Prince abbot
A prince abbot was the abbot of a prince abbey or a monastic imperial monastery , who was "prince" to become prince of the Holy Roman Empire ( see also: church princes ), which has the right to have a seat and vote in the imperial prince council , one of the three councilors of the diet of the holy Roman Empire , could go hand in hand. In personal union with his spiritual power, he also exercised secular rule over a territory , which he presided over as sovereign . Imperial nunneries and women's monasteries were ruled by abbesses .
In contrast to the prince provosts , of which only the representatives of three collegiate monasteries received this designation (and only from the middle of the 15th century), five of the princes listed below were raised to the rank of prince between the 12th and 14th centuries.
The function, official dignity and title of a prince abbot were abolished analogously to the prince abbots at the latest with the dissolution of the empire after the entry into force of the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss on April 27, 1803. The use of secular symbols of dignity (such as the prince's hat and coat ) was in 1951 by Pope Pius XII. also formally abolished.
Principal abbeys and prince abbots in the Holy Roman Empire
The Imperial Princes' Council , one of the three councilors of the Diet of the Holy Roman Empire , also included the clerical princes and imperial prelates - in addition to the secular imperial princes (the electors formed their own council) and imperial counts . Around 1800 the Imperial Princes' College had 100 seats, divided between a clerical (37 members) and a secular bank (63 members). While the electors and imperial princes as well as a small number of prince abbots each led individual virile votes on the imperial diets up to 1806 , whereby the abbots had to partially share the virile votes, around 1524 each of the remaining imperial prelates was given a curiate vote for their two "prelate benches" shared with all other prelates of the respective “bank”.
There were thus two ecclesiastical ( Rhenish and Swabian Imperial Prelate College ) and four secular ( Lower Rhine-Westphalian , Swabian , Franconian and Wetterauisches Reichsgrafenkollegium ) curiate votes. The prelates represented on the ecclesiastical benches thus had imperial princely rank and could call themselves prince abbots or princely abbesses , but this did not always happen and is also documented at different times; in some cases there were also express surveys by the emperor. In particular, the Rhenish Prelate College belonged to a number of free-worldly ladies' pens , which were used to care for unmarried daughters of the high nobility .
Prince abbots with virile voice
In addition to the imperial princes and prince-bishops, the following abbots and provosts had virile votes in the Reichstag:
- Prince Abbot of Fulda → List of abbots, prince abbots and prince-bishops of Fulda (1220–1752 prince abbey, 1752–1803 prince bishopric)
- Prince Abbot of Kempten , Virilstimme with Ellwangen, Murbach and Lure competing → List of abbots and prince abbots of Kempten (from around the 12th century prince abbey )
- Prince Abbot of Murbach and Lure , Virilstimme with Ellwangen and Kempten competing (converted into a noble knightly monastery in 1759 and left the Reichstag) → List of abbots and prince abbots of Murbach , (1548–1759 or 1789 prince abbey)
- Prince Abbot von Prüm , Virilstimme internally with Weißenburg and still competing with Berchtesgaden and Stablo / Corvey. → List of abbots and prince abbots of Prüm (from 1222 prince abbey, from 1576 personal union with the archbishop of Trier )
- Prince Abbot von Stablo , Virilstimme internally with Corvey, continues to compete with Berchtesgaden and Weißenburg / Prüm. → List of abbots and prince abbots of Stablo-Malmedy (from around 1376 prince abbey)
- Prince Abbot von Corvey , Virilstimme internally with Stablo, continues to compete with Berchtesgaden and Weißenburg / Prüm. (1792 Bishop of Corvey) → List of abbots, prince abbots and prince-bishops of Corvey (1220–1792 prince-abbey, 1792–1803 prince-bishopric)
- Abbot of Reichenau , dissolved in 1540 as a priory to the Prince-Bishop of Konstanz , monastery in 1757
- Prince Provost of Berchtesgaden , Virilstimme with Weißenburg / Prüm and Stablo / Corvey competing
- Prince Provost of Weißenburg , Virilstimme internally with Prüm and still competing with Berchtesgaden and Stablo / Corvey. Weißenburg in personal union with the Bishop of Speyer .
- Prince Provost von Ellwangen , Virilstimme competing with Kempten, Murbach and Lure
Prince abbesses with curiate voice
The other imperial prelates belonged to the two “prelate banks” in the Reichstag, i.e. either the Swabian or the Rhenish prelate college, and each had a common vote (= curiate voice ) with the other prelates of the same “bank” , which was then as much as the individual vote (viril voice ) of an imperial prince counted:
Swabian Imperial Prelate College
- Abbess von Schänis , temporarily secularized 1529–31
- Abbot of Maursmünster , secularized after 1790
- Abbot of Kaisheim
- Abbot of Salem / Salmansweil # he #
- Abbess of Baindt
- Abbess of Heggbach
- Abbess of Gutenzell
- Abbess of Rottenmünster
- Abbot of Herrenalb , secularized in 1536
- Abbot of Waldsassen , 1543 loss of imperial immediacy, later repeatedly secularized and reconstituted
- Abbot of Maulbronn , 1504 loss of imperial immediacy in favor of Württemberg, finally secularized in 1555
- Abbot of Weingarten
- Abbot of Ochsenhausen
- Abbot of Elchingen
- Abbot of Irsee
- Abbot of Petershausen
- Abbot of Zwiefalten
- Abbot of Gengenbach
- Abbot of Neresheim
- Abbot of St. George
- Provost of Comburg
- Abbot of Disentis
- Abbess of Frauenchiemsee
- Abbess von Fraumünster , occupied as imperial duchess from 1234, secularized in 1524
- Abbess von Göß , secularized in 1782
- Abbot of Schuttern
- Abbot of Ottobeuren
- Abbot ofprüfunging
- Abbot of St. Emmeram # from 1731–1802 / 1803 #
- Abbot of Reichenau , 1540 renouncement of imperial immediacy in favor of the diocese of Constance
- Abbot of Mondsee , secularized in 1791
- Abbot of St. Gallen , 1527–32 temporarily and from 1798 secularized
- Abbot of Ursberg
- Abbot of Roggenburg
- Abbot of Weißenau
- Abbot of Schussenried
- Abbot of Marchtal
- Abbot of Red
- Provost von Lorsch , secularized in 1556
Canons :
- Abbess of Lindau , secularized in 1802
Rhenish prelate college
Information for 1792
- Abbot of Kaisheim
- Land Komtur of the Deutschordensballei Koblenz
- Landkomtur of the Deutschordensballei Alsace and Burgundy (at times directly subordinate to the Grand Master as Chamber Ballei)
- Odenheim Knights' Monastery (created from the Benedictine monastery from 1494, relocated to Bruchsal from 1507)
- Abbot of Becoming
- Abbot of Sankt Ulrich and Afra , Augsburg
- Abbot of Isny
- Abbot of Kornelimünster , Aachen
- Abbot of Sankt Emmeram , Regensburg
- Abbess of Essen
- Abbess of Buchau
- Abbess of Quedlinburg
- Abbess of Herford
- Abbess of Gernrode (secularized in 1728)
- Abbess of the Niedermünster Monastery , Regensburg
- Abbess of the Obermünster Monastery , Regensburg
- Abbess of Burtscheid
- Abbess of Gandersheim
- Abbess von Thorn (1717–1795 in personal union with Essen Abbey)
special cases
The following Benedictine abbeys were also designated as prince abbeys:
- Princely abbey of Hersfeld (from 1648 secularized as a secular principality)
- Muri Abbey and Einsiedeln Abbey : The right to participate in the Reichstag was never exercised. 1648 left the empire with Switzerland.
- St. Blasien Monastery : Although it belongs to the Upper Austria , it was listed in the registers of the Reich between 1422 and 1521. In 1549 the Swabian Imperial Circle tried in vain to incorporate St. Blasien as an imperial prelate monastery. In 1746, however, Emperor Franz I Stephan elevated Abbot Franz II Schächtelin to the rank of imperial prince.
See also
Remarks
- ↑ duden.de On the title Fürstabt
- ^ Franz Gall : Austrian heraldry. Handbook of coat of arms science. 2nd edition Böhlau Verlag, Vienna 1992, p. 219, ISBN 3-205-05352-4 .
- ↑ Gerhard Köbler : Introduction. In: Historical Lexicon of the German States. The German territories from the Middle Ages to the present. 4th, completely revised edition. CH Beck, Munich 1992, ISBN 3-406-35865-9 , S.XIII.
- ^ Franz Gall : Austrian heraldry. Handbook of coat of arms science. 2nd edition Böhlau Verlag, Vienna 1992, p. 226, ISBN 3-205-05352-4 .
- ↑ Bruno Meier: The Muri Monastery, History and Present of the Benedictine Abbey. Pp. 103-105.
literature
- Hans-Werner Goetz , Herbert Zielinski : Prince, Principality . In: Lexicon of the Middle Ages (LexMA). Volume 4, Artemis & Winkler, Munich / Zurich 1989, ISBN 3-7608-8904-2 , Sp. 1029-1035.
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Full-text search for "Fürstabt" in the Historical Lexicon of Bavaria , online at historisches-lexikon-bayerns.de - from this an example of the Fürstabtei Kempten :
- u. a. Section from the royal monastery to the imperial principality in the article Kempten, Princely Abbey: Political History (Late Middle Ages) , online at historisches-lexikon-bayerns.de
- Kempten, Princely Abbey: Territory and Administration , online at historisches-lexikon-bayerns.de
- Teresa Schöder-Stapper: princely abbesses, early modern canons between kinship, local authorities and the imperial association. Böhlau Verlag Cologne Weimar Vienna, 2015. ISBN 978-3-412-22485-1