Konrad von Waldhausen

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Konrad of Waldhausen (also Konrad Waldhauser / Waldhauser * to 1320 / 25 in / near Waldhausen in Upper Austria , † 8. December 1369 in Prague ) was one of the first precursor of the Hussites in Bohemia and an important moral preacher of the late Middle Ages . He worked mainly in Prague, but his area of ​​influence extended far beyond Bohemia.

Live and act

In his youth Konrad entered the Waldhausen monastery , the monastery of the Augustinian canons of his birthplace. He probably studied in Bologna or in Pavia , which at that time was the center of the various Augustinian orders. There he came into contact with Augustinian and early humanist ideas, which later strongly influenced his sermons. Around 1349 he was ordained a priest in Passau , where Waldhausen belonged diocesan, and went on a pilgrimage to Rome on the occasion of the jubilee year 1350 , where he was confronted with simonistic grievances in the church. Motivated by this, he began his preaching activity , in which he mainly propagated the sancta ecclesia . In Rome, he also met Cola di Rienzo , who fled to Prague in July 1350 to the court of King Charles IV , or at least his followers.

After his return he first appeared as a preacher in Austria , including in Vienna , where he also preached to Duke Albrecht II on April 15, 1351 . Presumably during this time he worked as a teacher at the St. Stephan Cathedral School, from which the University of Vienna later developed. In Vienna, too, Konrad came into contact with grievances, such as the tax exemption of the clergy, whose tax amount was distributed among the city's citizens. He also criticized the beggar monks , who, contrary to their ideal of poverty, strived for property. This brought him numerous friends in the middle class.

At Easter 1363 Waldhauser appeared for the first time in Prague, where he was so popular that Emperor Charles IV became aware of him. He was anxious to gather outstanding personalities around him, and so he arranged that the first Prague Archbishop Ernst von Pardubitz transferred the parish of All Saints in Leitmeritz in Bohemia to the reform preacher Konrad on September 17, 1363 . Waldhauser installed a deputy there in order to be able to continue working in Prague, where he preached in German in the parish of St. Gallus , contrary to a prohibition of the Synod of Toulouse (1229). The imperial couple was also present several times at these sermons. Opposite the Gallus Church there was also the Collegium Carolinum , whose students were certainly also among Waldhauser's audience. For this he also published a postil in which he let his humanistic ideas flow. His opponents probably criticized him for the parish of All Saints in Leitmeritz, which was just such a benefice as he himself describes it as an offense in his sermons, so that in 1365 he took over the parish Maria Tein in Prague, which he was now able to administer himself.

Waldhauser preached very successfully and thus endangered, among other things, the income of the mendicant monks, so that they tried to disrupt his performances in Saaz, among other places . On June 7, 1366 he was then accused of heresy in the Vatican , so that in 1368 he had to travel to the Pope, who temporarily resided in Rome from 1367 to 1370. In a letter he received from him from 1369, he asked for money for the litigation. Various advocates of Waldhauser, including Cardinal Grimoard , the brother of Pope Urban V , tried unsuccessfully to prevent the process. However, Konrad did not wait for the end of the trial, but traveled back to Bohemia in 1369 under the protection of Charles IV, where he died on December 8, 1369, so that he was spared further persecution as a heretic.

Benesch von Weitmühl , the historian of Bohemia and friend of the emperor, praises the verbal power of the preacher Conradus in his chronicle of the Prague church.

reception

Konrad von Waldhausen influenced the Czech reform preachers Johannes Milicius and Jan Hus .

Works

  • Konrad's main work Postilla studentium sanctae Pragensis universitatis , a collection of 72 Sunday sermons as school examples for students at the University of Prague, was distributed throughout Central Europe. Over 100 manuscripts have been preserved from the postil.
  • An abbreviated version of Postilla accurata (sometimes referred to as Postilla accurtata ) with only 22 sermons has also been translated into Czech. The original is in Olomouc .
  • The defense document Apologia of May 1364 was intended for Archduke Rudolf IV . A version with the title Accusationes mendicantium was found by Bohuslav Balbín in Krummau in the 17th century .
  • A sermon on the death of the Archbishop of Pardubitz from 1364 is in St. Pölten .
  • A manuscript for the interpretation of the writings of Valerius Maximus with the title Applicatio sententiarium Valerii Maximi ad theologiam is in the monastery library of Göttweig Abbey .

Of Konrad's German-language sermons, which established his fame and directly expressed his concerns, not a single one has survived.

Appreciation

In the Czech cities of Černošice , Havlíčkův Brod , Kutná Hora and Vodňany , the streets called ulice Waldhauserova were named after Konrad Waldhauser.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Zinnhobler 1996, p. 93.
  2. ↑ a b c d Zinnhobler 1996, p. 94.
  3. ↑ a b c Zinnhobler 1996, p. 95.
  4. ^ Josef Emler (ed.): Cronica ecclesiae Pragensis Benessii Krabice de Weitmile - Kronika Beneše Krabice z Weitmile. In: Fontes rerum Bohemicarum. Tomus IV, Pragae 1884, pp. 459-548, online at clavmon.cz .
  5. ↑ a b c d e Zerlik 1969, pp. 34-36.
  6. ↑ Ulrich Seelbach: ... THE BECOMING OUCH HELMBREHTEL! On the Prague and Vienna helmet rights in the late Middle Ages. In: Contributions to the history of the German language and literature. Volume 109, Tübingen 1987, p. 257, whole article, pp. 252-273, PDF on uni-bielefeld.de.
personal data
SURNAME Konrad von Waldhausen
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Catholic theologian and forerunner of the Hussites
DATE OF BIRTH around 1320
PLACE OF BIRTH Waldhausen , Upper Austria
DATE OF DEATH December 8, 1369
Place of death Prague