Heinrich Kalteisen

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Heinrich Kalteisen (* probably around 1390 in Koblenz ; † October 2, 1464 ibid) was Archbishop of Nidaros in Norway from 1452 to 1458 ; then titular Archbishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia .

Earlier career

Kalteisen's exact date of birth and parents are unknown. He belonged to the Dominican order . He studied in Vienna and Cologne . Until 1424 he was the inquisitor for Mainz , Cambrai and Leuven . From 1430 he held the title " doctor sacrae theologiae professor " and taught in Mainz. In 1433 he took part in the Council of Basel on behalf of the Archbishop of Main, Konrad von Dhaun , where he became known for his three speeches against the Hussites in a disputation with the Hussite priest Ulrich from the Sirotci party . He became advisor to Pope Eugen IV.

The Archbishop

After the death of Archbishop Aslak Bolt in 1450, a dispute broke out between the cathedral chapter , the king and the pope over the right to occupy the archbishop's chair in Nidaros. The cathedral chapter immediately elected Canon Olav Trondsson as his successor. King Christian I protested against him . He wanted his loyal Marcellus von Skalholt as archbishop. A dispute arose and an arbitration tribunal ruled that Olav Trondsson's election was invalid. At the pressure of the king, the cathedral chapter then also voted for Marcellus. But this was rejected by Pope Nicholas V because he was considered a swindler and adventurer. On February 27, 1452, the Pope himself appointed Kalteisen as archbishop in order to secure the decisive influence on the Norwegian Church. For this appointment, Kalteisen paid 800 florins and some other smaller amounts to the papal chamber.

In the summer of 1452, Kalteisen traveled to Bergen , where he arrived in mid-November and was initially well received. In Nidaros he was solemnly installed in his office, but only stayed there for a few months, as the archbishopric there was rather neglected, so that he called it a “cattle shed”. War had raged between Denmark and Sweden, in the course of which a military leader Karl Knutssons had undertaken an army expedition to Trøndelag and badly damaged the bishopric. Cold Iron therefore moved back to Bergen.

Kalteisen now tried to take the initiative by planning to visit not only the cathedral chapter, but the entire church province . His copy book shows that he invested a lot of work in getting to know the conditions in his diocese . He made a number of decisions on ecclesiastical legal issues and even wrote a little history of the Faroese bishops. He also planned to rebuild the cathedral in Nidaros .

The resistance

In the meantime Marcellus had regained the king's trust and accused Kalteisen of being unable to hold the office, so the king invited Kalteisen to a discussion in Bergen, where there was a violent confrontation with Marcellus. Kalteisen relied on the authority of the Pope, while Marcellus claimed the decrees of the Council of Basel and the privileges of the Norwegian Church. In the end, the matter was referred to the Pope. The king persuaded the Norwegian Imperial Council to exaggerate in a letter the problems associated with the establishment of Cold Iron as archbishop, e.g. B. that he has no connection to the people, because he does not speak the national language, and to threaten the defection of the Norwegian Church. Cold iron's accusations against Marcellus are baseless. It is not certain that the letter to the Pope was actually sent, but the draft has been preserved. A letter from the king to King Alfonso V of Aragon and Naples shows that he was thinking of converting to the Russian Orthodox Church . Kalteisen refused to put his office at the disposal of the king and shortly afterwards left for Rome . In the winter of 1453/1454 he was still in Marstrand . In the summer of 1454 he came to Copenhagen , where he had to give an account of his administration to the Danish Imperial Council . He was put under strong pressure not only to give up his office, he should also propose to the Pope that he return to Norway as the papal legate and negotiate compensation for Marcellus from the Pope. Now he asked the Pope himself to resign , since he could not be of any use in the Norwegian Church, if only because he did not speak the language, his health was damaged and he was not used to the way of life there. Although the Pope refused his request for resignation, he sent him to Germany as a crusade preacher with the rank of papal legate .

Resignation and last years

In 1456 King Christian complained to Pope Kalixt III. that he had made an ailing foreigner archbishop who did not speak the language and would not accept his resignation. This led to great unrest in the country, so that even Bishop Thorleiv Olafsson was murdered in Bergen. It was not until 1458 that the Pope decided to accept the request for resignation and appointed Olav Trondsson as Archbishop of Nidaros. In June of this year, Kalteisen was appointed titular archbishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia and received a half-year pension of 200 Rhenish florins.

In 1463, Kalteisen withdrew to the Dominican monastery in Koblenz , which was destroyed in 1944 , where he died the following year. He was buried in the monastery church in front of the altar for St. Olav , which he himself donated.

References and comments

  1. ↑ Werner mentions Ehrenbreitstein as the place of birth in ADB.
  2. ^ After Werner in ADB he was Inquisitor Generalis for Germany.
  3. ^ According to Werner in ADB, he taught in Cologne before 1424.
  4. ↑ So Gieraths. According to Dybdahl in NBL he took part in the council from 1432, according to Werner in ADB from 1431
  5. ↑ Diplomatarium Norvegicum Vol. 1 No. 814 .
  6. ↑ Diplomatarium Norvegicum Vol. 17 No. 1034 .
  7. ↑ Diplomatarium Norvegicum Vol. 3 No. 824 .
  8. ↑ Diplomatarium Norvegicum Vol. 17 No. 1008 .
  9. ↑ Diplomatarium Norvegicum Vol. 17 No. 1041 . The murder, however, had nothing to do with cold iron, but was a reaction of the Hanseatic League to its pirate voyages against the Hansa ships.
  10. ^ Markus Wesche: Concilium Basileense - Council of Basel 1431–1449 . (PDF; 1.3 MB) 2010. Historical sources of the German Middle Ages p. 57.
  11. ↑ Diplomatarium Norvegicum Vol. 17 No. 629 .

literature

reference books

Further literature

  • Thomas Prügl: The ecclesiology of Heinrich Kalteisen's OP in dealing with Basel conciliarism . Paderborn u. a. 1995 Digi20

Web links

predecessor Office successor
Aslak Bolt Archbishop of Nidaros
1452–1458 		Olav Trondsson
personal data
SURNAME Kalteisen, Heinrich
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Cold iron, Henrik
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Norwegian Archbishop
DATE OF BIRTH 14th Century
PLACE OF BIRTH Koblenz
DATE OF DEATH October 2, 1464
Place of death Koblenz