Hatto I.

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Illustration of the Archbishop of Mainz Hatto I ( Schedelsche Weltchronik , Nuremberg, 1493)

Hatto I. OSB (* around 850; † May 15, 913 ) was from 888 to 913 abbot of the Reichenau monastery and other imperial monasteries, archbishop of Mainz (891–913) and arch chancellor of the East Franconian Empire.

Life

The spelling of the name Hatto varies. There are: Hatto, Haddo, Hadtho, Haito, Heito, Hato, Havto, Hatho, Hetto, Atto, Addo; the spelling Hatto is the most common. The name "Hatto" means "the wealthy" (bonosus) , not the "hard" or "uncaring" as Nikolaus Serarius later assumes.

Hatto was born around 850 to a Swabian noble family. Hatto, who was also literarily educated and well versed in canon law, was a follower of King Arnulf of Carinthia (888-899), with whom he had known since November 887 at the latest. In the succession of Liutbert (863-889), who had significantly influenced the political events in the Carolingian empires, among other things as Arch Chancellor in Eastern Franconia, Arnulf appointed Hatto in September 891 as archbishop of what is probably the most important diocese of his domain. Hatto (as Hatto III) had already become abbot of the Bodensee monastery in Reichenau (888) and head of the Ellwangen abbey . He handed this over to his brother Adalbero von Augsburg in 905 . He also controlled the Lorsch Monastery , which he had taken over from Adalbero von Augsburg in 900, as well as the Weißenburg and Klingenmünster , so that Hatto was able to dispose of four abbeys at times. In the course of his various abbatiates in the spiritual communities subordinate to him, he enforced the right of monks to freely elect an abbot and insisted that they receive royal privileges (including confirmation of ownership) from the East Franconian ruler.

The abbeys with their income formed the basis for Hatto's work in the field, and not only in East Franconian politics. The Archbishop of Mainz accompanied the king, among other things, in early 894 and in winter 895/96 on his Italian expeditions, which ultimately led to Arnulf's coronation on February 15 or 22, 896.

St. Georg on Reichenau-Oberzell (around 900)
Basilica of San Giorgio in Velabro, Rome (around 830)

On the occasion of the celebrations for the coronation of Arnulf of Carinthia as emperor in February 896, Pope Formosus presented some relics to Hatto I "for his new monastery built in Alemannia". The relics also included a piece of the skull of the knight saint George , which probably came from the reliquary of the Roman basilica of San Giorgio in Velabro , built around 830 . Hatto took this donation as an opportunity to expand the existing monastery cell "Oberzell" for the Benedictine monastery on the island of Reichenau (of which he was abbot as Hatto III.) And to build a church in honor of St. George, in whose crypt the " Georgshaupt ”was kept. It was initially a small monastery with six canons and a provost . The sources show that the veneration of the archmartyr Georg began in the German-speaking area, first in the monasteries of Reichenau, Ellwangen and Lorsch, led by Hatto, then also in St. Gallen and the Duchy of Swabia as well as in the Diocese of Mainz and in Diocese of Strasbourg .

Hatto played a key role in the choice of the child's legitimate, but still underage Arnulf son, Ludwig IV, as King of East Franconia (900–911), as well as in the reign for this king. Together with Adalbero von Augsburg he became a so-called compatre of Ludwig, born in 893, a kind of artificial relative. This meant both close proximity to the young king and a special responsibility for his upbringing. In the year 906 he and others suppressed the uprising of the Babenbergers Adalbert ( Babenberg feud ), who was captured and executed after the Babenbergs attacked the Conradines in the battle of Fritzlar ; thus the Franconian ducal dignity fell to the Konradines in the person of Konrad the Younger , whose father Konrad the Elder , like both Adalbert's brothers, died in 906 near Fritzlar. The good relationship between Hatto and the Conradinians is evident not least in the elevation of Conrad I (911–918) to king.

A close proximity to the rulers Arnulf, Ludwig and Konrad I characterized the Archbishop of Mainz. At the same time he is and was said to be an unscrupulous power man. There are stories about the betrayal of Adalbert von Babenberg , who ended up with his execution, as well as about an attempted murder of Duke Heinrich von Sachsen that he instigated .

Hatto was also a man of high theological education, which can be seen, among other things, from the fact that he played a decisive role in shaping the church synods of Frankfurt (892) and Tribur (895).

The legends of Hatto I.

If one first looks at the alleged betrayal of Adalbert, it is noticeable that in contemporary sources there is still no talk of a betrayal by Hatto. The content of the story can be summarized as follows: Ludwig the child, who considered a regular end to Adalbert's hostilities to be hopeless, sought advice from Archbishop Hatto in this desperate situation. He promised to free him from his worries and to work towards Adalbert coming to him; he, the king, should then only prevent him from returning. Thereupon Hatto went to Adalbert in Bamberg and persuaded him to enter into negotiations with the king. In addition he swore that he would bring him back and forth unharmed and unharmed. Adalbert was so pleased with the offer that he invited Hatto to dinner, but Hatto turned it down. So you went on your way. On the way, Hatto suddenly assured him that he regretted not having accepted the invitation to dinner and having to stay sober on this long journey. Adalbert therefore proposed to return and make up for what had been neglected. They then left a second time. When Adalbert arrived at the royal court, he was immediately put on trial. Already tied up and on the way to execution, he accused Hatto of breaking his word. He had promised him to bring him back safely. To which Hatto replied that he had done that when he returned to the castle with him - the first time. So much for the story. Regino von Prüm, however, as one of the closest chroniclers in time, reports on a betrayal of his own followers to Adalbert. The story of Hatto's alleged betrayal of Adalbert does not appear until much later, for example in Liudprand's "Book of Retribution", which appeared in the middle of the 10th century. A little later, Widukind von Corvey also takes up the story . However, he emphasizes with regard to the story of the betrayal: "We do not check that, we do not assure that, but rather consider it to be folk tradition that is made up." A good indication that Widukind might be right in his assumption is the fact that a very similar story to that of the Hattos and Adalbert was already told in Cicero's work "De officiis" - only with different protagonists. In this it is reported that after the battle of Cannae Hannibal sent ten Roman prisoners to the Senate in Rome in order to let them negotiate the release of Punic prisoners, admittedly not without having taken the oath from them to join him in the event of failure return to punic camp. Nine men adhered to it, the tenth returned shortly afterwards for the first time, as if he had forgotten something, and then hid in Rome because he believed he had been released from his oath - but the Romans did not catch on: they delivered him anyway to Hannibal. So it seems that a familiar story was simply taken and Hatto and Adalbert became the new main characters. The sustainability of the story surely lies in its passing on by Thietmar von Merseburg and Otto von Freising , the latter a direct descendant of Adalbert who appeared in the story and therefore most likely a very partisan chronicler (after all, it was Hatto I who in any case opposed his Ancestors acted). Hermann von Reichenau, who was writing around the same time, on the other hand, indicates that Adalbert had hopes for an alliance with the king and that Hatto may have consciously and falsely nurtured this hope. However, the story of the betrayal also portrays it as a rumor.

Regarding the assassination attempt against Heinrich von Sachsen in Liudolfingen, it is more difficult to classify, since it is only found in a shortened form in Thietmar and in Widukind. It is said to have occurred in 912 and provide the reason for Heinrich's action against the possessions of the Mainz church in Saxony and Thuringia. Widukind describes the events as follows: Hatto had a gold chain made for Heinrich and invited him to a meal at which he was to be honored with gifts. In the meantime the bishop went to the goldsmith to look at the work and is said to have sighed at the sight of the chain. When the goldsmith asked the reason for this, he replied that this chain must be dipped in the blood of the best and most dear man to him. The goldsmith kept silent about what had been said, and after he had finished and handed over the chain, he asked to be allowed to go. That was granted to him. But when he met Heinrich, who was just about to go to the feast, he told him what he had heard. Then the duke became violently angry, called the messenger of the bishop, who was still there, and said to him: "Go, tell Hatto that Heinrich has no harder neck than Adalbert and that we thought it better to stay at home and to negotiate (from there) our obligations to him, rather than being a burden to him with the multitude of our companions. "

There are different theories about the meaning of the chain in the story: for example, whether the chain should be strangled with it, or whether it should serve as a mark of identification for the murderer and indicate the impending beheading. Although the evidence for these Hatto's assassination plans is very thin, it cannot be ruled out that Heinrich received a warning that he could expect an assassination attempt in Mainz. The celebration of a banquet (convicium) usually meant the sealing of a peace treaty. There is no place for a convicium in an unresolved or even controversial situation. An invitation to such a person at an improper time - in a time of dissent - aroused suspicion and the assumption that a bad or even insidious intention could be behind the invitation. Such a presumption spun out the story of Hatto's assassination plans. It is also noticeable that in an execution of the story at Widukind the city of Kassel was specified as the meeting place between the goldsmith and Heinrich. King Konrad I was actually there at that time, to be seen at a document exhibition for Hersfeld. And so it is very likely that the negotiations with Heinrich I took place there, in which Hatto I was probably also involved. This failed, however, and then Heinrich I attacked the property of the Mainz church, which could be a sign that Heinrich I attributed the failure to the influence of the Archbishop of Mainz.

Hatto died on May 15, 913. The legend of the mouse tower in Bingen has grown up around Hatto's death . According to this, Hatto is said to have been eaten alive by mice in the tower near Bingen on a Rhine island as punishment for the hard-hearted treatment of the starving population. This legend has been attributed to Hatto I since the 19th century, in particular due to the publications of the historian Cornelius Will , after it had previously mainly referred to one of his successors, Hatto II .

swell

  • Widukind von Corvey : The Saxon history of Widukind von Corvey. In: Sources on the history of the Saxon imperial era (= Freiherr vom Stein memorial edition. Volume 8). Translated by Albert Bauer, Reinhold Rau. 5th edition, expanded by a supplement compared to the 4th, Darmstadt 2002, pp. 1–183.

literature

  • Ernst Dümmler:  Hatto I. In: General German Biography (ADB). Volume 11, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1880, pp. 26-29.
  • Gerd Althoff : Deformation through oral tradition. Stories about Archbishop Hatto of Mainz. In: Iconologia sacra. Myth, Visual Art and Poetry in the Religious and Social History of Ancient Europe. Festschrift for Karl Hauck on his 75th birthday. Berlin and New York 1994, pp. 438-450, ISBN 3-11-013255-9 .
  • Helmut Beumann : Archbishop Hatto I of Mainz. In: Hessischer Rundfunk, Schulfunk. Volume 26, January – July 1971, History, pp. 35–42.
  • Alois Gerlich : Hatto I. In: Lexicon of the Middle Ages (LexMA). Volume 4, Artemis & Winkler, Munich / Zurich 1989, ISBN 3-7608-8904-2 , Sp. 1957 f.
  • Peter HerdeHatto I .. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 8, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1969, ISBN 3-428-00189-3 , p. 60 ( digitized version ).
  • Friedrich Knöpp: Hatto, Abbot of Reichenau, Ellwangen and Weißenburg, Archbishop of Mainz 891–913. In: Friedrich Knöpp (ed.): The Reichsabtei Lorsch. Festschrift in memory of her foundation 764. Part 1, Hessische Historische Kommission, Darmstadt 1973, pp. 261–267.
  • Thilo Offergeld: Reges pueri. The royalty of minors in the early Middle Ages (= Monumenta Germaniae historica. Volume 50). Hahn, Hannover 2001, ISBN 3-7752-5450-1 , pp. 538-542.
  • Winfried Wilhelmy (ed.): Gloss of the late Carolingians. Hatto I Archbishop of Mainz (891-913). From Reichenau to the Mouse Tower. Catalog for the special exhibition in the Episcopal Cathedral and Diocesan Museum Mainz, May 17 to August 11, 2013, Schnell and Steiner, Regensburg 2013.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Haarländer, Stephanie: Hatto I. - A "bad" bishop or the "heart of the king" (cor regis) ?, in: Winfried Wilhelmy [Hrsg.]: Shine of the late Carolingians - Hatto I. Archbishop of Mainz (891– 913) - From Reichenau to the Mouse Tower. Mainz, 2013, p. 44.
  2. Hans Georg Wehrens: Rome - The Christian sacred buildings from the 4th to the 9th century - Ein Vademecum , Freiburg, 2nd edition 2017, p. 341f. with further evidence.
  3. ^ Albert Knoepfli: Art history of the Lake Constance area: 1. From the Carolingian period to the middle of the 14th century. Thorbecke, Konstanz / Lindau 1961, p. 201 and 351
  4. Otto Feger: History of the Lake Constance area, 1. Beginnings and size. Thorbecke, Lindau / Konstanz, 1956, p. 166f.
  5. Haarländer, Stephanie: Hatto I. - A "bad" bishop or the "heart of the king" (cor regis) ?, in: Winfried Wilhelmy [Hrsg.]: Shine of the late Carolingians - Hatto I. Archbishop of Mainz (891– 913) - From Reichenau to the Mouse Tower. Mainz, 2013, p. 49.
  6. ^ Widukind: Res gestae Saxon. I, 22, p. 35.
  7. Cicero: De officiis III, 22 (113).
  8. Hermann, Chron. Ad a. 906, p. 112.
  9. Cf. Haarländer, Stephanie: Hatto I. - A "bad" bishop or the "heart of the king" (cor regis) ?, in: Winfried Wilhelmy [Hrsg.]: Glanz der late Karolinger - Hatto I. Archbishop of Mainz ( 891–913) - From Reichenau to the Mäuseturm. Mainz, 2013, p. 56.
  10. Cf. Haarländer, Stephanie: Hatto I. - A "bad" bishop or the "heart of the king" (cor regis) ?, in: Winfried Wilhelmy [Hrsg.]: Glanz der late Karolinger - Hatto I. Archbishop of Mainz ( 891–913) - From Reichenau to the Mäuseturm. Mainz, 2013, p. 57.
  11. Haarländer, Stephanie: Hatto I. - A "bad" bishop or the "heart of the king" (cor regis) ?, in: Winfried Wilhelmy [Hrsg.]: Shine of the late Carolingians - Hatto I. Archbishop of Mainz (891– 913) - From Reichenau to the Mouse Tower. Mainz, 2013, p. 56f.
predecessor Office successor
Sunderold Archbishop of Mainz
891–913
Heriger
Ruodho Abbot of Reichenau
888–913
Hugo
Solomon Abbot of Ellwangen
896–913
Adalbero of Dillingen