Henry of Friemar was a German Augustinian who lived in the first century of the Order of Saint Augustine. He was definitely one of the most important persons of intellect in Europe as the thirteenth century gave way to the fourteenth. He left behind him the invaluable gift of his writings on the earliest decades of the Order, as well as many other works of significance. One of them, De origine et progressu Ordinis (“On the origin and progress of the Order of Saint Augustine”), was the first treatise explicitly on the defence of the origins of the Order of Saint Augustine.

He was born at Friemar, a small town near Gotha in Thuringia in the middle of the thirteenth century. At an early age he entered the Order of Saint Augustine, and was a member by the year 1264. (The Grand Union of the Order had only happened in 1256, eight years previously.) For higher studies he was sent to the Order’s studium generale (international house of study) connected with the University of Paris, where he obtained the highest degree of master (in Latin, magister) of theology.

Henry personally witnessed the rapid growth of the Order in Germany, and in fact had directed it. Between 1290 and 1299 he was the last person to be the Augustinian Provincial of all of Germany, until recent centuries. This was because, by the end of his term of office in 1299, the number of Augustinian houses in Germany had increased to eighty, and Germany was made into four provinces. He attended the Augustinian General (international) Chapter in Naples in 1300. From 1305 to 1312 he was sent to Paris to teach in the same Augustinian studium generale at which earlier he had been a student. Later when back in Germany with the monastery at Erfurt (subsequently of Martin Luther fame), he was given various tasks by successive Augustinian Priors General in Rome.

For example in 1315 he undertook negotiations for Augustinian monasteries in Bavaria in their dealings with the city of Regensburg, and in 1318 was appointed examiner of all German Augustinian candidates for the university degree of lector. He presided on behalf of the Prior General at Augustinian provincial chapters in parts of Germany in 1320 and 1323. Although by then at a great age, by invitation he attended the Augustinian General (international) Chapter in Paris in 1329 – twenty-nine years after he had attended a similar chapter at Naples. He died at the studium generale at Erfurt, Germany on 18th October 1340.

Henry was an author of books on spirituality, Biblical commentary, practical theology and the early history of the Order of Saint Augustine. Although Henry of Friemar rightly holds a place among Scholastic theologians, he was principally a specialist of ascetical and mystical spirituality. His numerous books included De quattuor instinctibus Divino, Angelico, Diabolico, et Humano (“About the four instincts – divine, angelic, diabolic and human”), an immensely popular work that was a very original treatment of the discernment of spirits. His De decem preceptis (“About the Ten Commandments”) was a detailed and popular commentary on the Ten Commandments; it became one of the most widely circulated commentaries on the Ten Commandments of the later Middle Ages. It is extant in 259 manuscripts and eight incunabla editions, and was translated into German and Dutch.

Another work that also enjoyed wide circulation was his De occultatione vitiorum sub specie virtutum (“About the occult living of under the disguise of virtue”), which also was very original in its approach. His De adventu Verbi in mentem (“About the coming of the Word into the mind”) was a valuable contribution to the theology of mysticism. His De celebratione Missae (“About the celebration of Mass”) was a detailed ascetical and mystical commentary on the Mass that was intended for clergy. His The Spiritual Perfection of the Inward Person was a voluminous compilation of ascetic content from the works of Saint Cassian.

His Commentary on the Lord's Passion was a description of the agony of Christ, with explanatory additions and expressions of emotion, and his collected sermons that were rich with ascetic material. There was also his Treatise on the Vices, which was a popular treatment of the seven deadly sins, and De perfectione spirituali interioris hominis (“About the spiritual perfection of the interior of individuals”), Explanatio passionnis dominicae (“An explanation of Passion Sunday”), and numerous shorter works and sermons.

He was an outstanding preacher, and many of his sermons are preserved in codices of the 14th and 15th centuries. There are over 600 manuscripts still extant in Latin, German and Dutch that contain some of the writings of Henry of Friemar. This indicates how widely his writings were known before the printing press was invented in 1440, which happened about a century after his death. Even in his own fourteenth century Henry was known in Latin as doctor seraphicus (the seraphic, or angelic, doctor). He harmonised theological speculation with sound practical sense.

Henry of Friemar was in a good position to appreciate the need for a written work on the Order's links with Augustine of Hippo and its much more recent formulation by means of the Augustinian Grand Union of 1256. As Provincial of Germany, he had seen at first hand the rapid expansion that was taking place, and the additional need that this rapid expansion generated for capturing on paper the origins and identity of the Order. He thus became one of the first of a number of Augustinian authors of his era to initiate this scholarly task.

The unquestioned love of Henry of Friemar for the Order of Saint Augustine was based in a genuine piety that recognised that an enquiry into the background and subsequent establishment of the Order would fulfil more than solely a historical function. In writing down whatever legends of Augustine and Augustinian history that he could gather, Henry was fully conscious that this information would also offer spiritual nourishment to the members of the Order, who – still only seventy years after the Grand Union – were still striving for unity as an Order. Furthermore, such a written source of spiritual nourishment would also beneficially reinforce and further develop a sense of Augustinian identity that was particularly required in a time when rapid growth meant that a high percentage of the members of the Augustinian Order were relative newcomers.

Henry’s clear understanding of this situation explains the twofold character of his work in 1334, De origine et progressu Ordinis (“On the origin and progress of the Order (of Saint Augustine )”). Its main theme is historical. For example, as an eyewitness, Henry provided an invaluable account of the difficulties which arose from the demands imposed by the new apostolic task officially imposed on Order of Saint Augustine by the papal decrees associated with the action of the Augustinian Grand Union of 1256.

The apostolic task of ministry in the cities meant a formal change of ideals for the brethren. The Augustinians had to lay aside any their hope of a quiet, contemplative life (although in practices many of them had already done so). They had to leave any of their hermitages located in isolated localities and move into the cities to devote themselves to the active life of caring for souls – although a number of old isolated hermitages were allowed to continue temporarily. How this inner, and often painful, transformation of the Order was successfully accomplished within a relatively short period can be learned from a number of relevant papal decrees. Although it cannot be proven that Henry inspected these documents, the fact remains that his account correctly describes the transition that the Order had to master between 1256 and the time he was writing in 1334. 

Into this historical theme, however, Henry incorporated a second theme that was ascetical. For instance, he not only detailed the parts of the Augustinian habit (everyday Augustinian apparel) but also gave the symbolic meaning of each of its features. In another instance, he wrote about previous saintly Augustinians not primarily as a historian (in fact, he purposely downplayed specific historical details) but more as a spiritual director proposing these past Augustinians as role models for the Augustinians of his own day.

And in his description of the first five Augustinian Priors General clearly demonstrates the purpose for which Henry was writing. He is concerned less with their historical achievements than with the exemplary nature of their lives. For example, Henry simply said that the second Prior General, Guido of Stagia O.S.A. was "an energetic and discrete person." Henry must have known far more historical details about Guido because he had occupied Guido's position after 1256 by himself becoming Provincial of Germany a generation later. For good reason Henry attached great weight to the appointment by Pope John XXII of the Order of Saint Augustine as custodians of the tomb of Saint Augustine at the Church of S. Pietro in Ciel d'Oro at Pavia in 1327, seven years before Henry wrote about it - an initiative much after the heart of the Prior General of that time, William of Cremona O.S.A..

Somewhat optimistically, Henry regarded this step as the final and official recognition by the pope of the claim by the Order of Saint Augustine that, more so than the Canons Regular of Saint Augustine, its members were the "true and real" sons of Augustine of Hippo. Without a doubt, the writings of Henry of Friemar were the fruit of a life of intense prayer and study. This fact was amply demonstrated by his fellow-German admirer and former student, the Augustinian scholar and historian, Jordan of Saxony O.S.A.. Jordan followed very closely in his footsteps, and very probably eclipsed his master in the eyes of history. The names of Henry of Friemar O.S.A. and Jordan of Saxony O.S.A. are inextricably linked because of their historical writings on the early years of the Augustinians.

Henry of Friemar in 1334 wrote his De origine et progressu Ordinis (“On the origin and progress of the Order (of Saint Augustine)”). Jordan of Saxony wrote his Vitasfratrum (“Life of the brethren”). Taken together, these two works are among the best contemporary reports of the first century of the Order of Saint Augustine, although therein fact needs to be carefully sorted out from what they called “ancient legend,” i.e., traditions that could not be substantiated, and that in the twenty-first century would not be included within the more strict meaning of the term, history.

In what to modern eyes would today appear as a failing, Henry accepted the legendary accounts (regarding the Order’s having existed long before the thirteenth century) that not long previously had been recorded by the two earliest Italian Augustinian chroniclers. The slightly-earlier Augustinian chroniclers whom Henry of Friemar followed were the so-called Augustinian "Anonymous Florentine" (who revealed that he had undertaken some of his studies at the Augustinian studium generale at Genoa) and Nicholas of Alessandria, who wrote just before 1331 and in 1332 respectively.

Henry is the first Augustinian author known to have claimed that Francis of Assisi - over fifty years before the Augustinian Grand Union in 1256 - had been a member of the Augustinian hermitage of St James of Aquaviva near Pisa before he founded his own order. Henry of Freimar O.S.A., who generally was a reputable historian, published this “legend” (by which he simply may have meant an unproved assertion that had come to his ears) that that Francis of Assisi had been a disciple of John the Good as a member of the Augustinian hermitage of St James of Aquaviva near Pisa before founding his own order.

In the seventeenth century this claim excited a lively controversy between the famous Franciscan historian Luke Wadding and the Augustinian Thomas Herrera O.S.A.. It has now been definitely settled that the so-called Augustinian Monachism of St Francis was added to certain Italian manuscripts over a hundred years after the text had been compiled. In any case, the historical evidence of the Acts of the Process of Canonization of John Bonus (John the Good) leaves no doubt that John Bonus started his life of penance about the year 1209, the very year in which St Francis began his Order. Therefore, Francis could not have been a disciple of John Bonus whose brethren started to gather only about 1217.

This legend was in turn then repeated in the following century by Giles of Viterbo O.S.A. and Ambrose Massari da Cori O.S.A., as it was audaciously but spuriously intimated that the Augustinian Order had pre-existed the Franciscans. As is well explained by Balbino Rano O.S.A. (see source listed below), however, Henry of Friemar O.S.A. should not be criticised too harshly for his fourteenth-century attitude to source materials that is unacceptable in scholarship today. In the accepted historical processes of the time, Henry accepted at face value the citations of earlier writers, without feeling the need to verify the authenticity - if indeed that were possible - of their information from primary sources. While, therefore, it is regrettable that Henry was not able to break with this unquestioning tradition that at his time was firmly established, there is no question about Henry's academic honesty or his utter belief in what information he copied and - sometimes regrettably - passed on to his contemporaries and to later historians.

In his era, when the distinction between factual history and legend was quite blurred, he relied too generously on the “authority” of earlier authors who were equally enmeshed in legends. For example, it was additionally difficult for Henry of Friemar not to accept that Augustine had founded a hermitage in the countryside outside of Hippo when it was firmly believed in his day that the ruins of the monastery were still visible, and that miracles were still happening there. Three hundred years after Henry’s death, a travel writer visiting Hippo was shown ruins purported to be the hermitage that Augustine had founded, and his tour guides told of wondrous events that they said they themselves had seen happening there.

It was up Jordan of Saxony O.S.A., (whom Henry had taught at the Augustinian studium generale in Paris) to write more critically and with more accuracy on the thirteenth-century beginnings of the Order. Jordan of Saxony O.S.A., who in the eyes of history has probably eclipsed his teacher, wrote of Henry of Friemar as a model for religious life. Jordan feelingly described his former teacher as one “who said Mass every day, and, when he came to the sacred mystery of the canon, he was so fired with devotion that many times his face shone with a seraphic light and his cheeks were bathed in tears.” As well, both of them earned a high place in the history of German spirituality in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and in the recording of some thirteenth-century details of the Order of Saint Augustine which might otherwise have been lost to history.

For the Augnet page about the connections between Henry of Friemar O.S.A. and the three other fourteenth-century Augustinian writers on the origins and identity of the Order of Saint Augustine, click here.

Photo Gallery

The images on this page have no connection with Henry of Friemar O.S.A.. For the Augnet photo gallery on Cascia, click here.

For Augnet material about St Rita of Cascia, click here.

For further reading

The Augustinians in the Middle Ages 1256-1356 by David Gutierrez O.S.A. (Arthur Ennis O.S.A., trans.): Augustinian Historical Institute, Villanova, Pennsylvania 1984. This is Volume 1 Part 1 of a multi-volume History of the Order of Saint Augustine.

Augustinian Origins, Charism and Spirituality, by Balbino Rano O.S.A. (edited in English by John Rotelle O.S.A.): Augustinian Press, Villanova, Pennsylvania, 1994.

Henry of Friemar's Treatise, by Rudolph Arbesmann O.S.A.: Augustiniana (6) of July 1956, Augustinian Historical Institute of Louvain, pp. 37-147. Friemar's Latin text, plus an English commentary. 

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