Grimald of Weissenburg

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Grimald von Weißenburg , Latinized Grimaldus (* around 800 ; † 13 June 872 in St. Gallen ), was abbot of the Weissenburg monastery (around 825–839 and 847–872), abbot of the Benedictine monastery of St. Gallen (841–872), Archkaplan of the East Franconian King Ludwig II the German (848–870) and Chancellor (833–838 / 40, 854–870).

Life

Grimald came from a noble Rhine-Franconian family. His uncle Hetti and his brother Thietgaud were successively Archbishops of Trier. Even under Charlemagne, Grimald was educated at the court school. He is said to have been a student of Alcuin , but this is unlikely since Alcuin died in 804. Grimald received his further training in the Reichenau monastery , under the abbots Haito (806–823) and Erlebald (823–838).

From 824 Grimald worked as a chaplain at the court of Louis the Pious in the imperial chapel. Grimald received the Weißenburg Abbey in Speiergau no later than 833 and had the St. Peters Church rebuilt, which had been destroyed by a conflagration.

On October 19, 833 he was first named as head of the imperial chancellery. He held this office (with an interruption from 838 / 40-854) until his age-related retirement in 870. In the course of the inner-dynastic battles of the Carolingians , Grimald was deposed as Abbot of Weissenburg in 839, but after the Battle of Fontenoy in 841 he was appointed abbot of St. Gallen Monastery by Ludwig the German and again in 847 in Weissenburg Monastery. He was still in front of a third monastery (possibly Ellwangen or Niederaltaich ). In the course of his career, Grimald became an important confidante at the court of Ludwig the German. In addition to his office activities, he was also able to hold the office of arch chaplain from 848. His multiple work as missus testifies to Grimald's political influence .

Grimald played a major role in the cultural and economic prosperity of the St. Gallen monastery in the 9th century. He developed a brisk building activity and expanded the library to a center of learned education in the East Franconian Empire. Even his contemporaries saw Grimald as an outstanding personality. Various well-known authors of the 9th century expressed their appreciation of the abbot's erudition. The St. Gallen historian Ratpert dedicated an epigram to him and Walahfrid Strabo even praised Grimald's poetry, of which nothing has survived today. However, a directory of Grimald's "private library" has survived, a good part of which is still kept in the St. Gallen Abbey Library today.

In 870, due to his age, Grimald gave up his political offices (but not his abbot title) and retired to St.Gallen, where he died on June 13, 872. The dean Hartmut , who already took over the deputy management during Grimald's frequent absence, finally became the new abbot of the monastery.

swell

  • Ermenrich von Ellwangen : Epistola ad Grimaldum abbatem , ed. Ernst Dümmler (MGH Epp. 5), Berlin 1899, pp. 534-580
  • Notker Balbulus : Deeds of Emperor Charlemagne (Gesta Karoli Magni) , ed. Hans F. Haefele (MGH SS rer. Germ. NS 12), Berlin 1959
  • Ratpert von St. Gallen : St. Galler Klostergeschichten (Casus sancti Galli) , ed. Hannes Steiner (MGH SS rer. Germ. 75), Hannover 2002
  • Walahfrid Strabo : Ad Grimaldum capellanum de morte Wettini , ed. Ernst Dümmler (MGH Poetae 2), Berlin 1884, p. 334

literature

  • Bernhard Bischoff : Books at the court of Ludwig the German and the private library of Chancellor Grimalt . In: ders., Medieval Studies. Selected essays on written and literary history, Vol. 3, Stuttgart 1981, pp. 187–212
  • Johannes fragrance : The abbots Gozbert, Grimalt, Hartmut, Solomon (816–920). Great Abbots - flourishing abbey . In: Peter Ochsenbein, Ernst Ziegler (Hrsgg.): Die Abtei St. Gallen, Vol. 2: Contributions to the knowledge of their personalities. Selected articles in a revised version by Johannes Duft, Sigmaringen 1991, pp. 61–72
  • Josef Fleckenstein :  Grimald. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 7, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1966, ISBN 3-428-00188-5 , p. 75 ( digitized version ).
  • Dieter Geuenich: Observations on Grimald of St. Gallen, Archkaplan and High Chancellor Ludwig the German . In: Michael Borgolte, Herrad Spilling (ed.): Litterae medii aevi. Festschrift for Johanne Autenrieth on her 65th birthday . Thorbecke, Sigmaringen 1988, ISBN 3-7995-7061-6 , pp. 55-68
  • Paul Fridolin Kehr : The law firm of Ludwig the German . In: Treatises of the Prussian Academy of Sciences. Born in 1932. Berlin 1933
  • Gerold Meyer von Knonau:  Grimald . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 9, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1879, pp. 701-703.
  • Thomas Zotz: Grimald, Abbot of Weissenburg . In: Lexicon of the Middle Ages (LexMA). Volume 4, Artemis & Winkler, Munich / Zurich 1989, ISBN 3-7608-8904-2 , Sp. 1713 f.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ermenrich von Ellwangen, Epistola c.1, p. 536
  2. ↑ Notker Balbulus, Deeds of Charlemagne, I 8, p. 11
  3. ↑ Ratpert, St. Galler Klostergeschichten, c. 28, p. 218
  4. ↑ Walahfrid Strabo, De imagine Tetrici, v. 227-232, p. 377
  5. ↑ [1] Codex Sangallensis 267, pag. 30-32
predecessor Office successor
Engilbert Abbot of St. Gallen
841 - 872 		Hartmut
personal data
SURNAME Grimald of Weissenburg
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Grimald of St. Gallen
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Abbot of St. Gallen, Abbot of Weißenburg, Chancellor
DATE OF BIRTH around 800
DATE OF DEATH June 13, 872
Place of death St. Gallen