110 biblical commentaries
the 14th and 15th centuries, an era of rationalism,
humanism, and textual techniques associated with
Renaissance learning. At the same time, there was the
mysticism and scriptural sensitivity of Meister ECKHART,
and the asceticism and popularization of the FRANCIS-
CANS, who produced a Bible of the Poor. Scholastic
tendencies originated in the universities and schools of
theology, where the Bible was often interpreted in senses
other than the mystical. Greek teachers in ITA LY called
the Septuagint and the usefulness of studying the Bible
in Greek to the attention of Western scholars in the later
Middle Ages.
THE ART OF BIBLE ILLUSTRATIONBibles were regularly copied in monastic scriptoria,as
part of the reading dictated by the Rule. These artists paid
special attention to decorative script and elaborate initial
letters. Biblical illustration from the ninth century was
the most common source of miniature painting on parch-
ment. This phenomenon paralleled the Jewish and Mus-
lim practice of illuminating the Torah and the Quran with
abstract illuminations. By the end of the 13th and during
the 14th and 15th centuries, deluxe copies of Bibles
formed the core of the prestigious libraries of royal courts
and great princes. Skilled artists used motifs from secular
life and were employed to glorify their patrons.
See alsoBOOKS OFHOURS;GLOSSAORDINARIA;ILLU-
MINATION.
Further reading:J. W. H. Lampe, ed., The Cambridge
History of the Bible,Vol. 2 (Cambridge: Cambridge Uni-
versity Press, 1969); John Lowden, The Making of the
Bibles Moralisées,2 vols. (University Park: Pennsylvania
State University Press, 2000); Beryl Smalley, The Study of
the Bible in the Middle Ages(1952; reprint, Notre Dame:
University of Notre Dame Press, 1964); Beryl Smalley,
The Gospels in the Schools, c. 1100–c. 1280 (London:
Hambledon Press, 1985); John Williams, ed., Imaging the
Early Medieval Bible(University Park: Pennsylvania State
University Press, 1999).
biblical commentaries SeeBIBLE.
biblical exegesis SeeBIBLE.
Biel, Gabriel (ca. 1415–1495)theologian
Gabriel was born about 1415 in Speyer, GERMANY, as an
adult he joined the liberal arts faculty at the universities of
Heidelberg and Erfurt. He preached at Mainz Cathedral
between 1457 and 1465 and joined the BRETHREN OF THE
COMMONLIFEsometime before 1468. At Mainz and in the
dying days of CONCILIARISM, he supported the PAPACY, in a
stand that forced him to leave that city. He was later the
rector of the University of Tübingen (1485–89) and occu-
pied the chair of theology there between 1484 and 1492.
He tried to balance his approach to the authority
of the papacy over the church. Papal hegemony was
essential for the edification of the faithful and mainte-
nance of church unity; however, papal power was not
absolute. His sermons and his theological work,
reflected influences from several sources, including
DUNSSCOTUS,WILLIAM OFOCKHAM(in particular), John
GERSON, and Thomas AQUINAS. He was particularly con-
cerned with pastoral care. He also wrote an important
political-economy work on money. After retiring to
Einsiedeln, he died on December 7, 1495, in Tübingen.
Further reading:John L. Farthing, Thomas Aquinas
and Gabriel Biel: Interpretations of St. Thomas in German
Nominalism on the Eve of the Reformation(Durham, N.C.:
Duke University Press, 1988); Heiko Oberman, The Har-
vest of Medieval Theology: Gabriel Biel and Late Medieval
Nominalism(Grand Rapids, Mich.: William B. Eerdmans,
1967).Birgitta of Sweden, Saint(Bridget, Birgid) (ca.
1302–1373)visionary prophetess, founder of a religious
order, ardent proponent of the papacy’s return to Rome
Saint Bridget, or in Swedish, Birgitta or Birgers dotter, was
born to an aristocratic family around 1302. She had eight
children from her marriage at 14 in 1316 to Ulf Gud-
marsson (d. 1344). She was a lady-in-waiting at the royal
court from 1335. There she started having visions and
tried to reform court life. After pilgrimages to Santiago de
Compostela and elsewhere in 1341–42, the couple retired
to the monastery of Alvastra, where Ulf died in 1344. In
1346 she founded a monastery for 60 nuns and 25 monks
with a rule promoting study and reading within a simple
community that gave its wealth to the poor.MOVE TO ROME
From 1350 onward Birgitta lived at Rome with her
daughter and two spiritual advisers, never to return to
Sweden. She probably initially went as a pilgrim for the
Holy Year of 1350, with the hope of gaining approval of
her new order and rule. She soon added promotion of
church reform and a call for the return of the papacy to
Rome from AVIGNON. Her religious messages became
doctrinal in tone and addressed to officials of both church
and state and were often accompanied by ecstatic visions.
Birgitta’s spiritual ideas, which were propagated
through her spiritual directors, seemed to include consid-
erable psychological insight and strong identification
with the Blessed Virgin Mary. She died at Rome on July
23, 1373, after making pilgrimages throughout Italy and
to the Holy Land. Her Revelationswere collected by a
Spanish bishop, Alfonso of Jaén. She was canonized for
her virtues on October 7, 1391, a canonization confirmed
by Pope Martin V (r. 1417–31) in 1419 for the whole of
Christendom. Her order (the Brigettines), though small,
has survived to the present.