Prelate letter

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The prelate letter was a privilege letter from Dukes Bernhard and Heinrich from 1392 and was addressed to the clergy in the Principality of Lüneburg . It was created as part of the negotiations on the Lüneburg Sate and contains a detailed description of the rights and duties of the Lüneburg prelates .

prehistory

After Wilhelm II of Lüneburg died in 1369 without male descendants, the older Lüneburg house became extinct. In accordance with the Guelph house laws and William's wish, Duke Magnus II Torquatus of Braunschweig would have been entitled to inheritance. However, Emperor Charles IV considered the imperial fiefdom to have reverted to the Reich and enfeoffed Albrecht von Sachsen-Wittenberg and his uncle Wenzel with the principality, which triggered the War of the Lüneburg Succession . Only after the battle of Winsen in 1388, in which Wenzel lost his life, the Wittenbergers renounced their claims and the principality was finally secured to the Guelphs.

The War of the Lüneburg Succession had led to a great deal of power among the estates in the principality. In order to secure the support of the cities and the lower nobility, both the Guelphs and the Ascanians were forced to guarantee the estates extensive privileges and to pledge them numerous justice and castles . Although the dukes of Celle emerged victorious from the conflict, they were faced with massive financial problems. When the dukes approached the city of Lüneburg with a new financial request in 1392, an extensive contract, the Lüneburg Sate , was concluded in return for a loan of 50,000 marks , in which the estates in three letters, the prelate letter and the city letter and the general letter , numerous privileges were confirmed and the dukes submitted to the jurisdiction of a body formed by the estates .

content

The prelate letter is addressed to the clergy of the Lüneburg country as well as to all wealthy foreign clergy and monasteries in Lüneburg and comprises 12 articles. The first article sets out the motives for adopting the sate; the princes of Lüneburg recognize the difficult situation in which the monasteries were in the turmoil of the War of the Lüneburg Succession and acknowledge their responsibility to place the church under their increased protection. Articles 2 to 4 specify the rights of the clergy vis-à-vis the dukes or the dukes' obligations. Thus, Article 2 deals with the duty of the dukes to protect the monasteries from attackers and allows the clergy, should the dukes fail to fulfill this obligation, to bring legal disputes resulting from these attacks to a spiritual court . Article 4 deals with the monastery's free right to vote and the obligation to grant unrestricted protection to the abbots, provosts and rulers lawfully elected by the monasteries or the church.

Articles 5 to 10 define the official duties of the monasteries vis-à-vis the state rulers . Before going into more detail about the individual obligations, it is emphasized that no new obligations and burdens should arise, but only those that were already common in the past. Article 7 regulates the modalities of bede and compulsory service , with a special reference to the obligation of the monasteries to provide these services in the event of war and when building new fortifications. Articles 8 to 10 deal with the right of the dukes, twice during their reign, once when they take office and once when they marry, to provide a person of their choice with a spiritual office. Finally, Articles 11 and 12 emphasize once again the will of the dukes to fulfill their obligations; witnesses and the date of the agreement are also given.

validity

The prelate's letter retained its legal validity regardless of the continued existence of the Lüneburg Sate and was confirmed again in 1484 by Heinrich the Middle . Individual articles in the prelate's letter remained in force even after the introduction of the Reformation in 1527. The last reference to the letter of privilege was made in 1745, when the abbot of St. Michaelis enforced jurisdiction over 230 Meierhöfe citing the letter from the prelate.

Lore

Five sealed original documents of the prelate's letter have been preserved. Contemporary copies can be found in the Privilege Book of the City of Lüneburg, in the copy books of the Barsinghausen , Walsrode and St. Michaelis monasteries in Lüneburg and in the Lüneburg Satebuch. The prelate's letter was first published in 1704 by Christian Schlöpke in Chronicon Bardewick, and further publications followed in the following two centuries.

literature

  • Michael Reinbold: The Lüneburg Sate. A contribution to the constitutional history of Lower Saxony in the late Middle Ages. Lax, Hildesheim 1987. ISBN 3-7848-3656-9 , pp. 38-53 and pp. 224-233