Johann Herolt, also known as Discipulus (died August 1468) was a Dominican preacher. Herolt has been described as "the most prolific, skillful, and honored writer of sermon books in fifteenth-century Europe".[1][self-published source] He was "one of the leading figures of a new Dominican spirituality in fifteenth-century Germany which emphasized the practical goals of pastoral work over mystical study".[2]
As lector and prior of the Dominican monastery in Nuremberg, Herolt was a colleague of Johannes Nider. Herolt was also vicar of Nuremberg's Dominican convent, the cloister of St Katharine, which he and Nider reformed in 1428, appointing Gertrud Gwichtmacherin as prioress.[3] He was prior at Nuremberg from 1437 to 1443.[1]
Herolt's Sermones discipuli de tempore et de sanctis was the most widely reprinted sermon collection of the fifteenth century.[4] Herolt collected exemplary stories for use in sermons, and these story collections - one thematic, one of miracles of the Virgin Mary, and one of miracles of the saints - also circulated in manuscript and were widely reprinted as Promptuaria exemplorum.
Herolt's Advent, Christmas and New Year sermons to the Nuremberg convent in 1436 - his only work in the German vernacular, Der Rosengart - have recently been translated and published.[3]
Works
- Liber discipuli de eruditione Christifidelium, 1416
- Sermones de tempore, 1418
- Sermones de sanctis, 1432
- Promptuaria exemplorum
- Quadragesimale, 1434
- Applicationes rerum naturalium ad sermones, 1463