XII. Heinrich Von Melk

An Austrian nobleman of the 12th century who, after bitter experience of the world’s ways, retired to the monastery of Melk (a few miles west of Vienna), where he spent his closing years as lay brother. In his Erinnerung an den Tod, a satirical poem of 1042 short lines in riming (assonating) couplets, he inveighs against the worldly follies of the knights, and in his Priesterleben against the vices of the clergy. The poems date from about 1160.