Otloh of St. Emmeram - Life

Life

Otloh was born around 1010 in the bishopric of Freising. After studying at Tegernsee and Hersfeld, he was called to Würzburg by Bishop Meinhard (due, Otloh tells us in his Book of Visions, to his skill as a scribe). Otloh served as a secular cleric in the diocese of Freising before pursuing a monastic career against the wishes of his father; he eventually took monastic vows in 1032 at St. Emmeram's, Regensburg. Appointed dean in 1055, he also was magister scholae (head of the monastic school), and numbered among his students the reforming abbot William of Hirsau (†1091). Otloh was among the authors who elaborated the story of the transfer of the relics of Saint Denis the Areopagite to Regensburg, and long was believed to have forged letters of exemption for his monastery, a charge which recently has begun to be reconsidered. Conflicts with his abbot and bishop led Otloh to leave St. Emmeram's in 1062 for Fulda, where he remained until 1067. After a short stay at the Franconian monastery of Amorbach, he returned to Regensburg and spent the rest of his days on literary work, most notably a quasi-autobiographical account of the temptations he had overcome during his life (the Liber de tentationibus suis) and a collection of visionary tales, including his own (the Liber visionum).