The Life of Otto

Ebo and Herbord, Vitae Ottonis — the Life of Otto, Apostle of Pomerania

Ebo and Herbord of Michelsberg

“It is not right that I should use force.” Otto said it out loud, at Pyritz, while asking for Pomeranian boys to be trained as Pomeranian priests. Nothing was ever done about the priests.

Catch rate: 54 / 255
Base research: 148
Stat total: 284

Base stats

Every stat is a checkable fact about the actual book, not a designer's mood. Bars are drawn against the highest value any book reaches.

Stamina80

Contend72

Defend74

Popularity58

Total284

Why these numbers

The game's own explanation, as a reader sees it in the backpack.

Stamina 80

Two missionary journeys, 1124 and 1128, told twice over by two monks of the same house.

Contend 72

Fairly high. It argues about how to do mission by reporting a failure first: Bernard’s barefoot visit, and why it did not work.

Defend 74

Fairly high. Two monks tell the story and can be checked against each other, though Herbord likes a rhetorical flourish.

Popularity 58

Middling. There are two Lives of the same man, and they do not always agree.

Cited for this book

Bishop Bernard went to the town of Wollin barefoot and in rags, and was told to go and preach to the fish. He told Otto of Bamberg why: these people judged a messenger by his clothes. Otto went with a large, well-equipped company, and made a rule to give away more than he received, so nobody could say he came for money.

Moves learned

By levelling up. A book that develops keeps what it knew and learns the rest on its new schedule.

Lv	Move	Type	Cat.	Pwr	Acc	PP
1	Judged by the Outside	Anthropology	Argument	72	100%	15
1	Random Verse	Bible	Argument	10	100%	30
32	From the Head to the Members	Ecclesiology	Argument	70	95%	15
35	Chapter…	Bible	Scripture	—	—	12
38	Priests of Your Own Tongue	Ecclesiology	Argument	76	100%	15
42	It Is Not Right to Use Force	Ecclesiology	Argument	80	100%	10
46	Give Back More Than You Take	Ethics	Argument	82	100%	10
50	Speak Latin	History	Status	—	100%	5

The quotes behind its moves

How to read these. In Scholar’s Dream, books argue with each other. Each thing a book can do in a debate is a move, and most moves carry a real quotation — the words the book puts on the table when it uses that move.

Strong against lists the opposing books and arguments a move was written to answer. Used against one of them, it hits much harder than usual: ×2 means twice the normal force, ×4 four times. It is the game’s way of saying: this is the sentence that answers that argument. Open an entry to read why.

“They are animals and are altogether ignorant of spiritual gifts, and so they judge a man only by his outward appearance.”
Bernard the Spaniard, in Ebo/Herbord, Life of Otto, trans. Robinson (1920), public domain.public domain

Judged by the Outside

AnthropologyArgument · power 72 · 100% accurate

In the gameA failed missionary explaining his own failure, with a sneer. His observation was sharp, and it changed how missions were done afterwards. The contempt is his, and the people he describes had just spared his life.

“I say that it is more correct that it should pass from the head to the members than from the members to the head… Let us reverse the custom of the primitive Church”
Duke Wortizlaus of Pomerania, in Ebo/Herbord, Life of Otto, trans. Robinson (1920), public domain. (trimmed quote)public domain

From the Head to the Members

EcclesiologyArgument · power 70 · 95% accurate

In the gameA duke explaining why he is baptised first and his province follows. He knows the early church did it the other way round, and says so. Much of northern Europe was converted this way, which is one reason its faith often stayed thin.

“hand over some of your children to perform the office of the priesthood after they have received a liberal education and have been carefully taught, so that, like other races, ye may have clergy and priests speaking your own tongue and conversant with Latin.”
Otto of Bamberg at Pyritz (1124), in Ebo/Herbord, Life of Otto, trans. Robinson (1920), public domain.public domain

Priests of Your Own Tongue

EcclesiologyArgument · power 76 · 100% accurate

In the gameAsks for the thing that would have made the mission survive him: Pomeranian boys taught and ordained, so the church there could speak Pomeranian. He asked once, in one sermon, and then went home and nothing was done.

“Those then who are specially fitted by character and by knowledge should be invited rather than drawn by force to this sacrament. I exhort you, therefore, and invite you, for it is not right that I should use force”
Otto of Bamberg at Pyritz (1124), in Ebo/Herbord, Life of Otto, trans. Robinson (1920), public domain.public domain

It Is Not Right to Use Force

EcclesiologyArgument · power 80 · 100% accurate

In the gameA bishop with sixty armed men outside, saying the quiet part in the middle of the sermon. He is asking for their sons to be given for the priesthood, and he stops to say he cannot make them.

“You must be careful not to show desire for anything that they possess… you must give back more than you receive, in order that they may understand that it is not to secure filthy lucre, but only from love of God, that you have undertaken the task of preaching to them.”
Bernard the Spaniard to Otto of Bamberg, in Ebo/Herbord, Life of Otto, trans. Charles H. Robinson (SPCK, 1920), public domain. (trimmed quote)public domain

Give Back More Than You Take

EthicsArgument · power 82 · 100% accurate

In the gameThe answer to you are only here for the money. Want nothing of theirs, give back more than they give you, and let the accounts prove it.

Strong against

×3The Abject Messengeran argument · why?

It closes the second limb first — come rich, leave poorer, and the charge has nowhere to stand.