LAMBERT OF SAINT-BERTIN

Abbot; b. c. 1060; d. Saint-Bertin, June 22, 1125. Born of a noble family, Lambert entered the Abbey of saint-bertin c. 1070. There he taught grammar, philosophy, theology, and music. Having become abbot in 1095, he made energetic reforms in the monastery and brought it under the cluniac reform. A contemporary account of his life (Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores 15:946–953) records that he wrote sermons on the Old Testament; disputations on free will, predestination, and grace; and questiones on natural science. His letters to anselm of canterbury are extant (Patrologia Latina 158:1083; 159:72, 171), as are the verses exchanged with reginald of canterbury [ed. F. Liebermann, Neues Archiv der Gesellschaft für ältere deutsche Geschichtskunde 13 (1888) 528, 531–534]. The identification of Lambert with lambert of saint-omer made by M.E. Taillar, J. Tessier, and R. Ceillier has been denied by L. Duchesne, L. Delisle, and M. Manitius, Geschichte der lateinischen Literatur des Mittelalters.

Bibliography: h. de laplane, Les Abbés de Saint-Bertin, 2v. (Saint-Omer 1854–55). Liber pontificalis 1:clxxxv–clxxxvi. l. delisle, Notice sur les manuscrits du Liber floridus (Paris 1906). o. holder-egger, Neues Archiv der Gesellschaft für ältere deutsche Geschichtskunde 32 (1907) 524–525. o. bled, "L'École bertinienne," Bulletin de la société des anti-quaires de la Morinie 14 (1923) 99–115. m. manitius, Geschichte der lateinischen Literatur des Mittelalters (Munich 1911–31) 3:241–244.

[p. b. corbett]