Herbord (Murrhardt)

Herbord , called Gütigott († June 11, 1473 in Murrhardt ) was a Catholic priest , Benedictine and abbot of the St. Januarius monastery in Murrhardt.

Live and act

Origin, nickname and choice of abbot

Herbord most likely came from the noble family of the Lords of Bönnigheim . He received his nickname Gütigott while he was still alive - but in any case because of the expression "Botz Gütigott" he often used.

After his predecessor as abbot of the Murrhardt Monastery, Johannes von Leuzenbronn the Younger , resigned from office at the end of 1451 under unclear circumstances, Herbord was elected as the new abbot, probably in the first months of 1452. In the end, he prevailed against a previously elected counter-abbot named Volkhard, who was also no longer mentioned in a document after 1454.

First conflicts with Württemberg

Even at the beginning of his administration, the relationship with the protective power of the monastery, the Counts of Württemberg , who had held the bailiwick of the monastery since 1395 , developed very poorly. Herbord was probably opposed to the Württemberg reform efforts that were to be introduced for all monasteries in the county. Count Ulrich the Well-Beloved supported the reform synod of the Benedictine order in Seligenstadt, which aimed to bring the Wuerttemberg monasteries of this order closer to strict observance of religious customs. Probably for this reason Herbord waived the obligatory confirmation of his election by Count Ulrich - a break with customary law that had been practiced for decades and certainly an affront to the sovereign. Probably the abbot also hoped to be able to remain neutral in the beginning conflict between Count Ulrich and Count Palatine Friedrich the Victorious . This is the only way to explain the haste with which Herbord had the founding privileges of the Murrhardt Monastery confirmed - not as usual by the imperial court, but in 1456 by his official brother, Abbot Ehrenfried von Komburg. However, the Palatinate soon renounced all claims to the Murrhardter Vogtei; thus the complete supremacy of Württemberg over the abbey was restored. Only now did Herbord feel compelled to subsequently obtain confirmation from the Count of Württemberg that he was elected abbot.

Struggle for imperial immediacy

Cenotaph for Ludwig the Pious in the Murrhardt town church

At the beginning of the sixties of the 15th century, the Murrhardt monastery got caught in the conflict between Württemberg and the Palatinate in the wake of the Bavarian War . Due to the Württemberg protective and guardian bailiff, the abbey was obliged to perform considerable labor , which had to be provided by money, material and people for Ulrich's campaigns; For the siege of the Palatinate monastery of Maulbronn alone , Murrhardt had to provide 20 foot servants and 8 horses. The imprisonment of Ulrich the much-loved after the battle of Seckenheim worsened the burden on the monastery enormously, as the abbey also had to contribute a share of the ransom of 100,000 guilders for Ulrich, an enormous sum for the time.

In this situation, Abbot Herbord turned to the imperial court in order to achieve the status of an imperial monastery for the Murrhardt Abbey . In fact, Emperor Friedrich III. Murrhardt in a document dated October 13, 1462 under the protection of the empire - but only for the time of Count Ulrich's captivity. With the payment of the ransom and Ulrich's return to Württemberg, Murrhardt's struggle for independence from Württemberg rule was finally over.

Interestingly, the cenotaph for Ludwig the Pious , which is still in the Murrhardt town church today, was created during Herbord's time as abbot of the Murrhardt monastery - presumably in an effort to bring Ludwig's founding of the monastery as a weighty argument in the desire for imperial immediacy.

Impeachment and late years

With the return of the count from captivity in 1463, the abbot was exposed to increasing pressure from Württemberg; Ulrich the much-loved surely had neither forgotten nor forgiven Herbord's attempted subordination. Around the year 1465, the Count succeeded in building a friendly parliamentary group in the monastery convent where Herbord, due to increasing personal peculiarities also in the administration of office, was not undisputed as abbot, which made it almost impossible for the abbot to manage the monastery in the following years made. This grouping around the later Murrhardt abbots Wilhelm Egen and Johannes Schradin did not even shrink from accusing Herbord of permanent mental weakness; however, these efforts were not crowned with success for the time being. When it became clear that Herbord would not voluntarily renounce the office of abbot, Ulrich intervened directly in the affairs of the Murrhardt monastery community - councilors of the count appeared in the abbey in spring 1469 and removed the reluctant abbot from his office because of alleged mental illness. The convent appointed the monk Wilhelm Egen as his successor . The fact that Herbord checked the statutes of the Michael Church in Schwäbisch Hall at the turn of the year 1446/1447 as the commissioner of Pope Paul II , makes it clear that Herbord's alleged mental weakness was purely a protective claim by the Württemberg side - to the full satisfaction of the Holy See.

After his forced removal, Herbord lived for four years as a simple monk in the Murrhardt Monastery and died there on June 11, 1473. He was buried in the south transept of the monastery church.

Others

The heavily worn tombstone Herbords has been preserved to this day and, like his grave, is located in the south transept of today's Murrhardt town church:

"Anno d (omi) ni mcccclxxiii / feria sexta post pentecostes o (biit) reverendus p (ate) r et d (omi) n (u) s d (omi) n (u) s herbo / rdus · abbas huius / + m [onasterii murhart] cuius anima [re] quiescat in pace "

“In the year of the Lord 1473 on the Friday after Pentecost (June 11th) the venerable father and Mr. Herbord, abbot of this monastery Murrhardt died. Rest his soul in peace. "

literature

• Gerhard Fritz: City and monastery Murrhardt in the late Middle Ages and in the Reformation period (= research from Württemberg-Franconia. Vol. 34). Thorbecke, Sigmaringen 1990, ISBN 3-7995-7634-7 , pp. 336-341.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Johann Jacob Moser : Martin Crusii Schwäbische Chronick. Volume 2. Metzler and Erhard, Frankfurt am Main 1733, p. 54 ( digitized in the Google book search).
2. ^ Johann Ulrich Steinhofer: Honor of the Duchy of Wirtenberg. Volume 1, Cotta, Tübingen 1744, p. 150 ff. ( Digitized in the Google book search).
3. ^ Christian Kolb (ed.): Historical sources of the city of Hall. Second volume: Widmanns Chronica. (= Württemberg historical sources. 6). Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1894, pp. 135-139 ( Textarchiv - Internet Archive ).
4. ↑ Elizabeth Klaper: The sovereign he was too stubborn. In: Murrhardter Zeitung of August 14, 2013 ( http://www.bkz-online.de/node/536849 ( Memento of November 17, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) ).
5. ↑ DI 37, Rems-Murr-Kreis, No. 47 (Gerhard Fritz), in: www.inschriften.net, urn : nbn: de: 0238-di037h011k0004704 .

predecessor	Office	successor
Johannes von Leuzenbronn the Elder J.	Abbot of Murrhardt 1452–1469	Wilhelm Egen