Arnulf of Leuven

He died within a year. Little else is known.

The recorded working language is medieval Latin and Latin. The field of work recorded is religious literature, medieval literature and medieval Latin literature. Places of work recorded in the authority are Duchy of Brabant and Villers-la-Ville. Residence is recorded at Villers-la-Ville and Villers Abbey. Positions recorded include abbot. Works named in the authority record are Excerptum Speculi caritatis and Annals of Villers.

He compiled the first volume of the annals of the Villers Abbey (1146–1240). However, his primary significance is as a poet. His "Excerptum Speculi Caritatis" is a verse adaptation of the "Summa Causum" of Raymond of Peñafort. Arnulf is also the probable author of the Membra Jesu Nostri, a cycle of seven poems, each a meditation on one of the wounds of the crucified Christ. In the 17th century, Paul Gerhardt wrote an adaptation in German, which became "O Sacred Head, Now Wounded" in English. These poems were ascribed to Bernard of Clairvaux, for they are consistent with his spirituality. However, "the external proof for this ascription is so slight as to be negligible" (Hurlbut, VII, 18). The "Membra Jesu Nostri" did appear in Bernard's collected works, but only beginning two hundred years after his death. When the monasteries were suppressed in the French Revolution, all of the relevant manuscripts disappeared. A manuscript of 1320 attributes the authorship of five cycle to Arnulf of Leuven.