Henry was born at
Hainbuch (Hembuche), near
Langenstein, in the
Landgraviate of Hesse. He studied at the
University of Paris, where he finished his M.A. in 1363 and his
M.Th. in 1376, and became professor of philosophy there this same year. In 1368, on the occasion of the appearance of a
comet, which the
astrologers of his times claimed to be a sure foreboding of certain future events, he wrote a treatise entitled
Quaestio de cometa, in which he refutes the then prevalent astrological beliefs. At the instance of the university he wrote three other treatises on the same subject, completed in 1373. On his scientific work,
A. C. Crombie writes :
Oresme extended the impetus theory to psychology. One of his followers, Henry, while doubting whether the proportions and intentions of the elements of a given substance were knowable in detail, seriously considered the possibility of the generation of a plant or animal from the corpse of another species, for example of a fox from a dead dog. (
Augustine to Galileo, Vol. 2, 1922, p. 114) When the
Western Schism broke out in 1378, Henry sided with
Pope Urban VI against
Antipope Clement VII, and wrote various treatises in defence of the former. In 1379 he composed "Epistola pacis" (see
Helmstädter Program, 1779 and 1780) in which, under the form of a disputation between an Urbanist and a Clementine, he advocates the suppression of the schism by way of a
general council or a compromise. In his
Epistola concilii pacis, composed in 1381, and based on a similar work, the
Epistola Concordiae of
Conrad of Gelnhausen, he urges still more strongly the necessity of a general council and severely criticises the many abuses that were permitted to go on within the Church. These two treatises of Henry, and the
Epistola Concordiae of Conrad, formed the basis of a discourse delivered by Cardinal
Pietro Philargi, the future Alexander V, at the first session of the
Council of Pisa (26 March 1409; see Bliemetzrieder in
Historisches Jahrbuch (Munich, 1904), XXV, 536-541). Henry's
Epistola concilii pacis is printed in
von der Hardt's
Concilium Constantiense, II, 1, 3-60, with the exception of the first and the second chapter, which were afterwards published by the same author in
Discrepantia mss. et editionum (Helmstadt, 1715), 9-11. When in 1382 the French court compelled the professors of the
College of Sorbonne (
University of Paris) to acknowledge the antipope Clement VII, Henry left the university and spent some time at
Eberbach Abbey, a
Cistercian monastery near
Wiesbaden. A letter which he wrote here to
Bishop Eckard of
Worms, and which bears the title
De scismate was edited by Sommerfeldt in
Historisches Jahrbuch (Munich, 1909), XXX, 46–61. Another letter which he wrote here to the same bishop, on the occasion of the death of the bishop's brother, is entitled
De contemptu mundi (edited by Sommerfeldt in (Innsbruck, 1905), XXIX, 406-412). A second letter of condolence, written about 1384, was edited by Sommerfeldt in "Hist. Jahrbuch" (Munich, 1909), XXX, 298–307. Following the invitation of
Albert III, Duke of Austria, he went to the
University of Vienna in 1384, and assisted in the foundation of a theological faculty. Here he spent the remainder of his life, teaching
dogmatic theology,
exegesis, and
Canon law, and writing numerous treatises. In 1384 Heinrich von Langenstein, together with his colleague and friend
Heinrich Totting von Oytha (who descended from the Northern German town now known as
Friesoythe), took up teaching and administrative duties at the newly established University of Vienna (founded 1365, first students subscribed 1385). He died at
Vienna, having refused an
episcopal see which was offered him by Urban VI. ==Legacy==