PÜRSTINGER, Berthold

Onus ecclesiae. In hoc libro lector candidissime, admiranda quædam acplanè obstupenda, de septem ecclesiæ statibus, abusibus quoq[ue]grauissimus, & futuris eiusdem calamitatibus ex sanctor[um] prophetijs &nouarum reuelationum vaticinijs, solidissimisq[ue] scripturis, luceclarius enarra[n]tur ...

      (Ex aedibus Quentelianis) Cologne 1531 Contemporary red vellum, rebacked. Folio . Second revised edition (1st: Landshut, 1524) with a new preface dated 1531 and very large title woodcut. The work has been, incorrectly, attributed to Johannes Ebser, Bishop of Chiemsee. Berthold Pürstinger (1465-1543), bishop of Chiemsee, was "often employed in important matters by Archbishop Leonard (d. 1519) and by his successor, Mathäus Lang (d. 1519). ... Lang's energetic reformatory measures accorded with Berthold's deepest wishes, and he seems to have both inspired them and given them expression. When Berthold was sent to suppress the Lutherans in Kitzbühel he accomplished little, his retiring nature being unfitted for decisive action. ... His Onus ecclesiae had appeared in 1524 and Archbishop Lang was anxious that Berthold would continue his literary work. ... "Bethold's writings have far more interest than the deeds of his active and public life; and they reveal the man with no less clearness. The Onus ecclesiae was published anonymously (Landshut, 1524, Cologne, 1531, 2d ed. revised, Augsburg, 1531), but there is no doubt about his authorship. As early as 1548 it appears in a Venetian index of heretical books and in 1550 in the Louvain index. ... Berthold's purpose is to call to repentance and reform; for this end he depicts in dark colors the 'burden' which lies on the entire Church--a twofold weight of guilt and impending punishment, in which all are involved, but especially Rome and the clergy. The Turks, who were then threatening eastern Europe, are an instrument of the merited doom; and the 'reformation' by which the Church was already divided forebodes more to come. ... Joachim of Fiore, the revelations of St. Bridget, and other productions of the contemporary medieval prophetism furnished material, with which personal observations and experience are interwoven, so that the whole presents a well-ordered and illuminating picture of conditions in South Germany and the archdiocese of Salzburg. ..." (New Schaff-Herzog, IX, p. 360). This copy, like the Durham copy described in Copac, has pasted onto title page above the title a lable with the words in sixteenth century type: "Reuerendi in Christo Patris ac domini, D. Ioannis, olim Episcopi Chemensis, & Reuerendiss. Archiepiscopi Saltzburgensis a Suffragijs." [2] 5-125 leaves (i.e.123 leaves: leaves 3 & 4 not issued with this work). Large title-page woodcut (Dodgson II, 428). Some marginal handsoiling. With 16th century printed label on title-page (see below) as on the Durham copy described in Copac. Signature on front paste-down of the bishop of Chiemsee: "Joannis Episcopi Chemensis." Neander Library book- plate (deaccessioned). § VD 16, P 2932; Adams E-20 (under Ebser); BM/STC German 662