John of Falkenberg

John of Falkenberg or Johannes Falkenberg (born in Falkenberg, Pomerania, date unknown; died about 1418 in Italy — or, according to other accounts, in his native town) was a German Dominican theologian and writer.

His prominence in medieval history is due partly to the share he took in the Western Schism, but chiefly to his involving himself in the long-standing disputes between the Teutonic Knights of Prussia on one side and the allied Kingdom of Poland and Grand Duchy of Lithuania on the other. He is known as one of the first thinkers to advocate genocide of another nation. opposing Polish scholar Paulus Vladimiri. Liber de doctrina argued that the King of Poland and his adherents were idolators, and unbelievers; that the opposition against them was noble and praiseworthy. In Liber de doctrina Falkenberg justified the tyrannicide advocated by the Franciscan Jean Petit. Falkenberg concluded that it was lawful to kill the King of Poland and his associates.

Falkenberg also argued, in Liber de doctrina, that "the Emperor has the right to slay even peaceful infidels simply because they are pagans (...). The Poles deserve death for defending infidels, and should be exterminated even more than the infidels; they should be deprived of their sovereignty and reduced to slavery." published in 1416 Falkenberg attempted to refute Jean Gerson, Pierre d'Ailly, and other doctors of the University of Paris, who had condemned the works of Jean Petit. In this work, moreover, he denied the bishops the right to declare his book or any part of it heretical, claiming that in matters of faith the pope and general councils alone are infallible.

By order of Nicolaus, Archbishop of Gniezno, Falkenberg was imprisoned. The Poles demanded the conviction of Falkenberg for heresy, but in vain. His works were condemned by the Council of Constance as scandalously libelous, but not heretical.

Attribution This entry cites: Quetif and Jacques Échard, I, 760; Allgem. Deut. Biogr., VI, 554–5; Johann Friedrich von Schulte, Gesch. Canon. Rechts, Ii, (1877), 381–2; Hubler, Die Konstanzer Reformation (Leipzig, 1867), 263; Dlugoss, Hist. Poloniae, I (Leipzig, 1711), 2, 376.