Christoph von Gleichen

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Family coat of arms of the Counts of Gleichen

Christoph von Gleichen (around 1505 ; † August 18, 1548 in Strasbourg ) was a noble canon in the Princes of Speyer , the Princes of Strasbourg and Cologne , where he was also choir bishop .

Origin and family

He came from the old noble family of Counts von Gleichen -Tonna and was born the son of Count Philipp von Gleichen († 1549) and his wife Margarete von Schönburg -Waldenburg (1487–1535). His sister Katharina married Heinrich von Schlik and her grandson of the same name Heinrich Schlik zu Bassano and Weißkirchen (1580–1650) rose to become imperial field marshal and court war council president .

Christoph's father Philipp von Gleichen joined the Confessio Augustana after 1530 .

Life

When he was still a minor, his father had appointed him clerical and nominated canon in Speyer on February 20, 1521 . On January 17, 1527, Christoph von Gleichen became cathedral capitular there, after having received a canonical at the cathedral monastery in Strasbourg on January 18, 1526 and one soon afterwards in Cologne .

According to the minutes of the Speyer cathedral chapter, after the death of his mother, he received leave from August 13, 1535 “to go to settle in” and since he believed “his father might want to appoint him to another position” . This request was probably connected with the father's conversion to Protestantism, without being explicitly mentioned.

When Emperor Charles V visited Speyer in January 1541, Christoph von Gleichen was there again in his spiritual office. Together with canon Johannes Christoph von Zimmer , he presented the monarch with a present on behalf of the Speyer cathedral chapter (silver cup with 100 gold guilders). In October of the same year he wrote to his father that he had to attend the Speyer Reichstag (1542) on behalf of the Cologne cathedral chapter. In his signature he called himself cathedral choir bishop of Cologne.

In 1543, Count von Gleichen received leave from the diocese of Speyer in order to serve his year of residence at the cathedral monastery in Cologne. In 1542/1543 the Archbishop of Cologne, Hermann V von Wied, tried to introduce the Reformation. This failed mainly because of the resistance of his cathedral chapter, where the canon and choir bishop Christoph von Gleichen was a decided opponent of these plans. In particular, in Cologne he met the reformer Martin Bucer , whom he knew from Strasbourg. Bucer himself laments this in his writings. Hermann von Wied had to resign in 1547. In the same year Gleichen also appears as a canon at St. Gereon in Cologne.

Christoph von Gleichen died in 1548, "suddenly and unexpectedly" , in his house in Strasbourg. It is recorded in the Seelbuch of the Speyer Cathedral with an annual memory. In this contemporary entry he is characterized as "venerable and generous" .

In the Zimmerische Chronik Froben describes Christoph von Zimmer (1519–1566) a. a. his experiences with Christoph von Gleichen in the Cologne carnival .

Family environment

His younger brother Georg II von Gleichen (1509–1570) was also canon in Strasbourg and Cologne, but resigned himself in 1549, but joined the Protestant camp and married in 1550.

The cousin Count Christian von Gleichen († 1551) acted as canon at St. Alban's Abbey in front of Mainz and as Mainz cathedral custodian .

literature

  • Konrad von Busch and Franz Xaver Glasschröder : choir rules and younger sea book of the old Speyer cathedral chapter , Speyer, Historischer Verein der Pfalz, 1923, pages 412 u. 413 (with biographical information about the person)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Genealogical page about sister Katharina von Gleichen
  2. ↑ Johannes Janssen : History of the German People since the End of the Middle Ages , Volume 3, p. 515, Herder Verlag, Freiburg, 1883 (detail scan)
  3. ^ JV Pollet: Martin Bucer, Etudes Sur Les Relations de Bucer Avec Les Pays-Bas. II. Documents , 1985, p. 89, ISBN 9004075658 ; (Digital scan of Bucer's transcript)
  4. ↑ Helene Klauser: Cologne Carnival between Uniform and Lifestyle , Waxmann Verlag, 2007, p. 96 u. 97, ISBN 3830967780 ; (Digital scan)
  5. ^ Detlev Schwennicke : European Family Tables, New Series, Volume XIX., Plate 98-102, Publisher: Vittorio Klostermann, Frankfurt a. M. 2000, ISBN 3465030745
personal data
SURNAME Same, Christoph von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Same, Christoph Graf von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Choir bishop in Cologne, Canon in Speyer, Strasbourg and Cologne
DATE OF BIRTH around 1505
DATE OF DEATH August 18, 1548
Place of death Strasbourg