Medieval France
(ca. 1000–1088). Born at Tours, Berengar studied at Chartres under Fulbert and returned to Tours to become scholasticus at Saint-Martin’s in 1031 and archdeacon of Angers in 1041. During and after his studies, Berengar displayed a penchant for appealing to reason rather than to church authorities, a characteristic that perhaps led him to question the specifics of eucharis-tic theology, the doctrine of the Real Presence. Details of Berengar’s beliefs must be gleaned from the writings of his opponents and his own obscure treatise, De sacra coena (ca. 1065–70), a polemic against one of his most vociferous adversaries, Lanfranc of Bec. For Berengar, the doctrine of the Real Presence seems to have meant that a spiritual or intellectual presence was added to the bread and wine but that their substance did not change. Thus, he is credited with having initiated the first heresy in the history of eucharistic theology.
Berengar attracted many disciples, who were eager to defend him in the debate over the eucharist. His teachings, however, were countered by numerous tracts written by his adversaries, most notably Lanfranc of Bec, and were condemned by a series of councils: at Rome in 1050, Vercelli in 1050, Paris in 1051, and Rome in 1059 and 1079. At the council of 1079, Berengar signed a profession of faith containing the first official use of the words substantialiter converti.
Returning to France after the council of 1079, Berengar retired to the island of Saint-Côme near Tours, where he died in 1088. In addition to De sacra coena, Berengar’s extant work includes correspondence, refutations of Lanfranc, accounts of the various synods, and a poem, Iuste iudex Iesu Christe.
E.Kay Harris
[See also: FULBERT OF CHARTRES; HERESY; LANFRANC OF BEC]
Berengar of Tours. De sacra coena, ed. Martine Matronola. Milan: Società Editrice “Vitae Pensiero,” 1936.
Didier, Jean-Charles, and Philippe Delhaye. “Hugues de Breteuil, évêque de Langres (d. 1050): Lettre à Bérenger de Tours sur la présence réelle.” Revue des études augustiniennes 16 (1981):289–331.
Montclos, Jean de. Lanfranc et Bérengar: la controverse eucharistique du XIe siècle. Louvain: Spicilegium Sacrum Lovaniense, 1971.
Southern, Richard W. “Lanfranc of Bec and Berengar of Tours.” In Studies in Medieval History Presented to Maurice Powicke, ed. Richard W.Hunt et al. Oxford: Clarendon, 1948, pp. 27–48.
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