Bielefeld Recess

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The Bielefeld Recess generally means the settlement of border and confessional disputes between the rule of Rheda and the Prince Diocese of Osnabrück on March 27, 1565. Contrary to this, in the literature the recording of the regional expansion of the Reformation in the county of Ravensberg on October 24, 1609 is occasionally also referred to as the Bielefeld Recess.

Development and subject of the dispute

Count Konrad von Tecklenburg joined the Reformation in 1527 and introduced it into his territory, the rule of Rheda . From 1529 German masses were held there. In 1549 Franz von Waldeck , the bishop of Osnabrück, initiated counter-Reformation measures.

One of the points of contention between the parties was the supremacy in the parish of Gütersloh . Among other things, the right to determine the denomination and to appoint the pastor was disputed. Konrad was very interested in having a Protestant pastor in the parish of Gütersloh, also because the two monasteries Herzebrock and Clarholz with their parishes represented a strong counterbalance to his position of power. On the other hand, control over the parish of Gütersloh was important for the Osnabrück bishop in order to limit the efforts of the Tecklenburger to expand their territorial sphere of influence.

After Konrad died in 1557, rule in Rheda was exercised by his daughter Anna von Tecklenburg-Schwerin . Johann II von Hoya had already become Prince-Bishop of Osnabrück in 1553 . Both parties represented the claims unchanged. Borderline disputes often led to bloody clashes between Rhedian and Osnabrück mercenaries.

arbitration

On March 27, 1565, with the mediation of Count Wilhelm von Ravensberg, the dispute was settled through a recess closed in Bielefeld . The contract was supplemented in the summer of the same year by the Wiedenbrücker contract, which regulated the exact course of the border. The borders were marked by boundary stones .

As a result, the recess brought about a political division of the parish of Gütersloh as a secular consequence. The parish itself and the farming communities Blankenhagen , Nordhorn , Pavenstädt and Sundern finally came under the rule of the Counts of Tecklenburg, while the farming communities Avenwedde , Kattenstroth and Spexard remained under the territorial authority of the Osnabrück prince-bishop.

As a spiritual consequence, it was regulated in the recession that the ecclesiastical rulership rights remained completely with the Prince Diocese of Osnabrück, whereby the Osnabrück bishop was still allowed to determine the denomination in the parish of Gütersloh and to regulate the parish occupation. The right of appointment was actually exercised by the collegiate monastery St. Aegidius in Wiedenbrück. The latter belonged to the Reckenberg office and thus to an exclave of the principality. The pastor's post was occupied by canons consecrated to the Catholic Church.

In assessing the recession and its consequences, it must be borne in mind that the spiritual standpoints of the parties cannot have played as great a role as it appears. Franz von Waldeck had already anchored approaches to the Reformation in the Diocese of Osnabrück and Hermann Bonnus, as his representative, had already reformed Wiedenbrück in 1543 . The city was considered predominantly Lutheran at the time of the recession .

Follow-up time

The regulation did not lead to a permanent recatholization of the parish. The mass was read in German and the Lord's Supper was distributed to the faithful in both forms. The pastors also lived with a woman and had children. The open dispute with the Osnabrück side due to the official introduction of a Lutheran order of worship was shunned, however, the pastors for many years maneuvered politically between the interests of the Bishop of Osnabrück and the Count of Tecklenburg.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Sources on the history of ecclesiastical teaching in the Protestant Church in Germany between 1530 and 1600, Part I: Sources on the history of catechism teaching, Johann Michael Reu (ed.), Gütersloh 1904-35, new edition 1976, Georg Olms Verlag, Hildesheim , Zurich, New York, ISBN 978-3-487-06120-7
  2. The rule of Rheda and its royal seat: from the beginnings to the end of the Old Kingdom , Hermann Schaub, Verlag f Regionalgeschichte, 2006 - 260 pages

literature

  • Eckhard Möller: The Simultaneum at the Gütersloh Church begins with the Hagen Recess of 1655 . In: District of Gütersloh (Hrsg.): Heimatjahrbuch Kreis Gütersloh . 2006.

Coordinates: 51 ° 51 ′ 3.6 ″  N , 8 ° 17 ′ 47.9 ″  E