Gewiliobus

Gewiliobus (* unknown; † 758 in Spanesheum, today's Sponsheim ; also Gewiliob , Gewilib , Wieliebus ) was the son of Geroldus and his successor as Bishop of Mainz. He was deposed in 745 by Boniface , who succeeded him in the office of Bishop of Mainz .

origin

Gewiliobus was a son of the Mainz bishop Geroldus, very likely a Franconian nobleman from Karl Martell's circle . There is no further information about his mother, but Gewiliobus was probably the son of a concubine Geroldus. Nothing is known about the year of his birth and his life until his appointment as bishop.

Gewiliobus as bishop

Geroldus, Gewiliobus father and predecessor as bishop of the diocese of Mainz , died in 743 on a campaign of the Franks against the Saxons . His son was proposed as a successor for the vacant bishopric. Notes in the Mainz Bonifatiusvita lead to the conclusion that Gewiliobus took office at a more mature age.

Blood revenge for the father and deposition by Boniface

References to the events that led to the deposition of Gewiliobus and the sharp criticism by Pope Zacharias can be found in a letter from the Pope and in the 11th century Boniface Vita IV of a cleric from Mainz, which is at best credible. Not long after Geroldus's death and Gewiliobus taking office, probably in 743 or 744, Karlmann undertook a campaign against the Saxons. Gewiliobus, who accompanied the campaign, is said to have located the murderer of his father in advance. He lured him into an ambush on the Weser and killed him with the words accipe quo patrem vindico ferrum in order to take blood revenge for his father in accordance with old Germanic warrior traditions , a procedure which, according to the testimony of Vita quarta, was initially approved by some of the Franconian nobility.

After the Concilium Germanicum , however, clergymen were forbidden to actively participate in military campaigns. In the spring of 743 or 744 an all-Franconian synod was held under the chairmanship of the two house keepers Karlmann and Pippin with the participation of Boniface. Gewiliobus was deposed there at the instigation of Bonifatius because of his behavior or, as the Vita quarta claims against historical probability, he was deposed without resistance through voluntary resignation. Boniface, who was actually striving for the much more important office of Cologne bishop at the time, was appointed his successor at the same synod. Gewiliobus was banned from Mainz, got the lordship over the place Spanesheum, today's Sponsheim , and became owner of the church of Kempten ("caput montis"). Both places are now districts of Bingen am Rhein . After Gewiliobus tried in vain for his rehabilitation in Rome, he is said to have lived in Sponsheim for another 14 years. There he devoted himself to caring for the poor and led a godly life, according to the Vita quarta, which unmistakably pursues an euphemistic tendency with this as well as with the supposedly voluntary repayment of his acquisitions as bishop.

Assessment of the Gewiliobus

In the letter of Pope Zacharias of October 31, 745, Geroldus is referred to as a seducer and said of him that he was false episcopi honore fungebatur ("wrongly held the office of bishop"). He is described as the "son of an adulterous cleric and murderer" about whom Boniface reported terrible and terrible things to the Pope . He is probably also meant with the bishop deposed for capital crimes, who is accused in the same letter of Pope Zacharis I as a murderer and adulterer, and also with the convicted bishop, whom the same Pope in the letter of November 4, 751 as a fighter, Unchaste and accused of alienating church property after his deposition. Gewiliobus is also to be suspected among the bishops about whom Boniface complains in his letter to Zacharias (Epist. 50) that they live unchaste and adulterous, even if they denied it, are addicted to drinking and neglect of duty and even go hunting and armed Participate in combat operations and have shed the blood of both Christians and Gentiles with their own hands.

In the Mainz tradition, Gewiliobus was also remembered positively. Two more Bonifatiusviten from the 11th century excused his act and tried to arouse understanding for him, since he had basically only done what was an honorary duty for him as a man of Frankish nobility. In addition, he had a conversion completed and his deeds expiated by good works.

Church history background

From around 600 a Germanization of the church in the Franconian Empire can be determined. Loyal aristocrats and relatives from the environment of the Franconian kings and later their caretakers were appointed bishops in order to secure the power structures of the kingship. Especially under the caretaker Karl Martell , there are said to have been numerous occupations of bishopric by non-clerical nobles. Gewiliobus and his father Geroldus belonged to those Franconian aristocrats who thought less clerically than secularly and were linked to the traditional code of honor of the Franconian warrior nobility.

It was only with the Anglo-Saxon mission of Boniface and the Reformation of the Frankish imperial church that he carried out that conflicts such as this with Frankish bishops arose. Boniface succeeded in curbing their influence step by step and realigning the Church in the Frankish Empire more clearly to Rome and the Pope.

literature

• Heinrich Hahn :  Gewilieb . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 9, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1879, p. 131.
• * Theodor Schieffer: Winfrid Bonifatius and the Christian foundation of Europe. Herder, Freiburg 1954, Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 1972, pp. 226-233.
• Franz Staab : Rudi populo rudis adhuc presul. To the defensive bishops of Karl Martell's time. In: Jörg Jarnut et al. (Hrsg.): Karl Martell in his time (Supplements of Francia 37). Thorbecke, Sigmaringen 1994, pp. 249-275, here pp. 262-275. ISBN 3-7995-7337-2 .
• Franz Staab: The Mainz church in the early Middle Ages. In: Friedrich Jürgensmeier (Hrsg.): Handbuch der Mainzer Kirchengeschichte , Vol. 1, Part 1 (Contributions to Mainz Church History 6). Echter, Würzburg 2000, pp. 87-194, here pp. 114-116. ISBN 3-429-02258-4 .
• Hans Werner Nopper: The pre-Bonifatian bishops of Mainz. A critical examination of the sources on the beginnings of the diocese of Mainz and the reliability of the lists of bishops. Self-published, Mülheim an der Ruhr 2001, ISBN 3-8311-2429-9 .

Web links

• Lecture manuscript: Boniface and his meaning for us today with background to the deposition of Gewiliobus.

Remarks

1. ^ Hans Werner Nopper: The pre-bonifatian bishops of Mainz. A critical examination of the sources on the beginnings of the diocese of Mainz and the reliability of the lists of bishops. Mülheim an der Ruhr 2001, p. 118
2. ^ Vita quarta Bonifatii
3. ↑ Michael Tangl (ed.), S. Bonifatii et Lulli epistolae (Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Epistolae selectae 1). Weidmann, Berlin 1916, No. 60, p. 124, lines 5-8; Reinhold Rau (arr.), Letters of Boniface. Willibald's Life of Boniface. Along with some contemporary documents. Using the translations by M. Tangl u. Ph. H. Külb revised. Scientific Book Society, 2nd unchang. Darmstadt edition 1988, p. 180; Vita quarta Bonifatii auctore Moguntino, c. 1. In: Wilhelm Levison (ed.), Vitae Sancti Bonifatii archiepiscopi Moguntini (Monumenta Germaniae Historica. Scriptores rerum Germanicarum in usum scholarum) Hahn, Leipzig 1905, pp. 90-93. Cf. Hans Werner Nopper, Die vorbonifatianischen Mainz bishops. A critical examination of the sources on the beginnings of the diocese of Mainz and the reliability of the lists of bishops. Mülheim an der Ruhr 2001, p. 123.
4. ↑ after JM Wallace-Hadrill: The long-haired kings and other studies in Frankish history. London 1962, p. 145.
5. ↑ Epist. 60, p. 124, lines 5-8.
6. ↑ ibid., P. 122, lines 7-14.
7. ↑ Epist. 60, p. 123, lines 11-19; 87, p. 199, lines 7-12.
8. ↑ See Epist 50, p. 82, lines 13-16; P. 83, lines 4-8; P. 85, lines 16-21. see. Epist. 51, p. 91, lines 8-13; 56, p. 99, lines 20-23; P. 101, lines 20-p. 21, line 2; 59, p. 110, lines 16-21; 60, p. 121, lines 21-25; Lines 34-p. 122, line 16; 61, p. 125, lines 20-24, 66, p. 138, lines 11-16; 64, p. 133, lines 32-p. 134, line 10; 80, p. 175, lines 13-p. 176, line 12; 87, p. 198, lines 24-29; 90, p. 205, lines 19-25.
9. ↑ Klaus Schatz: Boniface and his meaning for us today. , see weblink for the full text.

predecessor	Office	successor
Geroldus	Bishop of Mainz 744-745	Boniface