Kraft Myle

Kraft Myle (also Kraft Miles, Crato Melles, Krato I., Crato I .; born around 1480 in Hungen ; died March 10, 1556 in Hersfeld ) was abbot of the Imperial Abbey of Hersfeld from 1516 to 1556 .

Life

Kraft Myle was born around 1480 in Hungen in what is now the district of Giessen . Around 1500 he entered the Hersfeld Abbey as a novice . Nothing further is known about his ancestors and his training. At that time, the former power of the Imperial Abbey had greatly diminished. After a defeat in a trial before the Reich Chamber of Commerce against the city of Hersfeld, the abbey's financial situation was also shattered. As early as 1432, the then abbot Albrecht von Buchenau had to agree to an inheritance protection agreement with the Landgraves of Hesse , which was subsequently renewed several times. In 1513 Hartmann II. Von Kirchberg , the then prince abbot of the imperial abbey of Fulda , tried to merge the two abbeys. The then Hersfeld abbot Volpert Riedesel zu Bellersheim resigned from his office in favor of Abbot Hartmann and was resigned from the Fulda provost of Neuenberg . Abbot Hartmann had the union of Emperor Maximilian I and Pope Leo X approved in May 1513 and paid homage to the Hersfeld Chapter in Eichhof Palace . Kraft Myle was the only member of the Chapter to refuse to pay homage in this situation. The Hessian Countess Anna von Mecklenburg , who ruled as guardian for her son, Philipp , and the city of Hersfeld also opposed the takeover by Fulda.

As a result, the Hersfeld Chapter initially elected Ludwig IV von Hanstein as his counter-abbot in 1515 , whereupon Hartmann von Fulda resigned a year later in March 1516. Ludwig von Hanstein, now as Hersfeld Abbot Ludwig IV, died three months later, before he was confirmed as Hersfeld Abbot by the Emperor and Pope. Thereupon the chapter Kraft chose Myle as an advocate of Hersfeld's independence as the new abbot. He was the first Hersfeld abbot of bourgeois origin . Myle was a compromise candidate after the Landgravine Anna was unable to get her way with her attempt to have a representative of the Bursfeld congregation elected, as was Georg von Weitershausen, provost of the Hersfeld monasteries Frauensee and Cornberg , who had been favored by the Hersfeld city council and the chapter .

As an abbot, Kraft Myle called himself Crato I , the Graecized form of his first name. One of his first official acts was the conclusion of a renewed inheritance protection contract, in which it was stipulated, among other things, that the Hersfeld Abbey had to remain permanently independent and that every new abbot would require the consent of the Hessian landgrave.

In 1521 Martin Luther returned from the Reichstag to Worms through the area of ​​the imperial abbey. The abbot greeted him at Eichhof Palace, the summer residence of the Hersfeld abbots , and escorted him to the city gate, where he was received by the mayor and council. At the request of the abbot, Luther preached in the Hersfeld collegiate church in the early morning of May 2, 1521, contrary to the condition that existed for his safe conduct and forbade him to preach. Martin Luther justified the violation of the requirement that the word of God should not be bound by human conditions. On the onward journey, the abbot escorted Luther to the town and had his chancellor accompany him to the border of the monastery area near Berka / Werra . In the following period, the Reformation was able to spread in the abbey area. Even before Luther's visit, the Hersfeld pastor Heinrich Fuchs began to preach in the Lutheran sense and was one of the first priests to get married shortly after the visit. Together with Melchior Rinck, Fuchs pushed the Reformation in the city, both of whom criticized the previous church teachings ever more sharply in their sermons. Crato I finally dismissed both preachers at the end of 1523 with the tacit approval of the Hersfeld council. Angry supporters of the two then stormed the abbey houses and properties in the city and forced the abbot to withdraw the dismissals. Only with the help of Landgrave Philip I were the abbot and the council in a position to enforce the expulsion of Fuchs and Rinck from the Hersfeld monastery area.

During the Peasants' War in 1525 there were also looting and attacks in the abbey area. Abbot Crato, like Johann III. , the coadjutor of Fulda, recognize the Twelve Articles of the Insurgent Peasants. Landgrave Philipp I seized the opportunity, defeated the peasants and drove them out of the monastery areas. To compensate for the costs incurred, Crato initially had to temporarily transfer parts of the remaining property to him, which further increased the abbey's dependence on the landgrave as its patron. As the patron of the abbey, Philip subsequently introduced the Reformation in their area. Abbot Crato, like his chapter, remained formally Catholic, despite his sympathy for Lutheran teaching. In 1550, Crato had to agree to another contract with the Landgrave, with which half of the city of Hersfeld was initially temporarily (his successor then had to agree to a permanent transfer) in Hessian ownership. At the beginning of 1556, after forty years of reign, Abbot Crato handed over the official duties to Michael Landgrave , who he had made coadjutor in 1554, and died shortly afterwards. He was buried in the collegiate church. His grave has not survived, only the inscription on the grave plate has survived. The coat of arms of Crato I is still preserved on the former official court of the abbey in Niederaula .

Individual evidence

1. ^ ^{A b c} Konrad Lipphardt: Contributions to the history of Bad Hersfeld and the surrounding area, stations and waymarks. P. 62.
2. ^ Hersfeld, Verweser Ludwig von Hanstein in the Hessian biography
3. ↑ Martin Brecht: Martin Luther. His way to the Reformation . Calwer, Stuttgart 1981. ISBN 3-7668-0678-5 , p. 450.
4. ↑ Local history working group within the ev. Parish Villingen: ... did the famous abbot Crato von Hersfeld come from Hungen? ... the descendants of his relatives still live in Villingen today? Villingener Hefte, Issue 16, p. 67
5. ↑ Holger Th. Gräf: Hessischer Städteatlas - Bad Hersfeld , Delivery I, 2, (Ed.): Ursula Braasch-Schwersmann, Marburg 2007, Hessisches Landesamt für geschichtliche Landeskunde. P. 16
6. ↑ Hersfeld, Abbot Michael Landgraf in the Hessian Biography
7. ↑ Local history working group within the ev. Parish Villingen: ... did the famous abbot Crato von Hersfeld come from Hungen? ... the descendants of his relatives still live in Villingen today? Villingener Hefte, No. 16, p. 69

Web links

• Miles, Kraft in the Hessian Biography

predecessor	Office	successor
Ludwig IV.	Abbot of Hersfeld 1516 - 1556	Michael Landgrave