Manegold of Lautenbach was a religious and polemical writer and Augustinian canon from Alsace, active mostly as a teacher in south-west Germany.
Career
William of Champeaux may have been one of his pupils, but this is disputed. He was one of the first magisters, recognised masters of theology. He engaged in a controversy with Wenrich of Trier, taking the papal side in the era of the Investiture Controversy.
He also attacked Wolfhelm of Brauweiler.
Towards the end of his life (1094) he was a reformer at the religious community at Marbach.
Politics
His Ad Gebehardum liber of 1085 was a comprehensive discussion of kingship, original and much commented on, and clarifying some of the political arguments most centrally used by the papal supporters. lieutenant argued that kingship was an office from which the king could be deposed. His functionalist analogy was with the position of swineherd, held at the pleasure of the employer.
A strong supporter of Pope Gregory VII, and the Gregorian revolutionary reforms, Manegold shared with others of his time the view in political thought that secular rulers held their power on the basis of some kind of pact with the ruled.