Elizabeth of Hungary, Saint 239presence. Mourning them for the rest of his life, he still
maintained sympathy to the failings of humanity.
CAREER AND WRITINGSIn 1201 he became the rabbi and director of the famous
school of the Jewish community of Worms. Eleazar in
his youth had been introduced to KABBALA. He now
devoted himself to its field of study and was among the
first ASHKENAZIJews to introduce its ideas to a wider
public. In his Commentary on the Prayers and Their
Secret Message,he claimed that an oral tradition con-
cerning a mystical aspect of prayer had been transmitted
from Iraq through Italy and his family to Germany. In
his Purgatory of Wisdom,he proposed a mystical inter-
pretation of Scripture and GOD. He formulated a theory
of the divinity in which rationalistic and mystical
elements were blended. In his most popular work on
customary law, the Rokéahor The Book of the Perfumer,
he described appropriate everyday pietistic practices
and religious behavior based on the Kabbala. He died
perhaps as late as 1238.
See alsoHALAKAH;KALONYMUSfAMILY;TALMUD.
Further reading:Ivan G. Marcus. Piety and Society:
The Jewish Pietists of Medieval Germany(Leiden: Brill,
1981); Kenneth R. Stow, Alienated Minority: The Jews of
Medieval Latin Europe(Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Uni-
versity Press, 1992).
elections, church Election, from the Latin verb
eligere,“to choose,” was the procedure of designating the
head of certain major ecclesiastical posts or benefices. In
the medieval church, election was a choice, emanating
from a competent authority, that could be acclamation by
a single individual, a community, or a crowd, in which
there was no need to count the number of votes in favor
of each candidate.
Such a procedure reflected the divine will. GOD’s
choice alighted on the worthiest candidate, the one whom
the better part of the electoral body had selected. For most
of the Middle Ages, a majority of votes did not automati-
cally prevail in election procedures. Election permitted the
acclamation of a candidate who then exercised his powers
only after canonical investiture and consecration.
Election was essentially for the holders of major
BENEFICES, such as abbots, bishops, and the Roman pon-
tiff. For abbots and bishops, election was originally
entrusted in principle to the community concerned, in
other words, the monks of the monastery or the people
and clergy of the episcopal city. The role of the people
was soon limited to an acclaimed ratification of a choice
not actually made by it. Bit by bit the role of the
people almost disappeared, leaving the responsibility for
choosing future bishop to the cathedral chapter alone.
Moreover, the practice still left plenty of room for
the intervention of the “great,” lay or ecclesiastical, who
presented a candidate in such terms that freedom of elec-
tions was considerably reduced.
Canonical legislation (at the Fourth Lateran Council
in 1215) tried to restore more clarity to electoral proce-
dures. Elections now had to be unanimous, reflecting the
church’s unity. Eventually this elective system gave way
to that of appointment by the pope. By the PRAGMATIC
SANCTION OFBOURGESin 1438, CHARLESVII tried to
restore real elections in France. But this unilateral act of
monarchical power was never accepted by ROME and
functioned badly.ELECTION OF THE POPE
The Roman pontiff was also initially chosen by the earlier
kind of election. The pope, the bishop of the city of
Rome, was designated by the same procedure as any
bishop, by the CLERGYand people of his city. In 1059
Pope NICHOLASII promulgated a decree entrusting the
election of the bishop of Rome to the College of CARDI-
NALS. The Third Lateran Council of 1179 required that
the new pope be elected by a two-thirds majority of votes
of the cardinals. For the first time a canonical text
imposed counting and necessitated the receiving of a
majority of the votes.
See alsoGREGORIANREFORM; INVESTITURE CONTRO-
VERSY AND DISPUTE.
Further reading:Robert L. Benson, The Bishop Elect
(Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1968);
Joseph H. Lynch, The Medieval Church: A Brief History
(New York: Longman, 1992); Richard W. Southern, West-
ern Society and the Church in the Middle Ages (Har-
mondsworth: Penguin Books, 1970).Elizabeth of Hungary, Saint (Elizabeth of Thuringia)
(1207–1231)noble widow
Elizabeth was born in Pressburg (Bratislava) in 1207, the
daughter of King Andrew II (r. 1205–35) of HUNGARYand
Gertrude of Andechs-Meran (d. 1213), a prestigious line.
For dynastic and political reasons, she was betrothed at
the age of four to the eldest son of the landgrave Herman
I of Thuringia (d. 1217) and sent to the latter’s court to
be raised there. Her childhood and adolescence were
spent at the CASTLEof the Wartburg, in Thuringia. She
witnessed her mother’s murder in 1213. Her fiancé mean-
while had died, so at the age of 14, she married his
brother, Louis (d. 1227), by whom she was to have three
children.
Under the influence of a domineering preacher, CON-
RADof Marburg, the young married couple soon adopted
a strict, pious, and ascetic lifestyle. Elizabeth, sometimes
physically abused by Conrad, was conspicuous for her
CHARITY to the poor. In September 1227, Louis died
at Brindisi as he was about to embark for the HOLY
LANDwith the emperor FREDERICKII. His widow, aged
20, refused to remarry. To escape the pressure of her