Ernst II of Saxony

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Ernst von Sachsen, tomb of Peter Vischer in Magdeburg Cathedral

Ernst von Sachsen , also Ernst von Wettin (born June 26 or 27, 1464 ; † August 3, 1513 in Halle ) was initially postulated and then consecrated Archbishop of Magdeburg (1476 / 1489–1513) and administrator (administrator) of Halberstadt ( 1479-1513).

Origin and family

Ernst was the third child of Elector Ernst of Saxony (1441–1486) and his wife Elisabeth of Bavaria (1443–1484) . He came from the Wettin family and was the younger brother of the future Elector of Saxony, Friedrich III. “The wise” (1486–1525). While the successor to his father was determined for his brother, the proper care of Ernst was to be secured through a spiritual career. Since the occupation of bishop's chairs with family members also served to expand the power of the Wettin dynasty, the first written negotiations about his successor were initiated with the cathedral chapter before the death of the previous archbishop of Magdeburg, Johann von Simmern-Zweibrücken .

Postulation and later election as Archbishop of Magdeburg

After the death of the Archbishop of Magdeburg in 1475, intensive negotiations began on Ernst's postulation. However, the Wettin proposal initially met with some resistance in the cathedral chapter, as Ernst was only 11 years old at the time. Thanks to the influence of the Wettins, it was possible in January 1476 to win the necessary two-thirds majority for the postulation of Ernst.

However, the Wettiner did not meet any of the official requirements formally prescribed by church law (minimum age of 30 years, ordination and academic training). Therefore, a papal dispensation (official exemption from a prohibition or command) had to be obtained for the legal validity of the election , which Pope Sixtus IV (1414–1484) had to buy for a large sum in 1478. Only the dispensation made the election legally binding and Ernst became the postulated archbishop and sovereign over the Archdiocese of Magdeburg with the unconnected areas around Magdeburg and Halle as well as the Jüterboger Land.

On November 22nd, 1489, Ernst was solemnly consecrated and ordained as archbishop in the Magdeburg Cathedral.

Relationship to Halle

A social and political conflict that had been smoldering in Halle for a long time between the vulgarities and guilds (craftsmen) as well as the ruling Pfänner (salt boiler patrician) offered the opportunity to strengthen the archbishop's power over the city of Halle an der Saale . Encouraged by the archbishop's advisors, the guilds dared armed uprising against the Pfänner in September 1478. They opened the city gate for the allied archbishop's troops and enabled the city to be captured. Ernst's relatives and advisers used this opportunity to submit the city to the archbishop. This became clear in the regimental order of 1479 and the arbitrariness of 1482, in which the rights of the city were curtailed.

In this context, construction of the Moritzburg began in 1479 . The castle, named after the patron saint of the Magdeburg archbishopric, St. Mauritius , served as a fortress against the conquered city and, after 1503, as the preferred residence of the archbishop.

Relationship to Halberstadt

In 1479, the year Halle was subjugated, the Bishop of Halberstadt Gebhard von Hoym had to resign at the urging of the cathedral chapter. Since Elector Ernst von Sachsen offered the cathedral chapter a generous debt relief in return, his now 13-year-old son Ernst was elected administrator in the Halberstadt diocese after brief negotiations . The takeover of another diocese, however, represented an accumulation of benefices or offices prohibited by church law. Therefore, Elector Ernst went personally to Rome in 1480 in order to receive another papal dispensation for his son .

When a dispute about the occupation of the court between Ernst and the council of Halberstadt escalated in the following years , the city was besieged by archbishop troops in 1486. After the city finally had to capitulate after four weeks, Halberstadt, like Halle, was subjected to the rule of the archbishop.

Relationship to Magdeburg

The relationship between the archbishop and Magdeburg was also primarily characterized by tensions and conflicts. Because Magdeburg saw itself as directly subordinate to the empire , i.e. only subordinate to the emperor, while Ernst regarded himself as master of the city. A conflict arose as early as 1482 when the Magdeburg Council refused to pay the “ Imperial Turkish Tax” to Ernst and wanted to pay the tax directly to the emperor as a sign of independence. Although both sides threatened with military means, the dispute was initially at the court of Emperor Frederick III. (1415–1493) took place legally and dragged on there. After the siege and military submission of Halberstadt in 1486, Magdeburg agreed to a settlement with the archbishop that same year and (initially) gave up the claim to imperial immediacy .

Expulsion of the Jews

As ruler of the Archbishopric of Magdeburg , Ernst II was also responsible for protecting the local Jews . They paid a protection fee for it . As elsewhere during the late Middle Ages in the Holy Roman Empire , the relationship between Christians and Jews in the archbishopric was tense or even latently hostile. Often there were verbal and physical disputes between members of both denominations , as was the case in Magdeburg in 1492. In May two Jews mocked two Franciscan monks on their way to Calbe . When one of the friars publicly called on the town's blacksmiths and shoemakers to attack the Magdeburg Jews, the conflict escalated. 40–50 journeymen attacked some of the Jews present on the new market in Magdeburg; one of the Jews was slain. The Jewish community of Magdeburg, which was based in the suburb of Sudenburg , sued the perpetrators at the Magdeburg Old Town Council, which, however, dismissed the complaint. The Jews then wrote to the archbishop asking for protection. However, their expectations were disappointed. After Ernst II was involved as a judge in the Sternberg host-molester trial in October 1492, as a result of which 27 Jews were burned at the stake and all the others had to leave Mecklenburg , he also ordered the expulsion of the Jews under his protection. In 1493 the 150–200 Jews of the Jewish community of Magdeburg had to leave the city and the archbishopric. In a letter to the Council of Sudenburg from August 1493, he justified his decision with the fact that the Jews “did self-vaste illegal trade against the holy churches and our command and order of holy rights in many ways” . The Jews received the proceeds from the sale of their land, which the council of Sudenburg had to acquire by order of the archbishop, and they were allowed to take their moving belongings with them. For the use of the land, the Sudenburg council had to pay 65 Rhenish guilders interest twice a year for the archbishop's table . The former Jewish village was named Mariendorf and became part of Sudenburg. The synagogue was converted into a Marienkapelle, as were 15 more between 1349 and 1519 in German-speaking countries. The cemetery belonging to the Jewish community, the Judenkever near Buckau , was abandoned and converted into arable land.

In the following years the bishops of the Magdeburg suffragan dioceses Naumburg-Zeitz and Merseburg expelled their protective Jews. The Merseburg bishop Thilo von Trotha still refused in 1493 the deportation of the Jews requested by the Magdeburg archbishop. Only after his death in 1514 were the Jews expelled by his successor Adolf von Anhalt-Zerbst . In 1494, the episcopal cities of Naumburg and Zeitz received from Bishop Johann III. Von Schönberg promised “ to say goodbye to the local Jews after their escorts and prescriptions have expired, to expel them from all areas and also not to admit any more Jews in the future.” The councils of these cities had complained about the usurious interest taken by the Jews and their ruthless collection. In 1494 all Jews were expelled from the city of Naumburg, but not from the diocese and in 1517 from the city of Zeitz. To replace the failed Jewish money Naumburg had 60 and Zeitz 40 Rhenish florins to the bishop's annual chamber to pay, removable Rhine 1200 or 800 guilders.

Death and burial

As early as 1503, Archbishop Ernst began to experience symptoms that indicate an infection with syphilis . However, it is unclear whether the syphilis resulted in direct death or whether Ernst eventually succumbed to another infection. Foreseeing his imminent death, he made confession on August 2, 1513 and died the following day in his residence, the Moritzburg in Halle .

According to his wish, the Archbishop's heart was buried in the Maria Magdalenen Chapel of Moritzburg. The rest of the body, however, was transferred to Magdeburg. In the cathedral there , Ernst had already donated a chapel dedicated to St. Mary in 1494, the center of which was a splendid brass tomb tumba cast in 1495 . In 1477 he ordered the resumption of the construction work on Magdeburg Cathedral, which had been suspended in 1363, and is therefore considered to have completed the largest Gothic cathedral ever to be completed in the Middle Ages. Archbishop Ernst's body was finally buried in this tomb on August 10, 1513.

literature

  • Helmut Asmus, Manfred Wille: 1200 years of Magdeburg: From the imperial palace to the state capital. Volume 1: The years 805 to 1631. Magdeburg 2000.
  • Fritz Backhaus: anti-Semitism and expulsion of Jews in the Middle Ages: To expulsion of the Jews in Mittelelbraum in the 15th century . In: Otto Büsch, Klaus Zernach (ed.): Yearbook for the history of Central and Eastern Germany , Volume 36, Berlin 1987, pp. 275-332.
  • Sven Hauschke: The burial place of Archbishop Ernst von Wettin. In: Andreas Tacke (ed.): Continuity and caesura: Ernst von Wettin and Albrecht von Brandenburg . Göttingen 2005, pp. 232-249.
  • Jörg Rogge : Ernst of Saxony. Archbishop of Magdeburg and administrator of Halberstadt (1476–1513). In: Werner Freitag (Hrsg.): Central German life pictures. People in the late Middle Ages . Cologne / Weimar / Vienna 2002, pp. 27–68, ISBN 3-412-04002-9 .
  • Michael Scholz: Residence, court and administration of the Archbishops of Magdeburg in Halle in the first half of the 16th century . Sigmaringen 1998.
  • Markus Leo Mock: Art under Archbishop Ernst of Magdeburg . Berlin 2007.
  • Berent Schwineköper :  Seriously. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 4, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1959, ISBN 3-428-00185-0 , p. 615 ( digitized version ).
  • Karl Janicke:  Seriously . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 6, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1877, pp. 291-293.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g Jörg Rogge: Ernst von Sachsen, Archbishop of Magdeburg and administrator of Halberstadt (1476–1513). In: Werner Freitag (Hrsg.): Central German life pictures. People in the late Middle Ages. ISBN 3-412-04002-9 , Cologne 2002, p. 46 f., (Published on behalf of the Commission for Saxony-Anhalt ).
  2. ^ Fritz Backhaus: The processes of desecration of the host in Sternberg (1492) and Berlin (1510) and the expulsion of the Jews from Mecklenburg and the Mark Brandenburg. In: Yearbook for Brandenburg State History. Volume 39 (1988). P. 12.
  3. ^ Jörg Rogge: Ernst von Sachsen [...]. Note 103, p. 65.
  4. ↑ a b c d e Sudenburg Chronicle , especially the years 1492 and 1493
  5. ↑ s. Jörg Rogge: Ernst von Sachsen […]. with reference to: UB Magdeburg 3, No. 849 .
  6. ^ A b Karl Janicke:  Ernst . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 6, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1877, pp. 291-293.
  7. ^ Jörg Rogge: Ernst von Sachsen, Archbishop of Magdeburg and Administrator of Halberstadt (1476-1513). In: Mitteldeutsche Lebensbilder, people in the late Middle Ages. Edited by Werner Freitag on behalf of the Historical Commission for Saxony-Anhalt , Cologne 2002, ISBN 3-412-04002-9 , p. 46 f. and note 106: On the transformations of synagogues in Marienkirchen “as well as on the motives for these transformations Hedwig Röcklein, Adoration of Mary and hostility to Jews in the Middle Ages and early modern times, in: Claudia Opitz u. a. (Ed.), Maria in der Welt. Marian veneration in the context of social history 10. – 18. Century, Zurich 1993, pp. 279–307. "
  8. ↑ Bishop Thilo von Trotha ( Memento of December 3, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) → Ecclesiastical effectiveness of Bishop Thilo (accessed on November 8, 2012)
  9. ^ Fritz Backhaus: hostility towards Jews and expulsion of Jews in the Middle Ages For the expulsion of the Jews from the Middle Elbe region in the 15th century. In: Jahrbuch für Geschichte Mittel- und Ostdeutschlands 36. 1987, pp. 275–232.
  10. ↑ Joseph Meyer: The great conversation lexicon for the educated classes. 1840, p. 359. ( digitized version )
  11. ↑ a b c d Germania sacra , New Series No 35,2: The dioceses of the church province of Magdeburg The diocese of Naumburg 1,2. The diocese. , Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-11-015570-2 , p. 944, digitized
  12. ↑ a b Germania sacra , New Series No 35.1: The dioceses of the Church Province of Magdeburg. The diocese of Naumburg 1.1. The diocese. , Berlin 1997, ISBN 978-3-11-015193-0 , Position on the Jews p. 223, digitized
predecessor Office successor
Johann von Pfalz-Simmern Archbishop of Magdeburg
1476–1513 		Albrecht of Brandenburg
Gebhard von Hoym Bishop of Halberstadt
(administrator)
1480–1513 		Albrecht of Brandenburg
personal data
SURNAME Ernst II of Saxony
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ernst von Wettin; Ernst of Saxony
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Archbishop of Magdeburg (1476–1513); Administrator of Halberstadt (1480–1513)
DATE OF BIRTH June 26, 1464 or June 27, 1464
DATE OF DEATH August 3, 1513
Place of death Hall