Clemens Leusser

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Bronnbach Abbey on the banks of the Tauber (oldest known depiction 1518)
Cloister of the Bronnbach Monastery
Eberstein's epitaph in the parish church of Wertheim: Katharina zu Stolberg between her two spouses Michael III. Graf von Wertheim and Philipp Graf von Eberstein
Former Fürstlich Rosenberg'sche (Catholic) court in Wertheim, rebuilt in 1566 in place of the Bronnbacher Hof, where Leusser lived as abbot, today the town hall

Clemens Leusser (born November 23, 1518 near Hardheim ; † October 6, 1572 in Wertheim ) was an abbot of the Cistercian monastery Bronnbach , who joined the Reformation and headed the monastery for a few years in the Reformation sense, including getting married. Finally he was deposed and resigned by the Würzburg bishop. Then he built up a new existence: as a steward in the service of the Counts of Stolberg, city councilor and mayor of Wertheim, most recently as a merchant with a chamois leather trade . He wrote an autobiography in 1568 .

Disciple and monk

Clemens Leusser was the son of Valentin Leusser and Christine Hofrichter, who ran a small farm near Hardheim. He attended the school in his hometown Hardheim, then the one in Walldürn . His mother died in the plague year of 1530 and his father brought him back to the farm for agricultural work. After Valentin Leusser had entered into a second marriage, he sent the son back to school, first to Külsheim and later to Miltenberg . On the orders of his father, completely against his will and in despair (as he wrote in retrospect), the fourteen-year-old entered the Bronnbach monastery as a pupil on October 18, 1533 and was dressed as a novice on August 15, 1534 . The only subject matter at the time was memorizing the Psalter . At the age of sixteen he made his profession on February 10, 1535 . He was now assigned as a subcustos for sexton services. In 1537 he was promoted to cellar . Eight monks, around a third of the convent, fell victim to the epidemic of 1530, which put the abbey's development at risk.

At the age of twenty he was ordained priest in 1538 by the Würzburg bishop and celebrated Primiz on Vitalistag . Looking back, he emphasized in his autobiography that all of this was forced to happen to him. He had started to take root in the realm of the Antichrist . In 1540 Leusser was elected Subbursarius and was now an employee of the Bursarius , who administered the monastery finances, an office that he held himself in 1547.

Abbot of Bronnbach

After the death of the 38th abbot of Bronnbach, Markus Haug, on November 23, 1548, the monks of Bronnbach unanimously elected Clemens Leusser as his successor. But only nine out of 14 conventuals took part in the election; this is considered an indication that Count Michael III. von Wertheim wanted to enforce Leusser as his candidate and therefore prevented some monks from voting. This choice was confirmed by Abbot Jean XI. Loysier von Cîteaux on February 5, 1549, and on April 28, 1549, the Würzburg auxiliary bishop Georg Flach Leusser designated as 39th abbot of Bronnbach.

In his first two years in office, Leusser led the monastery in the traditional manner and accepted six novices. But he became increasingly interested in Reformation writings. He began to compare texts by Martin Luther , Philipp Melanchthon and Johannes Brenz with the Bible. As he wrote, this troubled his conscience, but he wanted to hold on to his quiet life. The news of the Tridentine Council in 1551/52, however, thwarted his hopes for church reform. He made himself do something himself, as he was not a private person but had responsibility for his confreres and the parishioners in the parishes. The Augsburg Confession of 1530 he regarded as an authoritative confession. By buying books on the Reformation and making them available to his confreres, he had also won the majority of the convention over to the innovations. At the end of 1552 he reported to Count Michael III. von Wertheim that he introduced the Reformation in the monastery. So he took in 24 poor young people and hired a teacher to train them as Lutheran pastors or schoolmasters in the monastery. In doing so, he initiated the transformation of a Cistercian monastery into a Protestant monastery school, which has been successfully carried out several times, including in Maulbronn . The foundation of Leusser's school "flourished and fell with the last Count of Wertheim." At Easter 1553 the Lord's Supper was served in both forms in the monastery church and the associated parishes of the community .

The Markgräflerkrieg (1552 to 1554) also damaged the Bronnbach monastery, which had to raise war taxes and deliveries in kind to the warring parties. In 1554 the convent had to leave the monastery building temporarily. The abbot moved the archive and a substantial part of the monastery treasure into the monastery courtyard that the Cistercians owned in the city of Wertheim. From here he tried to continue running the monastery. The prior and three other conventuals took up positions as Lutheran pastors and married; Leusser gave them permission to do so.

The Würzburg prince-bishop Melchior Zobel von Giebelstadt took action against the Lutheran Cistercian abbot, who, however, was not subordinate to him. On the return journey from the Frankfurt Autumn Fair in 1554, Leusser was supposed to be arrested in the Hochstift Mainz . Five riders from Mainz and a group of peasants intercepted him near Stockstadt and asked him with rifle drawn whether he was the abbot of Bronnbach. In order not to be shot on the spot, Leusser stubbornly maintained that he did not know of any abbots and that he was Wertheim's interest writer. Since the Mainz people didn't know him personally, he got away with it.

Michael III died on March 14, 1556. from Wertheim. It immediately became apparent that some of the conventuals wanted to remain Catholic - for their abbot Clemens that was treason. Because his confreres gave the bishops of Mainz and Würzburg another reason to take action against him. They confiscated the monastery slopes in their areas and brought Bronnbach into economic difficulties. Bronnbach was particularly hard hit by the closure of the Würzburger Hof, as the abbey drew half of its income from here.

In his conflict with the Prince-Bishop of Würzburg, Clemens Leusser had the political support of Count Ludwig zu Stolberg and Duke Christoph von Württemberg . They contested the Würzburg bishop's right to visit Bronnbach; in the case of the Maulbronn monastery (mother monastery of Bronnbach) the duke claimed such a right of visitation for himself. Friedrich von Wirsberg , ordained the new bishop of Würzburg in 1558, made Leusser the offer to convert and return to the monastery as abbot. Leusser refused, however. In the same year, the Würzburg bishop irregularly appointed and nominated the Bronnbach conventual Johann Pleitner, who had remained a Catholic and served as pastor in Königshofen, as the 40th abbot of Bronnbach. He installed it "with armed force" on January 25, 1559. (Abbot Johann died in 1563 and left two daughters, to whom he bequeathed the property he had acquired during his time as a pastor with the permission of the Prince-Bishop closed and run by Jesuits since 1572. )

Vogt, city councilor and businessman

On January 8, 1560, Clemens Leusser accepted a settlement and resigned from his office as abbot. He had been in the service of Count zu Stolberg as an auditor since autumn of the previous year . From 1561 to 1563 he was the count's steward, an office that he had to give up for health reasons. During this time he was responsible for construction work on Wertheim Castle .

In Wertheim, where he and his family lived in their own house on Brückengasse, he acquired citizenship on November 30, 1564 . He became a member of the city council and city court and was former mayor from 1565 to 1567. From 1565 he worked as a merchant and traded in chamois leather; he also attended the Frankfurt autumn fair.

family

On June 1, 1557 married Abbot Clemens Marie Eberlin, the daughter of the late former 1533 Franciscan and finally Lutheran pastor from Leutershausen , Johann Eberlin of Gunzburg . She died on November 10, 1557. Leusser then married Anna Rüdiger, the daughter of the Wertheim interest clerk, on October 25, 1558. There were several children from the second marriage:

  • Johannes * December 3, 1559, † January 28, 1560;
  • Christina * September 10, 1561, † May 8, 1562;
  • Valentinus * November 3, 1562;
  • Regina * May 16, 1564;
  • Hans Conradt * April 18, 1566
  • Clement Jörg * April 8, 1568.

Tomb

Clemens Leusser died on October 6, 1572 at the age of 53 of colic, which was accompanied by an epileptic fit. This second-hand addendum concludes the manuscript of his autobiography.

He was buried in the Wertheimer Bergfriedhof; his tomb made of red sandstone has been preserved. The structure of the wall tomb is in three parts. The central plate, bordered by pilasters, shows the family kneeling in front of the crucifix as a relief: on the left Clemens Leusser with four sons, on the right his two wives with three daughters. On the base you can read the extensive Latin epitaph (12 distiches ). The attic contains Bible verses and the date of death. According to Joseph von Aschbach, the inscription reads :

“Conditur hac Clemens parva Leusserus in urna,
Qui varias vitae sensit in orbe vices.
Brumbachii summos Abbatis adeptus honores,
Nile habuit sancta relligione prius.
Namque adytis removens ficti ludibria ritus,
Unde erat idolis constabilitus honos:
Mox fuit invisus latiae cultoribus aulae,
Cessit et officio, salvus honore, suo;
[I] ustificaque fide nitens, verboque salutis
Persistit unigenae credulus esse deodorant.
Inde thori casta factus to lege maritus,
Vidit foecundae pignora chara domus.
Consul et oblatas urbis moderatus habenas
Jure suis aequo civibus aequus erat.
Utque fuit scelerum vindex et amator honesti,
Publica sic prompta commoda juvit ope.
Saepe piis studiis, horumque benignus alumnis
Auxiliatrices praebnit ipse manus.
Saepe levans miseros et opis melioris egentes,
Munifici meruit nomen habere viri.
Donec ab hic terris superam revocatus ad aulam,
Ad pia coelicolum gaudia fecit iter.
Nunc ubi foelicis factus novus aetheris haeres,
Ante Redemptorem vivit, oratque Deum. "

“Clemens Leusser, who suffered the vicissitudes of life in the world, is buried in this small urn. (...) "

Autobiography

Why Leusser wrote an autobiography in 1568 can only be guessed at. Perhaps he wanted to inform the family about his career in the monastery, the reformatory changes he made in the monastery and his transition into civil life. A German opening prayer is followed by a Latin vita, which deals with childhood and monastery years up to 1552 in first-person form. Then the author switches to German and reports on the controversies that ultimately led to his resignation as abbot. He integrates Latin and German documents. As part of the archive from the Bronnbach Monastery, Leusser's manuscript came to the Princely Löwenstein-Wertheim-Freudenberg Archive in Wertheim ( call number Br. 1049).

Originally the manuscript consisted of 134 folio sheets, paginated by Leusser himself, some pages were subsequently cut out.

Aftermath

The vault painting in the sacristy of the Brombach monastery church from the second half of the 18th century shows Abbot Clemens Leusser at the table with Count Michael III. von Wertheim; both wear a millstone around their necks because they campaigned for the Reformation and thus, in the opinion of the artist or client, incurred a heavy debt on themselves.

literature

  • The biography of Abbot Clemens Leusser von Bronnbach . Written by himself. From the estate of Pastor Dr. Rolf Kern edited by Friedrich Wecken. In: Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte 8 (1910/11), pp. 246–322.
  • Hermann Ehmer: The Bronnbach Monastery in the Age of Reformation . In: Württembergisch Franken 72 (1988), pp. 21-42.

Web links

  • Biographia Cisterciensis: Clemens Leusser
  • Testimonials in German-speaking countries. Autobiographies, diaries and other autobiographical writings 1400–1620. A source study by Gabriele Jancke: Clemens Leusser
  • Vita Clementis Leusseri de Hartheim, a se ipso conscripta (autobiography), manuscript, 140 and 10 sheets, 1568 (1572), Landesarchiv Baden-Württemberg , Dept. Staatsarchiv Wertheim, R-Lit. Br No. 1049. Digitized
  • Letter from Abbot Clemens Leusser on the Reformation in Bronnbach (excerpt) , manuscript, 5 sheets, [1790], Landesarchiv Baden-Württemberg, Abt. Staatsarchiv Wertheim, RJ 3 Nr. 120. Digitized

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Adolf von Oechelhäuser : The art monuments of the district of Wertheim , Freiburg im Breisgau 1896, p. 259.
  2. ^ Adolf von Oechelhäuser: The art monuments of the district of Wertheim , Freiburg im Breisgau 1896, p. 276.
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j Gerd Gessinger: Clemens Leusser. In: Biographia Cisterciensis . Retrieved June 25, 2021.
  4. ↑ a b c d The biography of Abbot Clemens Leusser von Bronnbach . Written by himself. From the estate of Pastor Dr. Rolf Kern edited by Friedrich Wecken, 1910/11, p. 253.
  5. ↑ Stefan Huppertz-Wild: Bronnbach - history and art of the former Cistercian monastery , Forchheim 2010, p. 25 ( online )
  6. ^ The biography of Abbot Clemens Leusser von Bronnbach . Written by himself. From the estate of Pastor Dr. Rolf Kern edited by Friedrich Wecken, 1910/11, p. 254.
  7. ↑ a b c d Stefan Huppertz-Wild: Bronnbach - history and art of the former Cistercian monastery , Forchheim 2010, p. 26 ( online )
  8. ^ The biography of Abbot Clemens Leusser von Bronnbach . Written by himself. From the estate of Pastor Dr. Rolf Kern edited by Friedrich Wecken, 1910/11, pp. 255f.
  9. ^ The biography of Abbot Clemens Leusser von Bronnbach . Written by himself. From the estate of Pastor Dr. Rolf Kern edited by Friedrich Wecken, 1910/11, p. 257.
  10. ^ The biography of Abbot Clemens Leusser von Bronnbach . Written by himself. From the estate of Pastor Dr. Rolf Kern edited by Friedrich Wecken, 1910/11, pp. 258f.
  11. ^ The biography of Abbot Clemens Leusser von Bronnbach . Written by himself. From the estate of Pastor Dr. Rolf Kern edited by Friedrich Wecken, 1910/11, p. 261.
  12. ^ The biography of Abbot Clemens Leusser von Bronnbach . Written by himself. From the estate of Pastor Dr. Rolf Kern edited by Friedrich Wecken, 1910/11, p. 260.
  13. ^ The biography of Abbot Clemens Leusser von Bronnbach . Written by himself. From the estate of Pastor Dr. Rolf Kern edited by Friedrich Wecken, 1910/11, p. 251.
  14. ↑ Stefan Huppertz-Wild: Bronnbach - history and art of the former Cistercian monastery , Forchheim 2010, p. 27 ( online )
  15. ^ The biography of Abbot Clemens Leusser von Bronnbach . Written by himself. From the estate of Pastor Dr. Rolf Kern edited by Friedrich Wecken, 1910/11, p. 262.
  16. ^ The biography of Abbot Clemens Leusser von Bronnbach . Written by himself. From the estate of Pastor Dr. Rolf Kern edited by Friedrich Wecken, 1910/11, p. 261.
  17. ^ The biography of Abbot Clemens Leusser von Bronnbach . Written by himself. From the estate of Pastor Dr. Rolf Kern edited by Friedrich Wecken, 1910/11, p. 264.
  18. ↑ Stefan Huppertz-Wild: Bronnbach - history and art of the former Cistercian monastery , Forchheim 2010, p. 27 ( online )
  19. ↑ Stefan Huppertz-Wild: Bronnbach - History and Art of the Former Cistercian Monastery , Forchheim 2010, p. 29 ( online )
  20. ↑ Stefan Huppertz-Wild: Bronnbach - history and art of the former Cistercian monastery , Forchheim 2010, p. 29f. ( online )
  21. ^ The biography of Abbot Clemens Leusser von Bronnbach . Written by himself. From the estate of Pastor Dr. Rolf Kern edited by Friedrich Wecken, 1910/11, 320.
  22. ↑ a b The biography of Abbot Clemens Leusser von Bronnbach . Written by himself. From the estate of Pastor Dr. Rolf Kern edited by Friedrich Wecken, 1910/11, 322.
  23. ^ The biography of Abbot Clemens Leusser von Bronnbach . Written by himself. From the estate of Pastor Dr. Rolf Kern edited by Friedrich Wecken, 1910/11, p. 264.
  24. ^ The biography of Abbot Clemens Leusser von Bronnbach . Written by himself. From the estate of Pastor Dr. Rolf Kern edited by Friedrich Wecken, 1910/11, p. 319f.
  25. ^ Adolf von Oechelhäuser: The art monuments of the district of Wertheim , Freiburg im Breisgau 1896, p. 290.
  26. ↑ Joseph von Aschenbach: History of the Counts of Wertheim from the earliest times to their extinction in the male line in 1556 . Second part: Wertheim document book . Frankfurt am Main 1843, p. 379f.
  27. ↑ Testimonials in German-speaking countries. Autobiographies, diaries and other autobiographical writings 1400–1620 . A source study by Gabriele Jancke: Clemens Leusser
  28. ↑ Michael Geringhoff: View into Bronnbach's "most intimate room". Premiere: The sacristy of the monastery was made accessible to visitors for the first time - impressive ceiling painting . In: Main-Echo , April 3, 2014.
personal data
SURNAME Leusser, Clemens
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Cistercian abbot
DATE OF BIRTH November 23, 1518
PLACE OF BIRTH Hof bei Hardheim
DATE OF DEATH October 6, 1572
PLACE OF DEATH Wertheim