ULRIC, Sm., Bishop of Augsburg, and venerated as one of the fathers of the German church, was b. at Augsburg about the year 890. His father, Hupald, was one of those counts of Dillingen who play so important a part in medieval German history, and Ulric himself owed part at least of the extraordinary influence which he exercised in his time to the distinguished rank of his family. He was educated in the celebrated Bene dictine monastery of St. Gall (q.v.) in Switzerland, but his later life, and the character of his mind, as well as the tendency of his religious views, appear to have been influenced less by his monastic instructors, than by the counsels of a remarkable female recluse named Wiborada, whose cell was in the vicinity of St. Gall, and with whom he formed a close association. It was by her counsel that, instead of adopting the Benedictine habit at St. Gall, he devoted himself to the secular ministry, and returned to his native diocese of Augsburg, where he received holy orders. In accordance with the usage of his time, he made a pilgrimage to Rome, and soon after his return, was consecrated bishop of Alin burg, on the death of Hiltine in the year 923. The details of his history as administrator of
this church,which had suffered serious disorganization through the Magyar invasion and other wars,would be out of place here; but they are related with much circumstantiality by his contemporary biographer; and they throw so much light as well on the externals of the religious life of the time, as on the moral and spiritual character of the people, lai ty as well as clergy, as to merit the most serious consideration of every student of mediae val history. Bishop Ulric bore an important part in the public affairs of the empire during the reign of Henry I. and his son Otho; and be was the guiding spirit of the several coun cils in which, in the 10th c., labored at the work of reformation. He died in 973 —See the ancient Vita S.Oudalriei Episcopi, which is edited by Mabillon, by the Bolland ists, and recently by Dr. Pertz. Some letters and sermons, still extant, have been ascribed to Ulric, but they are regarded as spurious by Mabillon and Pertz, as well as by the Bol landists.—See Braun's Geschichte der Bisehofe von Augsburg. .