in Halle, has come down to us preceded by a lengthy
prologue justifying the book and its author.
Das fl ießende Licht can be described as confessional,
visionary-revelatory, mystical, poetic, and devotional.
It was written, we are told, by divine command to bear
witness to the unusual divine favors bestowed on its
author. Mechthild describes her visions, some global
and some personal in scope, as well as her ecstatic
mystical experiences of union. She prophesies, exhorts,
criticizes, and teaches, using a rich variety of literary
and nonliterary forms of expression, from highly lyrical
courtly modes with their concomitant conventions to
didactic expositions of moral and ascetical truths. She
avails herself of prose, verse, and, most distinctively,
colon rhyme—a short, verselike unit ending in rhyme or,
more frequently, assonance. Much of this colon rhyme
has been lost in the Middle High German version.
Because she knew little or no Latin, Mechthild
acquired her knowledge of theology and spiritual tra-
ditions secondhand through instruction and the liturgy.
The theological content of her book gives striking
evidence of the care given religious education by her
spiritual teachers and advisers, but more especially to
Mechthild’s own intellectual gifts and intuitive spiritual
receptivity. Among the infl uences perceptible in her
book are the Song of Songs, Augustine, Bernard of
Clairvaux, Hugh and Richard of St. Victor, and Joachim
of Fiore. More important, however, Mechthild’s book
must be seen as unique in its conception, without dis-
cernible predecessors or successors.
See also Bernard of Clairvaux; Gertrud von Helfta
Further Reading
Bynum, Caroline Walker. “Women Mystics in the Thirteenth
Century: The Case of the Nuns of Helfta.” In Bynum. Jesus
as Mother—Studies in the Spirituality of the High Middle
Ages. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1982, pp.
170–262.
Franklin, James C. Mystical Transformations: The Imagery of
Liquids in the Work of Mechthild von Magdeburg. Rutherford,
N.J.: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1978.
Galvani, Christiana Mesch, trans. Flowing Light of the Divinity.
New York: Garland, 1991.
Haug, Walter. “Das Gespräch mit dem unvergleichlichen Part-
ner: Der mystische Dialog bei Mechthild von Magdeburg als
Paradigma für eine personale Gesprächsstrutkur.” Poetik und
Hermeneutik 11 (1984): 251–279.
Lewis, Gertrud Jaron. Bibliographie zur deutschen Frauenmystik
des Mittelalters. Berlin: Schmidt, 1989, pp. 164–183 [bibli-
ography].
Neumann, Hans. “Mechthild von Magdeburg.” In Die deutsche
Literatur des Mittelalters: Verfasserlexikon. 2d ed, vol. 6.
Berlin: de Gruyter, 1987, cols. 260–270.
Neumann, Hans, ed. Mechthild von Magdeburg. Das fl ießende
Licht der Gottheit. 2 vols. Munich: Artemis, 1990.
Schmidt, Margot. “Minne du gewaltige Kellerin: On the Nature
of minne in Mechthild of Magdeburg’s fl iessendes licht der
gottheit.” Vox Benedictina 4 (1987): 100–125.
Scholl, Edith. “To Be a Full Grown Bride: Mechthild of Magde-
burg.” In Medieval Religious Women. vol. 2.: Peace Weavers,
ed. John A. Nichols and Lillian Thomas Shank. Kalamazoo,
Mich.: Cistercian, 1987, pp. 223–238.
Tax, Petrus. “Die große Himmelsschau Mechthilds von Magde-
burg und ihre Höllenvision.” Zeitschrift für deutsches Altertum
108 (1979): 112–137.
Tobin, Frank. Mechthild von Magdeburg—A Medieval Mystic in
Modern Eyes. Columbia, S.C.: Camden House, 1995.
von Balthasar, Hans Urs. “Mechthilds kirchlicher Auftrag.” In
Das fl ießende Licht der Gottheit, trans. Margot Schmidt.- 2d ed. Stuttgart-Bad Canstatt: F. Frommann, 1995,
pp. 19–45.
Frank Tobin
MEIR B. BARUKH OF ROTHENBURG
(ca. 1220 – 1293)
Meir b. Barukh, known as “MaHRaM’ (moreinu ha-rav
Meir, “our teacher Rabbi Meir”), was born in Worms
ca. 1220 (not 1215; see Urbach, pp. 407–8). His father
was a rabbi in Worms and an important scholar, as
were many other members of his family. Meir’s teach-
ers included his father, and in Würzburg the renowned
Isaac b. Moses of Vienna, author of the halakhic work
Or zarua‘, and others. He also learned in yeshivot in
France, where he copied responsa and talmudic com-
mentaries that he later used in his own work. If the
lamentation Meir wrote about the burning of books
refers to the burning of the Talmud in Paris in 1242,
then he may have been an eyewitness to that event and
returned to Germany shortly thereafter. It is uncertain
when he went to Rothenburg, the city most connected
with his name, but probably soon after his return from
France. He served also as rabbi in several other com-
munities. After the death of his father (1276 or 1281),
Meir went to Worms to replace him there. He had a beit
midrash, or yeshivah, attached to his house there, with a
“winter house” (i.e., heated, apparently) and rooms for
the students to sleep. According to the information he
himself wrote about this, the number of students was
not large, even though his yeshivah was certainly the
most famous one in Germany. His main students were
Asher b. Yeh.iel, Mordecai b. Hillel, Samson b. S. addoq,
H.ayyim b. Eli‘ezer (grandson of Isaac, author of Or
zarua‘), and others, all outstanding scholars in their
own right.
Meir was not, as Graetz had assumed, appointed
“chief rabbi” of Germany (indeed, no such position
existed); however, he was widely regarded as the fore-
most talmudic and legal authority, to whom rabbis not
only from Germany but also France and other lands
turned for decisions. Because of the large number of
requests received, he even had to write his answers
on the eve of holidays and the eve of Yom Kippur (see
Urbach, p. 421). He was independent in his views and
did not refrain from strongly disagreeing with thoseMECHTHILD VON MAGDEBURG