Ambrosius Schneidt

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Ambrosius Schneidt (* 1540 in Cochem ; † December 29, 1612 in Himmerod ) was a German Cistercian and the 40th abbot in the Himmerod monastery.

Life

Ambrosius Schneidt, who came from Cochem, completed a degree in Humaniora at the collegiate school of St. Martini Stift in Emmerich . In 1562 he became chaplain and secretary to Johann von Briedel . When the Archbishop of Trier Jakob III. von Eltz at the time of the Counter-Reformation in 1579 protested the nuns of the Cistercian convent in the Lehr in Koblenz to the Niederwerth convent , protested Schneidt, who was a confessor there at the time. After the archbishop threatened the nuns with the church ban, they were relocated to the Rhine island Niederwerth in 1580. From 1580 Schneidt was a store and rent master and from 1580 to 1582 waiter in Himmerod. He received his appointment as confessor of the Cistercian Sisters of the Lion Bridges Abbey in 1595 by Abbot General Edmond de la Croix (1550-1604) from the Cîteaux monastery .

Gravestone of Ambrosius Schneidt in the monastery of Himmerod

When he was elected abbot on November 16, 1596, Ambrosius Schneidt received the required majority of 23 votes in the first ballot. The election was headed by the Benedictine abbots of the St. Marien monastery and the St. Martin abbey from Trier. Because of the danger of war and plague prevailing in the area at that time, the election of the abbot was carried out without an external Cistercian abbot, but in the presence of Auxiliary Bishop Peter Binsfeld, who acted as commissioner . This had caused the abbot of Clairvaux Monastery Denis Largentier, on the occasion of a visit to the daughter monastery of Himmerod, to declare the election invalid. However, since the convent contradicted its decision, the father abbot had the Benediction Schneidts already made by the auxiliary bishop Petrus Binsfeld on September 14, 1597 confirmed by his assistant, the abbot of the Villers-Bettnach monastery . The Archbishop of Trier Lothar von Metternich later took this as an opportunity to ban such visitations in the future.

A promissory note from 1598 shows that the monastery went through financially difficult times as a result of numerous attacks by soldiers , long wars, high tax burdens and poor harvests. In the two winters of 1602 and 1604 it was repeatedly plundered by Dutch mercenaries , but Schneidt had taken precautions and was able to save himself and the treasures of the monastery by fleeing to the Springiersbach monastery . In 1608, both the visitation and the reforms of the Electorate Cistercian convents of St. Thomas , Machern , St. Georg in Niederwerth, Rosenthal , Allerheiligen in Oberwesel and Wallersheim were entrusted to him. Only Löwenbrücken, which was under the jurisdiction of the Morimond Monastery , was an exception.

1609 had Abt Schneidt after the monastery had been in the greatest financial need, the court Winterbach in cord for 750 guilders of 24 bus to the kurtrierischen bailiff and Baron Karl von Kesselstatt (1534-1611) from the Zeller Hamm at the Mosel sell. This happened after the convent and father abbot of Clairvaux had previously approved and Cîteaux had previously approved the sale and approved it for the benefit of the monastery , 471 years after the donation by Archbishop Alberich . Abbot Robert Bootz later remarked:

“... although reluctant, meanwhile the same our first foundation. We hope that our descendants should not be able to do this for the sake of this sale ... be angry. And: ... that this sale does not seem very honorable for Himmerod because the ancestors and students of St. Bernhard transplanted there by Archbishop Albero to have sanctified that place. "

- Robert Bootz :

From the proceeds of this sale, ten rights were bought from Mr. zu Hartelstein and the Trier bailiff zu Prüm and Bettenfeld in the expectation of 18 Malter grain and oats .

Activity in the scriptorium

In order to enlarge the Himmeroder library, which was greatly reduced by the looting of the war armies - previously approx. 2,000 volumes -, Schneidt's predecessor, Abbot Johannes Roder, earned himself through extensive book purchases. Ambrosius Schneidt himself, who was known as a calligrapher and illuminator , wrote liturgical manuscripts , decorated them with incunabula and artistic initials as well as with border strips ( arabesques ). For the Archbishop of Trier Lothar von Metternich, he made an elaborate missal , which he provided with miniatures .

Epitaph and inscription

After his death on December 29, 1612, the art-loving and humble abbot Ambrosius Schneidt was buried in the chapter house . His gravestone, made of red sandstone, showing him with the abbot's staff and miter , is now in the monastery church of the Himmerod Abbey and bears the following inscription: ANNO DOMINI MDCXII ULTIMO DECEMBRIS OBIIT REVERENDUS IN CHRISTO PATER AC DOMINUS DMS AMBROSIUS SCHNEITAS COCHEMENSIS ABBU. VI. CUIUS ANIMA REQUIESCAT IN PACE. AMEN. ("In the year of the Lord 1612, on December 31st, the revered father and Mr. Ambrosius Schneit from Cochem, the 6th abbot of this monastery, died in Christ, whose soul may rest in peace. Amen.")

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ St. Martini Stift Emmerich
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h i Schneidt, Ambrosius in the Biographia Cisterciensis
  3. ↑ Königliches Gymnasium zu Coblenz (Ed.): Program for the autumn school exam and for the public speaking and singing exercises in the Königliches Gymnasium zu Coblenz: 1847 . Koblenz 1847 ( limited preview in the Google book search - documentary information on the history of the Marienkloster Leer in Coblenz (1242)).
  4. ↑ a b c 875 years of finding the monastery town of Himmerod, Festschrift Edited by Abbot Bruno Fromme OCist, Verlag der Gesellschaft für Mittelrheinische Kirchengeschichte 2010, ISBN 978-3-929135-63-3 , Winterbach p. 401.
  5. ↑ Former farm Winterbach, Kordel community, In: Kulturdb
  6. ^ Bernhard Peter, Gallery: Photos of beautiful old coats of arms No. 1193, Föhren (Trier-Saarburg district), In: World of coats of arms
  7. ↑ Klaus Schmitz: Grandpa, can you ...: explain the world in which we live? BoD - Books on Demand, Norderstedt 2016, ISBN 978-3-7431-0312-2 , p. 400 ( limited preview in Google Book Search).
  8. ^ Scriptorium and library of the Himmerod Abbey, A contribution to the intellectual history of the Eifelkloster Himmerod by Abbot Ambrosius Schneider (1911–2002), edited by Fritz Wagner
personal data
SURNAME Schneidt, Ambrosius
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Schneidt Cochemensis, Ambrosius; Snowing Cochemensis, Ambrosius
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Cistercians
DATE OF BIRTH 1540
PLACE OF BIRTH Cochem
DATE OF DEATH December 29, 1612
Place of death Himmerod