiu phaffheite: Heinrich von Melk’s Views on
Clerical Life.” In Medieval Purity and Piety: Essays on
Medieval Clerical Celibacy and Religious Reform, ed. Mi-
chael Frassetto. New York and London: Garland, 1998, pp.
337–352.
Kienast, Richard. Der sogenannte Heinrich von Melk. Nach R.
Heinzels Ausgabe von 1867. Heidelberg: Winter, 1946.
Maurer, Friedrich, ed. Die religiösen Dichtungen des 11. und- Jahrhunderts. Nach ihren Formen Besprochen, Vol. 3.
Tübingen: Niemeyer, 1970, pp. 258–359.
Neuser, Peter-Erich. “Der sogenannte Heinrich von Melk.” In
Die deutsche Literatur des Mittelalters: Verfasserlexikon,
ed. Kurt Ruh, et al, vol. 3. Berlin and New York: de Gruyter,
1981, cols. 787–797.
——. Zum sogenannten Heinrich von Melk. Überlieferung,
Forschungsgeschichte und Verfasserfrage der Dichtungen
Vo m Priesterleben und Vo n des todes gehugede. Vienna and
Cologne: Böhlau, 1973.
Scholz Williams, Gerhild. “Against Court and School. Heinrich of
Melk and Hlinant of Froidmont as Critics of Twelfth-Century
Society.” Neophilologus 62 (1978): 513–526.
——. The Vision of Death: A Study of the “Memento mori” Ex-
pressions in some Latin, German and French Didactic Texts of
the 11th and 12th Centuries. Göppingen: Kümmerle, 1976.
Vollmann-Profe, Gisela. Geschichte der deutschen Literatur von
den Anfängen bis zum Beginn der Neuzeit, vol. 1, pt. 2: Wie-
derbeginn volkssprachiger Schriftlichkeit im hohen Mittelalter.
2nd ed. Tübingen: Niemeyer, 1994, pp. 93–97; 130–137.
Francis G. Gentry
HEINRICH VON MORUNGEN (D. 1220)
A contemporary of Albrecht von Johansdorf and Hart-
mann von Aue, Heinrich von Morungen represents the
pinnacle of “classical” Minnesang around 1200. He is
considered to be one of the most important lyric poets
writing in German during the courtly period, and per-
haps the most important Minnesänger after Reinmar
and Walther von der Vogelweide.
Traces of dialect in Morungen’s poems show him to
be from central eastern Germany. Morungen’s family
probably came from a manor near Sangershausen in
Thuringia. The poet named as Her Heinrich von Mo-
runge in the famous Heidelberg Minnesang manuscript
is commonly identifi ed with a certain Hendricus/Henri-
cus de Morungen, who is mentioned in two documentsHEINRICH VON MORUNGEN