Arnold III from Uissigheim

Epitaph of Knight Arnold III. in the parish church of St. Laurentius in Uissigheim

Arnold III von Uissigheim (also Blessed Arnold and King Armleder ; * around 1298, † 1336 ) was a medieval knight from the von Uissigheim family .

Legend

Knight Arnold von Uissigheim had taken part in a Corpus Christi procession . Here he allegedly saw Jews mocking the Holy of Holies. He made an oath to avenge the blasphemy of the sacrament and to persecute and kill the Jews. However, they resisted and lurked the knight on the Hardwäldchen towards Eiersheimup and cut off his head. When the body was found, it was placed on a wagon pulled by young, unaccustomed oxen, who pulled it into the village without command and stopped in front of the church. The bells then began to ring by themselves, and Knight Arnold was buried in a high grave in the church. The grave was adorned with a magnificent gravestone on which the knight was carved in stone.

An Erfurt chronicler also reports such persecutions , albeit under the year 1343: “In 1343 Jews were killed in the city of Röttingen , Aub , Bischofsheim and many other cities and villages. The originator and instigator of these persecutions was a certain knight of Uissinkeim. Thereupon the Jews caused the Lord Godfried III. von Hohenlohe-Brauneck with a gift of 400 pounds Heller to catch the knight. He was picked up and taken to Röttingen. There he repeatedly confessed to the dean and was allowed to receive the sacraments. But he was finally taken to the city of Kitzingen and beheaded there. The body was brought to his village of Uissigheim and buried in the church. He became known for countless miracles. ”According to the inscription (which has since been lost) around the tombstone, Knight Arnold was beheaded with his own sword, which is to be regarded as a special perk, as is the burial in consecrated earth. The legend in which it is claimed that the knight was murdered by Jews did not arise until later and can also be found in a similar form in part with Arnold von Hiltensweiler .

Facts

From the history of the bishops of Würzburg show that the Knights of Uissigheim at on July 19, 1336 in Röttingen broken and to the whole of Franconia expanding Jewish persecution had been involved. Here he found his death on November 14, 1336 by order of the Bishop of Würzburg, then Otto II von Wolfskeel.

Until the 18th century Arnold III. revered as a miracle worker; the grave was in the middle of the church. Since the tombstone was a hindrance during processions, it was moved to the epistle side of the church. Underneath this tombstone was the so-called “Arnold's box”, in which the farmers sacrificed their harvest in order to ward off epidemics and diseases from their cattle. The gifts went to the Church. The veneration came to an end when Pastor Father Anselm Ries († 1730) was buried in the grave in which the dead knight had originally been.

The former main street in Uissigheim is now called "Ritter-Arnold-Straße".

literature

• Florian Werr: History of the parish village Uissigheim. Tauberbischofsheim 1910.
• Helmuth Lauf and Otto Uihlein: Uissigheim as reflected in its 1200-year history . Self-published by the municipality of Uissigheim, 1966
• Klaus Arnold: Arnold von Uissigheim (around 1290–1336). In: Erich Schneider (Ed.): Fränkische Lebensbilder. Volume 20. Society for Franconian History, Würzburg 2004, ISBN 3-7686-9304-X ( publications of the Society for Franconian History, Series VII A. Volume 20), pp. 1–15.
• Benedikt Grimmler: Franconian criminals. The most exciting criminal cases from 1330 to 1975. Sutton Verlag (Erfurt) 2015

Web links

• King Armleder / Knight Arnold von Uissigheim

Individual evidence

1. ^ Benedikt Grimmler: Franconian Criminals. The most exciting criminal cases from 1330 to 1975. Sutton Verlag (Erfurt) 2015;