Burchard of Worms (c. 950/965 – August 20, 1025) was thebishop of theImperial City of Worms, in theHoly Roman Empire. He was the author of acanon law collection of twenty books known as theDecretum,Decretum Burchardi, orDecretorum libri viginti.
Burchard was born onc. 950–965 to a well-connected, wealthy family in the northernHesse region of theHoly Roman Empire.[1] He had two siblings: an older brother, Franco, who served as the Bishop of Worms fromc. 998–999, and a sister, Mathilda, who became the abbess of an unknown monastery near Worms inc. 1010–1015. It is evident from theVita Burchardi, written by Ebbo/Eberhard of Worms inc. 1025, that during the early life of Burchard his parents not only possessed "many properties and servants", but had local influence sufficient to directly position two of their sons to becoming confidants of the inner Imperial circle and Bishops of Worms. Burchard's family seems to have been of sufficient substance to exert a reasonable measure of political influence within the Diocese of Worms. As a young boy he was sent to the town ofKoblenz where he entered the monastic school of either St. Florin or St. Kastor to be raised as acanon. Under the tutelage ofArchbishopWilligis of Mainz, Burchard was diligently instructed in "noble behaviour" while swiftly being groomed "through each step of the clerical grade" until he became theprovost of a "very poor place", i. e. the old collegiate church of St. Victor inMainz. There, Burchard transformed its fortune by founding an "outstanding monastery along with a cloister of canons" which Willigis funded and eventually consecrated inc. 994–995. He was laterordained as aCatholicdeacon by Willigis and eventually elevated asPrimate ofMainz.
Upon the death of Burchard's brother Franco in 999,Emperor Otto III appointed Burchard as Bishop ofWorms in 1000. Willigis confirmed his elevation within days atKirchberg inSaxony. TheVita Burchardi relates that the Emperor initially intended to elevate one of his two chaplains, Herpo of Halberstadt or Rako of Bremen, to this diocese, going so far as to give his intended appointee "the pastoral staff as [he] lay in bed gravely ill." However, both of them died before either could be so ordained. The Emperor had also offered the diocese of Worms to a renowned pastor named Erpho. Within three days of becoming bishop, Erpho died from unknown causes and a certain Razo was quickly appointed to fill the resulting vacancy, who killed himself at Chur,Switzerland, shortly thereafter. The same narrative indicates thatWorms was in disrepair, urgently needing an administrator after regular attacks from robbers andwolves.[2]
After he was appointed as Bishop ofWorms, Burchard led the rebuilding of the walls of the city, the institution of manymonasteries andchurches, and the destruction of the fortifications ofOtto I, Duke of Carinthia. Duke Otto was believed to house criminals and he was an enemy of Burchard. According to Burchard's biographer, "many limbs were hacked off and many murders occurred on both sides" of the conflict between them. Burchard adopted a child from the enemy household, who grew to becomeHoly Roman Emperor Conrad II (c. 990–1034). After gaining the aid of EmperorHenry II and negotiating on the basis of documents created by Burchard's predecessor Bishop Hildebald,[3] the castle of Duke Otto was dismantled and rebuilt as a monastery dedicated in honour ofPaul of Tarsus. In 1016, Burchard rebuilt theCathedral of St. Peter inWorms. He also educated students in the attachedcathedral school.
Burchard died in 1025, leaving his sister ahair shirt and an iron chain as amemento mori.
Burchard is most renowned as the compiler of a collection of 20 books ofcanon law in collaboration with his contemporaries, BishopWalter of Speyer (963–1027),Alpert of Metz (d. 1024), and at least 3 other prominent regionalCatholic clergy. Beginning inc. 1012, he worked through his material for approximately 9 years to complete the compilation, while living in a small structure atop a hill in the forest outside Worms, after his defeat of Duke Otto, while raising the latter's orphaned grandson, Conrad. The compilation, which he titled theDecretorum Libri Viginti or simplyDecretum, became a very influential and popular source of canonical material. It came to be named theBrocardus (his name inLatin), from which the later legal word "brocard" originated (some researchers disagree with this etymology, pointing to contemporary spelling asBurkhardus[4]). TheDecretum cites a variety ofbiblical,patristic, and early medieval works, including theOld Testament,Augustine of Hippo,Gregory the Great,Isidore of Seville,Hrabanus Maurus, andJulian of Toledo. Burchard probably completed theDecretum no later than 1023.
The Decretum was much copied in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, with over 77 complete manuscripts still surviving.[5] The earliest manuscripts, made in Worms before 1023 under Burchard's own supervision, are Vatican Pal. lat. 585 and 586 (once a single book), and Frankfurt Stadt- und Universitatsbibliothek Barth. 50.
The 20 books of theDecretum are:
Book 19 is sometimes titled the "Corrector Burchardi", being apenitential orconfessor's guide. It is probably a work of the tenth century that Burchard added to theDecretum as a kind of appendix. Book 20,Speculationum Liber, expounds answers to technicaltheological questions, especially questions ofeschatology,hamartiology,soteriology,demonology,angelology,anthropology, andcosmology.
As a source ofcanon law, theDecretum was supplanted by thePanormia (c. 1094–95) ofIvo of Chartres, which used and augmented large sections of theDecretum, and, a little later, by theConcordia Discordantium Canonum (1139–40) ofGratian (Decretum Gratiani), which was a much larger compilation that attempted to further reconcile contradictory canons.
From 1023–25 Burchard promulgated theLeges et Statuta Familiae S. Petri Wormatiensis, also denominated theLex Familiae Wormatiensis Ecclesiae, a compilation of customary laws that were instituted for the members of thefamilia ofWorms, this being various free and non-free laborers of the episcopal estate in Worms. In a similar fashion, though considerably more condensed than theDecretum, theLex delineated in 31 chapters a variety of the common, secular problems of the people of Worms during the final years of his episcopacy, including marriage, abduction, murder, theft, and perjury.
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