Albrecht von Sternberg

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Albrecht von Sternberg

Albrecht von Sternberg (according to the list of bishops of Magdeburg: Albrecht II. Von Sternberg ; sometimes also: Albert von Sternberg ; * around 1333; † January 14, 1380 in Leitomischl ) was 1356–1365 Bishop of Schwerin ; Bishop of Leitomischl and Archbishop of Magdeburg .

Origin and career

Albrecht, also called Albert, came from the Moravian branch of the von Sternberg family . His parents were the Moravian governor, knight and baron Stephan / Štěpán von Sternberg and Katharina / Kateřina, born von Krawarn at Sternberg Castle in Moravia. The family belonged to the high nobility of the Bohemian-Moravian country, so it is not surprising that the father, who died in 1357, appeared several times from 1347 as a documentary witness in the vicinity of the Bohemian King Charles IV .

Albrecht had evidently enjoyed a good humanistic, liturgical and also art-historical education. The universities of Bologna and Paris , where he studied and even the academic titles of Dr. theol., Dr. phil. and Dr. iur. should have acquired. At a young age, Albrecht von Sternberg achieved a number of spiritual dignities. He was already canon and praebendar at the cathedral church of his home diocese when he was on April 23, 1352 by Pope Clement VI. to the Olomouc Cathedral Deanery and was appointed papal chaplain on April 2, 1352. Before that he was Canon of Olomouc and Titulardomherr of Prague, where he rose to Canon in 1353. In this position he came close to the Bohemian royal family, became an advisor and was also allowed to call himself the councilor of Emperor Charles IV.

Bishop of Schwerin

After the death of the Schwerin bishop Andreas von Wislica, Pope Innocent VI. At the request of Emperor Charles IV on October 19, 1356, Albrecht von Sternberg succeeded him. When Albrecht was raised to the bishopric of Schwerin, he was already a priest. The episcopal ordination apparently took place before November 6, 1356. On that day, benefices he had previously held were otherwise given with express reference to the consecration . Bishop Albrecht was aware of the difficulties of his new office, including the return of the pledges he had held to the von Bülow family . Indulgences and powers of attorney were also granted to prove useful in his duties. The papal indulgence of one year and 40 days and another indulgence were granted to those who helped over the next ten years with the main repair and expansion of the Schwerin cathedral. Said documents reinforced the impression that the new bishop was very well informed about the conditions in his diocese, including the construction work to be carried out. In pastoral matters, he was already concerned about his arrival in the diocese in 1357 by appointing a vicar general in the person of the current provost Hermann Holt.

Although the Pope granted him the dispensation from the residence obligation in a papal document on March 10, 1360, Albrecht only seldom stayed in Schwerin because of his advisory work for the emperor. We find him on August 29, 1358 in Sulzbach, on October 27 in Prague, on December 13 in Breslau. He was also in Breslau on January 7, 19 and 25, 1359. From January 10 to 12, 1360 he stayed in Prague, April 27 in Brno, September 5 in Esslingen, September 17 in Reutlingen and November 25 in Nuremberg. On that day he was personally given the promise of a guarantee for a fairly large amount of money from the emperor at court.

In the dispute over the redemption of various pledges, he banned several members of the von Bülow family from church in 1357 . Only on June 28, 1363 was there a settlement in which Thesaurar Vicko and Reimar von Bülow were granted the episcopal residences in Bützow and Warin . This settlement brought Bishop Albrecht a pension of 300 guilders annually and apparently a later general solution to the confused legal situation. But since he was ignorant of the Low German dialect, he had his diocese administered by vicars general. In 1357 it was Johannes de Aquis as canon in Worms. In the following years Johannes von Wunstrop as priest in Rostock, from 1360 to 1361 Gerhard Kothe as canon in Schwerin and from 1364 to 1365 Heinrich Mauritius as provost in Bützow and Konrad Schönebecker as vicar in Ribnitz.

Albrecht von Sternberg returned to his Moravian homeland in 1364.

Bishop of Leitomischl

At the intercession of Emperor Charles, the Pope transferred Albrecht von Sternberg to Leitomischl on August 23, 1364, where he succeeded Bishop Johannes von Neumarkt , who had been transferred to Olomouc , and with whom he had a close friendship. Albrecht appointed Pastor Nikolaus von Gitschin as his official and vicar general . He was able to end a long-standing dispute with the Leitomischl cathedral chapter in 1366 with a contract on the division of the former Leitomischl castle . There were also disputes with the chapter about the property of the Podlažice monastery , in which the curia had to be called.

The Leitomischler pontificate of Bishop Albrecht did not last long, because in dutiful military successes he had joined the Emperor's Italian campaign with 600 horses and arrived in April 1368 at the assembly point of the German army in Venzone in Friuli. On this military voyage, Pope Urban V made him the new Archbishop of Magdeburg.

Archbishop of Magdeburg

Although after the death of the Archbishop of Magdeburg Dietrich Kagelwit the cathedral chapter there had chosen a different candidate, Albrecht von Sternberg was appointed archbishop of Magdeburg on June 9, 1368 - again with the support of the emperor. Archbishop Albrecht soon received the regalia from imperial hands, as did the banner of the Church of Magdeburg as a symbol of the new secular power. Albrecht immediately made use of the right he was entitled to and made 23 men of his retinue knights, a sign of his increased power and dignity.

On December 3rd of that year, accompanied by a large number of entourage, the solemn entry into the episcopal city as well as the enthronement , soon afterwards the homage to the cities of Magdeburg and Halle. At the new place of activity, no special trusting relationship developed between the various organs of the diocese administration and the new archbishop. All kinds of quarrels from the Magdeburg period have been documented.

Soon after taking office, Albrecht sold Niederlausitz, which was part of the Magdeburg Archbishopric, to the emperor for 6,000 marks. It is therefore assumed that the emperor, with the intention of taking possession of this area, campaigned for Albrecht's translation to Magdeburg. In Magdeburg, too, Albrecht's tenure was overshadowed by disputes with the city and the nobility, which meant that he could not live there. He was also accused of being wasteful and lacking in command of Low German . Although Albrecht was the first Archbishop of Magdeburg to hold the forgotten title of Primate Germaniae since 1370 , he resigned himself to the Archbishopric of Magdeburg.

Again Bishop of Leitomischl

On October 13, 1371, Pope Gregory XI transferred Albrecht von Sternberg in turn to Leitomischl and at the same time awarded him the personal title of archbishop. In exchange, the Leitomischler Bishop Peter Jelito became Archbishop of Magdeburg. Albrecht brought the relics of St. Viktorin with him from Magdeburg , who since then has been the diocesan patron of Leitomischl. Nikolaus von Gitschin kept the office of official and vicar general. Albrecht visited the controversial Podlažice monastery and initiated the establishment of numerous new monasteries in the diocese. The construction of the Augustinian canons' monastery in Leitomischl, founded by Johannes von Neumarkt, was completed during Albrecht's tenure, and the Landskron monastery built by Bishop Peter Jelito received further property. On his episcopal estate Tržek , Albrecht founded the Tržek Charterhouse in 1378 . Although the second term of office of the Leitomischler brought a consolidation for the diocese, the tensions existing with the chapter could not be resolved.

Albrecht stayed frequently on his family estate Dědice . He spent his last years in poor health on the episcopal estate of Tržek. At the end of the 1370s Albrecht received the papal commission to mediate in a property dispute between the Olomouc bishop Johannes von Neumarkt and the margrave Jodocus . Jobst was subsequently excommunicated by Albrecht because of the confiscation of goods from the Olomouc cathedral chapter. Because of the expulsion of the bishop and the chapter, the Olomouc city council was also punished with this punishment. At the same time Albrecht imposed an interdict on Moravia.

Already on March 4, 1371, Albrecht wrote his will in Prague, with which he endowed and endowed the Augustinian Canons monastery with the church “Mariae Annunciation” in Sternberg , the construction of which had started earlier. Everything with the consent of his nephew Peter von Sternberg, the responsible local bishop Johann von Neumark and the cathedral chapter of Olomouc.

Albrecht von Sternberg died on January 14, 1380 and was buried in the Carthusian monastery church. During the renovation of today's parish church, his bones were transferred to the Maria-Hilf chapel to the north. A plaque attached there received the following inscription: Alberto una dies finivit tempora vitae - Istifaman nunquam finivit ulla dies. Albert's life ended one day. Yet a day will never blur his fame. JVS 1602. Above the entrance to the burial chapel, the portrait of the archbishop can be seen in a wreath of leaves, flanked by two angels, one of which carries a double cross. In his burial chapel, the bearded archbishop sits on a throne, wearing a robe, Rochett and Mozetta as well as the pallium, in his left hand a rolled out sheet with the inscription: Litterae fundationis. Next to it is a lecture cross with two crossbars.

The town of Sternberg with the castle and the rulership of the same name inherited Albrecht's nephew Peter, who died in 1397.

A fair assessment of the person and the work of Albrecht von Sternberg is not easy given the different sources of information.

particularities

  • Two-volume Bible
    • A two-volume Bible that was made for Bishop Albrecht is now in the manuscript department of the Jagellon University of Krakow . It is listed there under Reg. No. Cod. 284. The very richly planned illumination, probably due to his death in 1380, was not completed.
  • Seal from the Schwerin term of office
    • A pointed oval seal on the document (MUB) No. 8365 from July 24, 1357 in the holdings of the State Main Archives Schwerin .
    • A round seal that still hangs on the document (MUB) No. 9184 of August 4, 1363 and is kept in the Schleswig State Archives.

literature

  • Constantin von Wurzbach : Sternberg, Albrecht (d. 1380) . In: Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich . 38th part. Imperial and Royal Court and State Printing Office, Vienna 1879, p. 271 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Alfred Rische: Directory of the bishops and canons of Schwerin with biographical remarks. Ludwigslust 1900.
  • Josef Traeger : The bishops of the medieval diocese of Schwerin. Leipzig 1984, pp. 86-98.
  • Margit Kaluza-Baumruker: The Schwerin Cathedral Chapter (1171–1400) . Cologne, Vienna 1987.
  • Clemens Brodkorb, Zdeňka Hledíková , Michael Scholz: Art. Albert von Sternberg (around 1333–1380). 1356–1364 Bishop of Schwerin. 1364–1368 Bishop of Leitomischl. 1368–1371 Archbishop of Magdeburg. 1371–1380 Bishop of Leitomischl. In: Erwin Gatz (ed.), Clemens Brodkorb (collaborator): The bishops of the Holy Roman Empire 1198 to 1448. A biographical lexicon. Volume I, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-428-08422-5 , pp. 346-348.
  • Stefan Pätzold : Archbishop Albrecht von Sternberg - a Moravian in Magdeburg (1368-1371). In: Werner Freitag (Hrsg.): Central German life pictures. Böhlau, Cologne 2002, pp. 11-26, ISBN 3-412-04002-9 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Genealogy of the Sternbergers
  2. ^ Mecklenburgisches Urkundenbuch (MUB) 14428.
  3. ↑ (MUB) 14428
  4. ^ Josef Traeger: The bishops of the medieval diocese of Schwerin. Leipzig 1984, pp. 86–98.
  5. ↑ (MUB) 14429.
  6. ↑ (MUB) 14433, 14434.
  7. ↑ (MUB) 8339.
  8. ↑ (MUB) 14487.
  9. ↑ (MUB) 8805.
  10. ↑ (MUB) 9080.
  11. ↑ (MUB) 8373.
  12. ^ Friedrich Lisch : On the history of the diocese of Schwerin, Bishop Albrecht von Sternberg . In: Yearbooks of the Association for Mecklenburg History and Antiquity . Schwerin (1850) 15, pp. 168-171.
predecessor Office successor
Andreas from Wislica Bishop of Schwerin
1356-1364 		Rudolf II of Anhalt
John II of Neumarkt Bishop of Leitomischl
1364-1368 		Peter Jelito
Dietrich Kagelwit Archbishop of Magdeburg
1368–1371 		Peter Jelito
Peter Jelito Bishop of Leitomischl
1371-1380 		John III Sobeslav
personal data
SURNAME Albrecht von Sternberg
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Albrecht II of Sternberg; Albert von Sternberg; Albrecht Holický ze Sternberka
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Bishop of Schwerin, Bishop of Leitomischl, Archbishop of Magdeburg
DATE OF BIRTH around 1333
PLACE OF BIRTH Sternberg Castle
DATE OF DEATH January 14, 1380
Place of death Leitomischl