Johannes Klenkok: a friar's life, c. 1310-1374 (review)

Reviews 175 have chapter 17 of John of Paris's Of royal and Papal power, which is a very effective criticism of Thomas's argument. One would like to have more from John of Paris on property as well. However, no selection will satisfy everyone. To the 'Suggestions for further reading' should be added two translations by R. W . Dyson: Giles of Rome, On ecclesiastical power (Woodbridge, 1986) and James of Viterbo, On Christian government (Woodbridge, 1995). These are important contributions to the church-state controversy on the Papalist side, which is not well-represented in this anthology. John Kilcullen School of History, Philosophy and Politics Macquarie University Ocker, Christopher, Johannes Klenkok: a friar's life, c. 1310-1374 (Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, Vol. 83, part 5), Philadelphia, American Philosophical Society, 1993; paper; pp. viii, 116; R.R.P. US$15.00. This monograph presents the life of what the author calls 'a moderately successful friar' (p. 5). It is an attempt to move beyond what Ocker identifies as the two dominant stereotypes of the late medieval friar: the bad friar characterized by a range of different moral failings, and the theologian friar known by his intellectual achievement. By describing in detail the life and career of Johannes Klenkok, an Augustinian from Saxony who died from the plague while a minor penitentiary in Avignon, Ocker attempts to show how the late medieval friar was involved in a complex network of local and regional obligations within the different communities of town, diocese, and religious order. The interaction with these communities and the web of resulting dependencies, argues Ocker, necessitated a constant adaptation of his theology to various public roles and practical interests. The uncertainty of the known documentation on Klenkok's early life and education allows Ocker to discuss a range of issues concerning the organization of the provincial and general schools of the Augustinians. This is one of the more illuminating sections of the book, for it provides us with much detail of scholastic organization, as Klenkok advanced through the ranks of lector in Magdeburg, bachelor in Paris, and master in Oxford, and then assumed the office of provincial of Saxony and Thuringia, 176 Reviews professor at the Augustinian 'general school' in Erfurt, inquisitor in Olomouc, and penitentiary in Avignon. The reader is reminded again of how international the world of even 'a moderately successful friar' of the fourteenth century could be. Ocker shows how Klenkok was regarded highly as a theologian by his younger contemporaries but then was largely forgotten after his death. His one claim to later fame was his ongoing attack on the Sachsenspiegel as the basis of Saxon law. This brought Klenkok notoreity, threats against his life, and conflict - not only with secular authorities such as the city council of Magdeburg, but also with such clerics as Walter Kerlinger, the powerful Dominican inquisitor, and Herbord of Spangenburg, a member of an Erfurt chapter and Erfurt city scribe. Klenkok's position on the Sachsenspiegel had been shaped by the strong Augustinian commitment to Papal absolutism and he consequently regarded such legal codes as a challenge to that authority. Ocker argues that Klenkok's inability to gain strong support from local bishops, inquisitors, and even members of his own order demonstrates how universal principles could not simply be applied to local conditions if they were to upset the complex web of regional and local political support and dependency. Such insights by the author are valuable, yet they are little developed in this book. Its strength is not conceptual. Its value lies in the presentation and discussion of the detail of scholastic, and particularly Augustinian, life in the fourteenth century. By building on the wealth of recent investigation by scholars such as Damasus Trapp, Adolf Zumkeller, and William Courtenay, it demonstrates how our understanding of that fourteenth-century world is being progressively shaped by regional and local realities. Charles Zika Department of History University of Melbourne Ratchnevsky, Paul, Genghis Khan: his life and legacy , ed. & trans. T. N. Haining, Oxford and Cambridge Mass., Blackwell, 1991; cloth; pp. xvii, 313; 25 illustrations, 2 dynastic tables, 1 map, glossary, main personalities, chronology; R. R. P. AUS$55.00 [distributed in...