Gunthar of Cologne

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Gunthar , also Gunther or Günther , († July 8, 873 ) was Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Cologne from 850 to 863 .

Life

Gunthar came as the son of the Frisian Count Gerulfs from an important Franconian noble family. He was related to Hilduin von Saint-Denis , his presumed predecessor on the Archbishopric of Cologne. At the same time he was Chancellor for Lorraine . Knowing about the Holy Scriptures, he was also familiar with the canons, so that he later provided the briefs for the divorce of King Lothar II. He had a sense of literature and was an author of literary and theological writings himself.

The statements about his person are contrary. The Lorsch annals call him inflamed by the ardor of greed , which because of his pomp and his relatives squander the property of the episcopal church. Abbot Regino von Prüm calls him lightly. On the other hand, the Cologne clergy mourned him as a good shepherd and pious teacher on his death . The construction of the Hildebold Cathedral is attributed to him, the predecessor of today's Cologne Cathedral .

He became Archbishop of Cologne on April 22 or May 8, 850. For a long time he resisted ceding the suffragan diocese of Bremen to the Archdiocese of Hamburg , which set him in opposition to the curia in Rome. At the same time he was archcaplan . He was present at the peace treaty of the three Franconian kings in June 860 in Koblenz . In the same year, however, Pope Nicholas I decided that the diocese of Bremen should finally be ceded to Hamburg. Gunthar finally complied with this ultimate directive from the Pope.

After three previous synods in Aachen, which were dominated by Gunthar, the Frankish clergy at the Synod of Metz in March 863 spoke out in favor of the divorce of King Lothar II and his wife Theutberga and allowed the king to marry Waldrada . The divorce from Gunthar was justified theologically. Because of his intercession for the divorce of the king, Archbishop Gunthar was invited to Rome together with Archbishop Thiergaud of Trier. There they were excommunicated and deposed by Pope Nicholas I in October 863.

Gunther felt this dismissal was unlawful and responded with angry letters. Even after that he continued to act as archbishop in Cologne. But he lost the support of the clergy, and eventually that of the king. With Hugo, a nephew of Charlemagne , he appointed a new archbishop; then Hilduin of Cambrai took over the administration of the archdiocese. Gunthar went on a trip to Rome again at the end of 864 at the expense of Cologne's church treasures, but remained unsuccessful there. On January 15, 866, Lothar II confirmed the description of the property compiled by Gunthar with the consent of the clergy, which for the first time reveals an independent clerical community alongside the archbishop.

After the death of Pope Nicholas, he traveled to Rome again in 867. In 869 the ban was lifted by Pope Hadrian II , but Gunthar was not reinstated in his office. He suggested the election of his successor Willibert as the new archbishop.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ according to ADB, according to NDB died on June 30 after 871
  2. ^ Hermann Cardauns: ADB Vol. 10 1879, p. 139.
  3. ↑ History of the Diocese, p. 89.
  4. ↑ ADB p. 139
  5. ↑ Ennen, p. 32.
  6. ^ History of the Archdiocese, p. 93.
  7. ↑ Internet presence of the Archdiocese of Cologne: The Cologne Church in the Carolingian Period (751–911) ( Memento from January 11, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  8. ^ Fuhrmann: NDB vol. 7, p. 324
predecessor Office successor
Hilduin Archbishop of Cologne
850–863 		Willibert
personal data
SURNAME Gunthar of Cologne
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gunther; Günther
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Cologne (850–863)
DATE OF BIRTH 9th century
DATE OF DEATH June 30 after 871 or July 8, 873