Hersfeld Abbey

Last updated
Imperial Abbey of Hersfeld
Reichsabtei Hersfeld
775–1606 ( de facto )
775–1648 ( de jure )
Reichsabtei Hersfeld.svg
Coat of arms
Stiftsruine Hersfeld.jpg
Hersfeld Abbey: church ruins
StatusImperial Abbey
CapitalHersfeld Abbey
GovernmentTheocracy
Historical era Middle Ages
 Founded by Saint Boniface
736–42
 Granted Imperial immediacy
    by Charlemagne
775
 City of Hersfeld placed
    itself under Hessian protection

1371
 Forced union with Fulda
1513–15
 Abbot Krato swore allegiance
    to Lutheran Hesse

1525
 Otto, Prince of Hesse, elected
    lay administrator

1606
 Secularised to Hesse-Kassel
    by Peace of Westphalia
1648
Preceded by
Succeeded by
CHE Koniz COA.svg Fulda monastery
Landgraviate of Hesse-Kassel Arms of the house of Hesse-Kassel.svg
Today part of Germany

Hersfeld Abbey was an important Benedictine imperial abbey in the town of Bad Hersfeld in Hesse (formerly in Hesse-Nassau), Germany, at the confluence of the rivers Geisa, Haune and Fulda. The ruins are now a medieval festival venue.

Contents

Territorium Abbatae Heresfeldensis, 1645 Blaeu 1645 - Territorium Abbatae Heresfeldensis.jpg
Territorium Abbatæ Heresfeldensis, 1645
Border stone of Hersfeld Abbey on the old Werra bridge between Philippsthal and Vacha Grenzstein philippsthal.jpg
Border stone of Hersfeld Abbey on the old Werra bridge between Philippsthal and Vacha

History

Hersfeld was founded by Saint Sturm, a disciple of Saint Boniface, before 744. Because its location rendered it vulnerable to attacks from the Saxons, however, he transferred it to Fulda. Some years later, in or about 769 after the defeat of the Saxons by the Franks, Lullus, archbishop of Mainz, re-founded the monastery at Hersfeld.

Charlemagne (who had recently succeeded to the Frankish royal crown) and other benefactors provided endowments, and in 775 gave it the status of a Reichsabtei "imperial abbey" (i.e., territorially independent prince-abbacy within the Empire). [1]

Pope Stephen III granted it exemption from episcopal jurisdiction. It soon possessed 1050 hides of land and a community of 150 monks. [2]

Lullus was buried in the church at his death in 786. The abbey buildings were extended between 831 and 850, and in 852 Lullus' grave was moved to the new basilica. During this ceremony Lullus' canonisation was formally announced by Rabanus Maurus. (The "Lullusfest", or "Feast of Saint Lullus", has been celebrated in Hersfeld since then, on 16 October and is the longest-established local festival in the German-speaking world).

During the abbacy of Abbott Druogo (875–892) the first known Hersfeld Tithe Register was written from 881 onwards. An additional tithe register was prepared before 899 during the abbacy of Abbott Harderat.

The abbey had already become a place of pilgrimage after 780, because of the relics of Saint Wigbert which were brought here at that time. [3] A valuable library was collected, the annals of the monastery were regularly kept, and it became well known as a seat of piety and learning. Towards the close of the 10th century, Hersfeld suffered from the general decline of the age, and monastic discipline became relaxed. In 1005, the observance was reformed by Saint Gotthard (afterwards Bishop of Hildesheim), [4] and members of the community were sent out to other houses of the order to carry out in them the work of religious revival.

During the Investiture Controversy, Hersfeld took the side of the imperial cause against the papacy. Emperor Henry IV himself visited it quite often, sometimes accompanied by his wife; and his son and successor son Conrad of Italy was born and baptized within the precincts of the abbey. [5] In the last decade of the 11th century the abbey seems to have been fully restored to papal favour, and it continued to prosper for a long subsequent period.

The town of Hersfeld, now Bad Hersfeld, grew up outside the abbey, and flourished, to the extent that it found itself strong enough to assert its independence, and in 1371 formally placed itself under the protection of the Landgraves of Hesse. [2]

As time went on the state of the monastery again deteriorated, and in 1513 it had reached such a low point that abbot Volpert Riedesel resigned his office into the hands of Pope Leo X, and the abbot of Fulda was authorized by the Emperor Maximilian to incorporate the house into his own abbey. According to a contemporary account, the library was in a state of ruin and decay, many precious volumes had altogether disappeared, and manuscripts containing the archives and records of the house were used in the kennels as litter for the dogs. [2]

Reformation

This forced union between Hersfeld and Fulda lasted little more than two years, after which a new abbot of Hersfeld was chosen. Abbot Krato, who held office in 1517, was however in sympathy with Lutheranism. (Martin Luther stopped at the abbey on his return from the Diet of Worms in 1521 and gave a sermon). Krato swore allegiance to the Lutheran Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse, in 1525. The abbey church was consequently closed to Roman Catholic worship, Mass being said only in a chapel inside the monastery. [2]

Dissolution

For the rest of the century the abbey continued as a Protestant establishment under the close supervision of the rulers of Hesse, and on the death of the last abbot (Joachim Röll) in 1606, Otto, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel, was elected lay administrator. [2]

The pope made a vain attempt, after Otto's death, to bring the abbey back under Catholic administration. It continued in the hands of the princely family until after the conclusion of the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, [2] Hersfeld, as an imperial fief, was united to Hesse as the secularised Principality of Hersfeld which maintained its seat in the Reichstag.

Buildings

The abbey church, in the Romanesque style, was built in the early part of the 12th century, but was used as a powder magazine and then destroyed by the French in 1761 during the Seven Years' War. The ruins are now a well-known venue for concerts and public events, and are the site of the annual Bad Hersfelder Festspiele. [1]

The Katharinenturm (tower) still stands. Within it is the Lullusglocke, Germany's oldest cast bell dated to 1038. [6]

Burials

Annals

The annals of the abbey, the "Annales Hersfeldienses", are a significant source of medieval German history. [2]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fulda</span> City in Hesse, Germany

Fulda is a town in Hesse, Germany; it is located on the river Fulda and is the administrative seat of the Fulda district (Kreis). In 1990, the town hosted the 30th Hessentag state festival.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bad Hersfeld</span> Town in Hesse, Germany

The festival and spa town of Bad Hersfeld is the district seat of the Hersfeld-Rotenburg district in northeastern Hesse, Germany, roughly 50 km southeast of Kassel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fritzlar</span> Town in Hesse, Germany

Fritzlar is a small town in the Schwalm-Eder district in northern Hesse, Germany, 160 km (99 mi) north of Frankfurt, with a storied history.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wihtberht</span>

Saint Wigbert, (Wihtberht) born in Wessex around 675, was an Anglo-Saxon Benedictine monk and a missionary and disciple of Saint Boniface who travelled with the latter in Frisia and northern and central Germany to convert the local tribes to Christianity. His feast day is August 13.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lullus</span> First permanent archbishop of Mainz

Saint Lullus was the first permanent archbishop of Mainz, succeeding Saint Boniface, and first abbot of the Benedictine Hersfeld Abbey. He is historiographically considered the first official sovereign of the Electorate of Mainz.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Princely Abbey of Corvey</span> Former abbey in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany

The Princely Abbey of Corvey is a former Benedictine abbey and ecclesiastical principality now in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It was one of the half-dozen self-ruling princely abbeys of the Holy Roman Empire from the late Middle Ages until 1792 when Corvey was elevated to a prince-bishopric. Corvey, whose territory extended over a vast area, was in turn secularized in 1803 in the course of the German mediatisation and absorbed into the newly created Principality of Nassau-Orange-Fulda. Originally built in 822 and 885 and remodeled in the Baroque period, the abbey is an exceptional example of Carolingian architecture, the oldest surviving example of a westwork, and the oldest standing medieval structure in Westphalia. The original architecture of the abbey, with its vaulted hall and galleries encircling the main room, heavily influenced later western Romanesque and Gothic architecture. The inside of the westwork contains the only known wall paintings of ancient mythology with Christian interpretation in Carolingian times. The former abbey church was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2014.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pre-Romanesque art and architecture</span> Art style of Europe between the fall of Rome and the 11th century

Pre-Romanesque art and architecture is the period in European art from either the emergence of the Merovingian kingdom in about 500 AD or from the Carolingian Renaissance in the late 8th century, to the beginning of the 11th century Romanesque period. The term is generally used in English only for architecture and monumental sculpture, but here all the arts of the period are briefly described.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tegernsee Abbey</span>

Tegernsee Abbey is a former Benedictine monastery in the town and district of Tegernsee in Bavaria. Both the abbey and the town that grew up around it, are named after the Tegernsee, the lake on the shores of which they are located. The name is from the Old High German tegarin seo, meaning great lake.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anglo-Saxon mission</span>

Anglo-Saxon missionaries were instrumental in the spread of Christianity in the Frankish Empire during the 8th century, continuing the work of Hiberno-Scottish missionaries which had been spreading Celtic Christianity across the Frankish Empire as well as in Scotland and Anglo-Saxon England itself during the 6th century. Both Ecgberht of Ripon and Ecgbert of York were instrumental in the Anglo-Saxon mission. The first organized the early missionary efforts of Wihtberht, Willibrord, and others; while many of the later missioners made their early studies at York.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carolingian architecture</span>

Carolingian architecture is the style of north European Pre-Romanesque architecture belonging to the period of the Carolingian Renaissance of the late 8th and 9th centuries, when the Carolingian dynasty dominated west European politics. It was a conscious attempt to emulate Roman architecture and to that end it borrowed heavily from Early Christian and Byzantine architecture, though there are nonetheless innovations of its own, resulting in a unique character.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rotenburg an der Fulda</span> Town in Hesse, Germany

Rotenburg an der Fulda is a town in Hersfeld-Rotenburg district in northeastern Hesse, Germany lying, as the name says, on the river Fulda.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Memleben Abbey</span>

Memleben Abbey was a Benedictine monastery in Memleben on the Unstrut river, today part of the Kaiserpfalz municipality in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. The convent, now ruined, was established by Emperor Otto II and his consort Theophanu about 979.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Neuenstein, Hesse</span> Municipality in Hesse, Germany

Neuenstein is a municipality in Hersfeld-Rotenburg district in northeastern Hesse, Germany.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hauneck</span> Municipality in Hesse, Germany

Hauneck is a municipality in Hersfeld-Rotenburg district in eastern Hesse, Germany.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cornberg</span> Municipality in Hesse, Germany

Cornberg is a municipality in Hersfeld-Rotenburg district in northeastern Hesse, Germany. It is the district's smallest municipality.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Friedewald, Hesse</span> Municipality in Hesse, Germany

Friedewald is a municipality in Hersfeld-Rotenburg district in eastern Hesse, Germany, directly east of Bad Hersfeld.

The Goslar Precedence Dispute escalated at Pentecost in 1063 in the Goslar Collegiate Church of St. Simon and St. Jude from a dispute over the order of seating into an armed confrontation which resulted in several deaths. The background is the early medieval legal system, based mainly on personal loyalty and privileges that could be conferred or withdrawn at any time.

Saint Sturm, also called Sturmius or Sturmi, was a disciple of Saint Boniface and founder and first abbot of the Benedictine monastery and abbey of Fulda in 742 or 744. Sturm's tenure as abbot lasted from 747 until 779.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bad Hersfelder Festspiele</span>

The Bad Hersfelder Festspiele is a German theatre festival in Bad Hersfeld, Hesse. The Bad Hersfelder Festspiele have been staged since 1951.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lullusglocke</span>

The Lullusglocke is the oldest datable cast bell in Germany. The inscription indicates it was cast on 24 June 1038. It hangs in the Catherine Tower in the ruins of the monastery of Bad Hersfeld in Hesse.

References

  1. 1 2 "Hersfeld Abbey Ruins", Kultur in Hessen
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 PD-icon.svg One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain : Oswald Hunter-Blair (1913). "Hersfeld". In Herbermann, Charles (ed.). Catholic Encyclopedia . New York: Robert Appleton Company. Retrieved 6 February 2011.
  3. Butler, Alban. "St. Wigbert, Abbot and Confessor", The Lives of the Saints, Vol. VIII, 1866
  4. Schmucki, Ottaviano. "San Gottardo di Hildesheim", Santi e Beati, June 22, 2002
  5. Robinson, Ian S., Henry IV of Germany. New York: Cambridge University Press. (2000) p. 95
  6. "Die Lullus-Glocke 975 Jahre" (The Lullus Bell 975 years), Freunde der Stiftsruine, 2013

Coordinates: 50°51′59″N9°42′10″E / 50.86639°N 9.70278°E / 50.86639; 9.70278