Trithemius Nepiachus Notes

Trithemius, Nepiachus: Notes

νηπίαχος: ‘childish’, a Homeric word, νήπιος in classical Greek

‘the Bursfeld observance’ A union of monasteries in and beyond Germany, founded around 1440 to enforce strict observance of the Benedictine rule: the superior authority to which the monks of Sponheim were subject.

‘reformed in the year 1459’ That is, joined the Bursfeld Union and instituted stricter observance. ‘Reform’ and ‘reformation’ in this sense were watchwords of the fifteenth century, which Luther was referring to when he called for reformation of the entire church.

‘that great and lengthy council’ The meeting of the Reichstag at Worms in 1495 which reformed the constitution of the Holy Roman Empire. If Libanius began his studies around the age of 20 and had been pursuing them for 30 years at this time, he was presumaly born in the 1440s. As appears elsewhere, he had friends in high places: was he present at Worms himself?

‘as Pico della Mirandola writes, has never been condemned nor can be condemned by the church’ Pico’s 900 Theses on, amongst other things ‘natural magic’, were condemned by Pope Innocent VIII in 1487.