Christoph Kirmeser

Christoph Kirmeser (also Christoph Kirmesser , Christof Kirmiser ; Latin Christophorum Kirmeserum ; Czech Krištof Kirmiser ; * around 1550 in Schemnitz , Upper Hungary ; † probably in Sankt Lorenzen im Mürz Valley ) was the rector of the parish high school in Neisse from 1574 to 1580 . From 1584 to 1595 he was, although he was not the Order Augustinian canons belonged, provost of the Archdiocese of Prague belonging Augustinian Canons in Glatz . During his tenure, the Canon Monastery was dissolved and its possessions and privileges were transferred to the Jesuits, who subsequently established the Glatz Jesuit College . Christoph Kirmesser had to leave Glatz and was shortly thereafter abbot of the Benedictine monastery of St. Lambrecht in Styria .

Life

Christoph Kirmeser received his Baccalaureate from the University of Krakow in 1569 . He then studied at the Jesuit- led University of Ingolstadt , which he left in 1574 with a master's degree . In Ingolstadt he shared a room with his future brother-in-law Martin Kauschke from Neisse. He also got to know the Breslau canon Michael Hiltprand, who visited his brother Johannes there, who was teaching as a master's degree at the university. Michael Hiltprand, who had also studied in Ingolstadt, was head of the Neiss parish high school at the time. When the position of rector was to be filled there, Hiltprand wrote to Kirmeser on January 20, 1574 and offered him the position. Since Kirmeser in Ingolstadt wanted to take the master’s exams and had also received a call to the college in Eichstätt , he asked for time to think it over. He presumably also had an offer from Olomouc , as he received a scholarship from there in the form of a prebend that the Olomouc mayor Wenzel Edelmann had arranged for him. Finally he decided on Neisse.

Via Vienna and Olomouc he reached Neisse on May 9, 1574, where he took over the rectorate of the parish school a few days later. Their reputation increased significantly a year later when the Breslau clerical seminary was relocated to Neisse and connected to the parish high school. While Kirmeser's salary was paid by the city council of Neisse, the philosophy and theology professors were paid by the Bishop of Breslau.

On January 16, 1576, Kirmeser married Agnes, a daughter of Joachim Kauschke, a citizen of Neiss. She died on July 14, 1580, leaving behind a son Joachim and daughter Barbara. After the death of his wife, Kirmeser decided to enter the clergy. On October 7, 1580, he resigned his position at the city council with a letter written in German and informed the rector of the clerical seminary, Canon Martin Lochmann, that he was resigning from his office. In December d. J. he left Neisse. After his ordination, which he presumably received in Olomouc, he became canon at the collegiate monastery of St. Peter in Brno . From 1582 he is documented as pastor of St. Jacob in Brno. It is possible that he obtained these dignities with the help of the Jesuits who had been working in Brno for some time.

Already at the end of 1583, Kirmeser received a call as provost to the Augustinian canons in Glatz. This was the Prague Archbishop Arnošt of Pardubice was founded and belonged to the Glatzer country to archbishopric Prague . Although Kirmeser did not belong to the order of the Augustinian Canons, he was appointed provost on January 4, 1584 by Archbishop Martin Medek von Müglitz . As provost, Kirmeser's main task was to restore the monastic order in the monastery, which had fallen during the Reformation , and to rebuild the monastery from a religious and economic point of view. Soon after his arrival in Glatz, he tried to establish friendly contact with the city's Lutheran council. Although he gave a sermon on Quasimodogeniti called "Pax vobis" on Sunday , he was very firm in taking the Catholic point of view. Since the people of Glatzer almost completely committed to Lutheranism , he had little success with counter-Reformation measures. When in 1586 several noblemen attacked the monastery-owned Maierhof in Niederschwedeldorf and drove away 19 cows, four oxen and six horses, Kirmeser traveled to Prague and submitted a plan to the archbishop to secure the monastery property. Afterwards the Augustinian monastery was to be converted into a Jesuit college. Since the Archbishop completely rejected him, he gave up the plan for the time being. Although the monastery had been exempted from all taxes and taxes by the sovereign Charles IV in 1361 , the local nobility protested again and again against these privileges. In 1591, Kirmeser had to sign a contract with the Glatzer estates by which he undertook to contribute to the state levies. Thereupon he took up his plan to transform the monastery into a Jesuit college again and turned to Bishop Medek's successor, Zbynko Berka von Duba and Leipa . As a justification, he stated that he was no longer able to maintain the pen against the attacks "by the Lutherans, Kalviner and Schwenckfelder". Since Archbishop Berka von Duba and Leipa also decidedly rejected Kirmeser's plans, Kirmeser, with the support of the Jesuits, turned directly to the Pope, who asked him to resign in 1594. On March 9, 1595, Pope Clement VIII dissolved the order of the Glatzer Augustinian Canons and handed over their possessions to the Jesuits. The remaining Augustinian monks were to be accepted by other monasteries of the order. The execution of the breve was entrusted to the bishops of Breslau, Olomouc and Vienna.

After Emperor Rudolf II as the Bohemian sovereign agreed to the papal decision, the Prague archbishop had to give up his resistance. On September 28, 1597, two imperial councilors and the Prague provost Leopold Popel von Lobkowitz handed the monastery over to the Jesuit order. The Glatz estates and the city of Glatz, which the Kirmeser described as a traitor and demanded that the Emperor recall the Augustinian Canons, were not heard. Bishop Berka von Duba and Leipa expressed his disappointment in a letter dated September 8, 1597: He had intended to appoint the Glatzer Augustinian provost to a bishopric and the Augustinian provost to a suffragan of Prague. With that, Provost Kirmeser should have been one of the losers. It is not known whether he possibly followed the handover of the provost to the Jesuits from the beginning.

In 1597 Christoph Kirmeser became abbot of the Benedictine monastery of St. Lambrecht in Styria with papal and imperial help , but gave up a year later because he was rejected there. In 1598 he became pastor in Sankt Lorenzen im Mürz Valley . Further life dates and the date of his death are not known.

Works

• Pax Vobis. A Christian sermon on the peace of our dear Lord ... Printed in Ingolstatt / by Wolffgang Eder. MD LXXXXII. on-line

literature

• Arno Herzig , Małgorzata Ruchniewicz : History of the Glatzer Land. DOBU-Verlag et al., Hamburg et al. 2006, ISBN 3-934632-12-2 , pp. 109-112.
• Maximilian Tschitschke: The last provost of the Arnestinian Foundation . In: Glatzer Heimatblätter, Volume 12, 1926, pp. 113–125.
• August Kastner: From the history of the Neiss parish high school . Printed by Rosenkranz and Bär 1825. pp. 13f. on-line

Individual evidence

1. ↑ It was printed in Ingolstadt in 1492.
2. ^ Carl Schmutz: Historisch-topographisches Lexicon von Steyermark, Volume 2, p. 325 Abbot of St. Lamprecht ( year 1592 incorrect )