Berthold of Moosburg

Berthold of Moosburg is a historical Dominican friar active in the first half of the 14th century. Documentary records place him studying at Oxford in 1316, teaching in Regensburg by 1327, serving as head of the Dominican house in Cologne by 1335 (succeeding Meister Eckhart in that office), representing the Cologne Dominicans and Bavaria at Nuremberg in 1348, and appearing as executor of estates in 1335, 1343, and 1361. Little is recorded about his youth; his scholarly activity is concentrated in the period c.1316–1361.

Surviving sources are scholarly and documentary and provide no physical or iconographic description of Berthold beyond his institutional affiliation as a member of the Dominican order. No contemporary portrait, detailed account of dress beyond the generic Dominican habit, or physical features are recorded in the supplied materials.

Berthold's capacities are intellectual and institutional rather than supernatural. According to the sources he composed an extensive commentary, Expositio super Elementationem theologicam Procli (composed roughly between ca. 1340 and 1361), working from Willem van Moerbeke's Latin translation of Proclus and citing a broad range of authorities (Augustine, Dionysius the Areopagite, Albert the Great, Theodoric/Dietrich of Freiburg, Ulrich of Strassburg, John Scotus Eriugena, Boethius, Calcidius, etc.). He presents Proclean Neoplatonic doctrines within a Christian framework, employs an axiomatic/Euclidean style in exposition, and advances specific doctrinal formulations—most famously the aphorism about souls "souls are poured in by being created and are created by being poured in" (creando infundi et infundendo creari). He adopts Proclus' two modes of duration (eternity and time), rejects the intermediary aevum posited by some predecessors, and articulates a doctrine of twofold providence (Regna duo duorum) separating natural and voluntary providence. Institutionally he taught, led Dominican houses, and represented his province in ecclesiastical affairs.