Burkhard von Serkem

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Double grave plate of the bishops Serkem and Mul in the Lübeck Cathedral

Burkhard von Serkem , also Serken , (* around 1236; † March 13, 1317 ) was bishop in Lübeck from 1276 until his death . He is considered one of the most important bishops of the Diocese of Lübeck . Because of his disputes with the council of the Hanseatic City of Lübeck, he went down in the history of church and town as the most contentious of all Lübeck bishops of the Middle Ages.

Live and act

Burkhard von Serkem came from a noble family in the Duchy of Lüneburg, whose family name can be traced back to the village of Sarchem near Hitzacker . As Lübeck canon, he stood before his predecessor, Bishop Johannes III. von Tralau was already critical of Tralau because he did not defend the interests of the church in the rapidly developing trading town on the Trave with enough determination. Nevertheless, he was proposed by him as his successor. During his tenure, the Eutin residence of the Lübeck bishops was strengthened by the expansion of the Eutin Castle there and the extensions to the Michaeliskirche . His ardor led to numerous proceedings that dragged on for decades and also occupied the Papal Curia at different locations between Rome and Avignon.

Burial right of mendicant monks

Immediately after the beginning of his episcopate, the first opportunity arose in 1277 for a trial of strength with the mendicant monks of the Franciscans from the St. Catherine's Monastery , who, like the Dominicans of the castle monastery, were in a profitable alliance against the diocese and cathedral chapter with the up-and-coming bourgeoisie of the city. The dispute broke out over the Franciscans' funeral rights for Lübeck citizens in their Katharinenkirche . The disputes over the corpse that triggered the dispute were fierce and Bishop Burkhard immediately used the toughest church punishments such as interdict and excommunication . At the same time he had to move to the nearby Eutin for the first time with the cathedral chapter (where he founded the collegiate monastery Eutin in 1308 ), where the residence of the Lübeck bishops was established in this way, as was the residence of the prince-bishops of the Lübeck monastery after the Reformation . This first dispute dragged on until 1282 and was ended by a word of power from Rome in favor of the Franciscans.

Occupation of the parish at Lübeck's city churches

The next dispute concerned the question of who had to decide on the filling of the parish positions in the main churches of the city, the council or the clergy. Before his appointment as bishop, Bishop Burkhard had been the main pastor of the Council Church of St. Mary . Wulbod , who was favored by the citizens , could not succeed in the Pope's trial without the blessing from the Lübeck Cathedral . From this defeat in 1282, the council proposed a clergyman from Strasbourg with Rudolf von Rheinau as the new pastor for Marien in order to enforce the patronage right to fill the pastor's position. This procedure ended in 1286 with a favorable comparison for the bishop and cathedral chapter, but at least the citizens of Lübeck were now allowed to “name” one of the Lübeck canons as pastor, but only “request” one canon for the Jakobikirche and the Petrikirche . Regarding the Aegidienkirche , no regulation was made. On the other hand, this created a more balanced situation between urban patriciate and clergy in comparison to other cities of the time such as Cologne .

Memorial plaque on the site of the abandoned Kaltenhof

Fortification of the bishop's court on the Trave

The third major point of contention between Bishop Burkhard and the city was the diocese's land holdings in the area of Alt-Lübeck north of the Trave between today's Bad Schwartau and Ratekau . Here the bishop fortified his agricultural property, the Kaltenhof , thereby violating the privileges of the imperial freedom letter of Emperor Friedrich II. From 1226, in which the people of Lübeck had assured themselves that in the area of ​​the Trave between Bad Oldesloe and Travemünde or the Priwall, no fortifications were allowed to be erected by third parties. According to today's view, the area increases in the document of 1226 are a falsification of the original Barbarossa privilege of 1188.

In addition, when Alt-Lübeck was transferred from the diocese to the city in 1225, a part of the border line in front of the Mühlentor was in dispute in this area. The dispute broke out openly around 1296 and occupied several courts, which also ruled against each other. Bishop Burkhard reinstated the interdict in 1299, which as such remained ineffective and was effectively undermined by the city's mendicant monks. On the other hand, the dispute escalated in the most violent way, the population of the city reacted with violence and on June 12, 1299 both the Kaltenhof at the gates of the city and the fourteen cathedral curiae of the canons, the bishop and the provost around the cathedral in Lübeck burned down Old town. The council, which did not intervene against this violence, was excommunicated by Bishop Burkhard from Eutin. Since the pastors of the Lübeck churches of St. Marien, St. Jakobi and St. Petri had left the city as canons because of the riots, the council appointed new clergymen in their place in 1300 and also undertook a reorganization of the school system which was soon reversed by Bishop Burkhard. The cathedral school continued as the cathedral chapter's Latin school until 1810.

The process of this third set of controversies began by order of Pope Boniface VIII. In 1300 in Ratzeburg , the seat of the neighboring diocese of Ratzeburg, and passed to the papal curia in autumn 1301. Two other popes died, so that the proceedings were delayed. It dragged on until 1317 and ended in the year of Bishop Burkhard's death with the approval of a settlement negotiated in 1314 by Pope John XXII.

Aftermath

Burkhard's conciliatory successor, Bishop Heinrich II. Bochholt , implemented the settlement.

Burkhard von Serkem was buried in Lübeck Cathedral. In a side chapel of the late Gothic high choir of Lübeck Cathedral, which he started and completed by his successor, the bronze grave plate shared with Bishop Johannes Mul (1341–50) commemorates the most contentious bishop in Lübeck's history. It comes from a workshop in Flanders and shows full portraits of both bishops in full regalia.

literature

Web links

Wikisource: Burkhard von Serkem  - Sources and full texts

supporting documents

  1. ↑ As early as 1225, the council had this right “incorporated” into the 1188 privilege granted by Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa in Lübeck .
  2. ↑ The former courtyard is still clearly visible today in the triangle between the A 1 and A 226 .
  3. ↑ Not until 1418 did the church recognize municipal writing schools.
  4. ↑ Complete text of the inscription with explanation and translation by: Adolf Clasen : Verhabene Schätze - Lübeck's Latin inscriptions in the original and in German. Lübeck 2002, p. 78 ff. ISBN 3-7950-0475-6
predecessor Office successor
John III from Tralau Bishop of Lübeck
1276-1317 		Heinrich II. Bochholt
personal data
SURNAME Burkhard von Serkem
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Burkhard von Serken
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Bishop of Lübeck
DATE OF BIRTH around 1236
DATE OF DEATH March 13, 1317