Balthasar von Promnitz

Balthasar III. von Promnitz (* 1488 ; † January 20, 1562 in Neisse , Principality of Neisse ) was Prince-Bishop of Breslau .

Origin and career

Balthasar III. was the second-born son of the little wealthy Caspar von Promnitz on Lessendorf. After studying at the University of Wittenberg , where he obtained his legal licentiate , he turned to the clergy. In 1534 he became provost at the collegiate monastery of the Holy Cross in Breslau and four years later archdeacon at the cathedral .

Bishop of Wroclaw

After the death of Wroclaw Bishop Jakob von Salza , the cathedral chapter elected Balthasar von Promnitz as his successor on September 12, 1539. Linked to this office was the position of governor of Silesia . In this capacity he presided over the Princely Congress of the Duchy. Balthasar von Promnitz was not a zealot in matters of faith, and so the Protestants in Silesia were also satisfied with his election as bishop, since he left them undisturbed with their denomination.

The bishop was more interested in acquiring private estates with which he could develop his family's position in the Silesian- Lusatian area. 1542 he acquired from the possession of the Hungarian magnate family Thurzó of Bethlenfalva the Upper Silesian Standesherrschaft Pless , 1556 niederlausitzischen gentlemen Sorau and Triebel . Of Emperor Ferdinand I , he acquired in 1558 as a pledge the Principality of Sagan with Priebus . He tolerated the Protestants in all his possessions.

After his death he was buried in the parish church of St. Jakob in Neiss, where a magnificent epitaph made of red marble commemorates him. He left Pless as majorate property to his nephew Stanislaus in Lessendorf ; the pledged possessions and the Niederlausitzer dominions went to his nephew Seyfried von Promnitz auf Weichau .

literature

• Karl Kastner: Wroclaw Bishops . East German Publishing House, Breslau 1929.
• Gottfried Kliesch: Bishop Balthasar von Promnitz (1539–1562), governor of Silesia . In: Yearbook of the Schlesische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität zu Breslau , Vol. 29 (1988) pp. 73-102.
• Ambrosius Moibanus, Philipp Melanchthon: Epistola Gratulatoria. Ad clariss. principem, eundemque Reverendiss. DD Baltasarem Episcopum Vratislaviae ... Vratislaviae 1541. [Congratulatory letters from the Protestant pastor Ambrosius Moibanus and Philipp Melanchthon on the occasion of the election of Balthasar von Promnitz as Bishop of Breslau ..., Breslau 1541] .
• Alfred Sabisch: The Bishops of Breslau and the Reformation in Silesia. Jakob von Salza and Balthasar von Promnitz in their religious and ecclesiastical debate with the supporters of the Reformation . Aschendorff, Münster 1975 (= Catholic life and church reform in the age of religious schism , vol. 35), ISBN 3-402-03323-2 .

predecessor	Office	successor
Jakob von Salza	Prince-Bishop of Breslau 1539–1562	Kaspar von Logau