Biography

Lambert was born about 1060 of a distinguished family, and, when still young, entered the French Benedictine

Benedictine

Benedictine refers to the spirituality and consecrated life in accordance with the Rule of St Benedict, written by Benedict of Nursia in the sixth century for the cenobitic communities he founded in central Italy. The most notable of these is Monte Cassino, the first monastery founded by Benedict...

 abbey of St-Bertin. He afterwards visited several famous schools in France, having first laid the foundation of his subsequent learning by the study in his own monastery of grammar, theology and music. For some time he filled the office of prior

Prior

Prior is an ecclesiastical title, derived from the Latin adjective for 'earlier, first', with several notable uses.-Monastic superiors:A Prior is a monastic superior, usually lower in rank than an Abbot. In the Rule of St...

, and in 1095 was chosen abbot

Abbot

The word abbot, meaning father, is a title given to the head of a monastery in various traditions, including Christianity. The office may also be given as an honorary title to a clergyman who is not actually the head of a monastery...

 at once by the monks of St-Bertin and by the canons

Canon (priest)

A canon is a priest or minister who is a member of certain bodies of the Christian clergy subject to an ecclesiastical rule ....

 of St-Omer. He was thus drawn into closer relations with Cluny

Cluny

Cluny or Clungy is a commune in the Saône-et-Loire department in the region of Bourgogne in eastern France. It is 20 km northwest of Mâcon.The town grew up around the Benedictine Cluny Abbey, founded by Duke William I of Aquitaine in 910...

, and instituted through the Cluniac monks many reforms in his somewhat deteriorated monastery. Needless to say, he encountered no little opposition to his efforts, but, thanks to his extraordinary energy, he finally secured acceptance for his views, and rehabilitated the financial position of the monastery. He was a friend of St. Anselm and exchanged verses, still extant, with the poet Reginald of Canterbury

Reginald of Canterbury

Reginald of Canterbury was a medieval French writer and Benedictine monk who lived and wrote in England in the very early part of the 12th century...

 (ed. Libermann in "Neues Archiv der Gesellschaft fur altere Geschichte", XIII, 1888, pp. 528; 531-34). He died on 22 June 1125, at St-Bertin.

Works

Even during his lifetime, Lambert was lauded in glowing terms for his great learning by an admirer —not a monk of St-Bertin— in the "Tractatus de moribus Lamberti Abbatis S. Beretini" (ed. Holder-Egger in "Monumenta German. Histor.

Monumenta Germaniae Historica

The Monumenta Germaniae Historica is a comprehensive series of carefully edited and published sources for the study of German history from the end of the Roman Empire to 1500.The society sponsoring the series was established by the Prussian reformer Heinrich Friedrich Karl Freiherr vom...

 SS.", XV, 2, 946-53). This work mentions several otherwise unknown writings of Lambert, e.g. "Sermones de Vetere Testamento", also studies on free will

Free will

"To make my own decisions whether I am successful or not due to uncontrollable forces" -Troy MorrisonA pragmatic definition of free willFree will is the ability of agents to make choices free from certain kinds of constraints. The existence of free will and its exact nature and definition have long...

, the Divine prescience, original sin

Original sin

Original sin is, according to a Christian theological doctrine, humanity's state of sin resulting from the Fall of Man. This condition has been characterized in many ways, ranging from something as insignificant as a slight deficiency, or a tendency toward sin yet without collective guilt, referred...

, origin of the soul

Soul

A soul in certain spiritual, philosophical, and psychological traditions is the incorporeal essence of a person or living thing or object. Many philosophical and spiritual systems teach that humans have souls, and others teach that all living things and even inanimate objects have souls. The...

 and questions of physical science.

Although the two are often confused, he is not identical with Lambert, the Canon of St. Omer who wrote the famous "Liber Floridus

Liber Floridus

Liber Floridus is a medieval encyclopedia that was compiled between 1090 and 1120 by Lambert, Canon of Saint-Omer. The text compiles extracts from some 192 or so different works....

", a kind of encyclopedia of Biblical, chronological, astronomical, geographical, theological, philosophical and natural history subjects, which was completed in 1120.

Sources and references

• POTTHAST, Bibl. Histor. Medii Aevi. I, 705; Biogr. Nat. De Belgigue, XI (1891), 162-66
• WATTENBACH, Geschichtsquellen, II (1894), 170 sq.