Gebhard von Mansfeld
Count Johann Gebhard von Mansfeld (* 1524 - † November 2, 1562 in Brühl ) was Archbishop and Elector of Cologne from 1558 to 1562 .
Early years
Johann Gebhard from the house of the Counts of Mansfeld was born as the 18th child of Count Ernst II of Mansfeld zu Vorderort and his second wife Dorothea zu Solms-Lich . He had a total of twenty-one siblings, including the later Spanish governor in Luxembourg and the Netherlands, Prince Peter Ernst I. von Mansfeld . This large number of children presented the family with supply problems.
As early as 1538 he received a preamble at the Cologne cathedral chapter . He also held the post of provost at the Gereon pen in Cologne and at the Servatius pen in Maastricht . Since 1541 he belonged to the Cologne cathedral chapter. In 1547 he became choir bishop and in 1548 he became sub-dean of the cathedral chapter.
His income from the benefices was insufficient to finance his dissolute life. He also had a publicly known relationship with his lover Katharina ("Tringin") Jabach . He adhered to this as archbishop.
Archbishop of Cologne
On July 26, 1558 he was elected Archbishop of Cologne . The background is unclear and controversial in research. It is also unclear whether his choice was close, as Johann Ulrich Zasius claimed. He himself gave Ferdinand I a clear vote.
His election did not find favor with all clerics in the diocese , so the respected Johannes Gropper , provost of Bonn and recently appointed cardinal , tried to intervene with Pope Paul IV against the election. Therefore, it was only on January 31, 1560 for papal confirmation. This was followed by the award of secular regalia ( Kurköln ) by the emperor. This brought in much needed income for Johann Gebhardt.
As archbishop he also took his mistress with him and tried to look after his children, which he acquired, among other things, property within the city of Cologne. Even before climbing the Erzstuhl in Cologne, Mansfeld, who never received the consecration, was personally indebted. He also had little success in reorganizing the archbishopric's finances and in reducing the debts accumulated by his predecessors. At the time of his election, he had promised to take over the debts of his predecessors, but he increased them even further through loans from less reputable donors. In his first two years in office alone, he took on 170,000 guilders more debts. He constantly had to negotiate with the estates for additional tax revenue. The archbishop's lack of money went so far that his subordinates stole 8,000 guilders from the imperial treasury at the Electoral Congress of 1562 in order to be able to settle outstanding debts. The archbishop asked the cathedral chapter to lend him the money for the repayment, which they refused.
If he also failed in financial policy, he pursued a thoroughly determined policy overall. So he tried hard to keep the suffragan Utrecht in the ecclesiastical province of Cologne . This did not succeed because Utrecht became an archdiocese itself in the course of a reorganization of the dioceses in the Spanish Netherlands . With the impending election of Maximilian II as king, Johann Gebhard shared the concerns that cast doubt on the applicant's Catholic attitude. After a deliberation process, the archbishop decided to elect Maximilian for political reasons. In this way he hoped to prevent a further strengthening of the Protestant forces in the empire.
He was clearly on the Catholic side and had spoken out against Protestant tendencies in Cologne before his election. He issued new court and chancellery regulations. This stipulated that all court members had to attend Holy Mass and Catholic sermons. The court regulations were also part of an institutional reform process towards a modern statehood. The efforts of Johann Gebhard went much further than the measures of his predecessors. This also included an inventory of the judiciary.
In 1559 he issued a new mountain order . Although this applied to the entire electoral state, the main aim was to promote mining in the Duchy of Westphalia in the Electorate of Cologne . It was based on Saxon and Bohemian models and was at the height of its time. The elector had a considerable fiscal interest in the boom in mining. With his support, his relatives in Mansfeld controlled the mining in this area almost completely at times. Long-term supply contracts were supposed to supply lead in large quantities for the Saigerhütten in Mansfeld . However, these goals could not be achieved and the Mansfeld had to give up the Saiger trade in 1560 and the county came under Sequester . Johann Gehard acted very successfully in the centuries-old border dispute with the county of Waldeck and the Paderborn monastery over the Assinghauser Grund and the possession of lead washing . He was able to settle both conflicts.
His innovations, especially the court order, which curtailed the previous privileges of the cathedral chapter, led to its resistance. In the city of Cologne, the Jesuits successfully agitated against him with a view to his concubine Katharina Jabach . In the end, he was completely isolated. Because of the upcoming king's election, only the candidate had a certain interest in his vote.
Johann Gebhard died on November 2, 1562 in Brühl, shortly before Maximilian II was elected Roman-German king , in which he had to take part as one of the prince electors in Frankfurt. Since he should have carried out the coronation to be carried out in Aachen according to the Golden Bull , the long journey to Aachen was waived and Maximilian was crowned on November 24th in Frankfurt by the local archbishop, i.e. the Archbishop of Mainz. Gebhard's sudden death established the tradition of performing imperial coronations in Frankfurt, which meant that the Aachen Palatine Chapel lost this privilege.
Because of the lack of money, he was buried between his two predecessors in Cologne Cathedral without a tomb .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Yearbook of the Düren District 1981, published by the Eifelverein and Düren District, ISSN 0342-5835
- ^ Wilfried Reininghaus, Reinhard Köhne: Mining, smelting and hammer works in the Duchy of Westphalia in the Middle Ages and in the early modern period. Münster 2008 p. 77
- ^ Wilfried Reininghaus, Reinhard Köhne: Mining, smelting and hammer works in the Duchy of Westphalia in the Middle Ages and in the early modern period. Münster 2008 pp. 77–83
Web links
- Biography in the portal Rheinische Geschichte
| predecessor | Office | successor |
|---|---|---|
| Anton von Schaumburg |
Elector-Archbishop of Cologne 1558–1562 |
Friedrich IV of Wied |
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Mansfeld, Gebhard von |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Mansfeld, Count Johann Gebhard von |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Cologne |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 15th century or 16th century |
| DATE OF DEATH | November 2, 1562 |
| Place of death | Bruehl |