Hieronymus Biechelberger

Hieronymus Biechelberger

Hieronymus Biechelberger OSB (* in the 15th century in Dinkelsbühl ; † August 30, 1508 in Ochsenhausen ) was Hieronymus I, the 7th abbot of the imperial abbey of Ochsenhausen in today's Biberach district in Upper Swabia .

Inauguration and construction activity

On February 28, 1498 Hieronymus Biechelberger was elected abbot. The citizen's son from Dinkelsbühl entered the convent under Abbot Jodoku's brother . Up until the election of the abbot, he held several internal offices in the monastery, such as the function of the large cellar . In Georg Geisenhof's description of the monastery, it is thanks to his skill that the building of the new church was completed in just seven years. The abbot had the high altar of the collegiate church completed and the parish church in Reinstetten expanded.

Peasant riots

The new construction of the monastery church was a challenge for the serf subjects of the monastery . They were used for monetary payments and unpaid tension and compulsory services for the monastery. As farmers, they ran the farms that belonged to the monastery, had to pay a rent for it and pay the landlord, if he came from the clergy , a tithe .

Soon after the election of the abbot, the first unrest broke out in 1501. The feudal farmers rose from 38 villages belonging to the monastery. The subjects, led by the mayors , gathered in the inner courtyard of the monastery and, accompanied by insults, resigned the service and obedience of the assembled convent. Abbot Jerome answered the complaints, demands and complaints of the subjects from his window. He had the clerk Friedrich von Dankersweil and Prior Raimund Kantegießer draw up a protocol with the demands of the subjects of the monastery through the mayor and a legally adept representative of the monastery named Georg Sattler .

Subject contract

Field cross in the forest near Englisweiler

Among other things, the following changes were made in the legal relationship between the monastery and its subjects.

1. All monastery goods become inherited.
2. The goods have sales rights, the monastery receives a right of first refusal at a price that is one guilder below the estimated value.
3. If the fiefdom changes, the old one pays five percent and the new ten percent of the estimated value to the monastery.
4. If goods are re-assigned, monastery subjects are preferred, but each farmer is only allowed to manage one good.
5. The serfs can bequeath their traveling possessions, whereby the heir has to pay five percent of the estimated value to the monastery.
6. There is freedom of movement for the subjects, but they must continue to make their payments to the monastery.
7. Personal taxes are limited to a flat fee of 1 pound Heller for the garment.
8. The monastery allocates timber and firewood to the farmers.

Almost all the mayors were satisfied with the regulations. But that was not enough for some of the subjects. They banded together again. Biechelberger requested troops from the Swabian Federation , which, without the use of military force, brought in emissaries from the free imperial cities of Memmingen and Ulm , the Fürststift Kempten and the Freiherrschaft von Freyberg auf Steißlingen, von Eglofs and von Reitheim auf Angelberg to settle the matter in a short time. The negotiated document was signed by Prince Abbot Johannes from Kempten, Freiherrschaft von Steißlingen, von Eglofs, von Reitheim from Angelberg, Jakob Ehinger Mayor, Mathias Lupine Counselor in Ulm and Konrad Vöhlin Mayor of Memmingen.

Only the case of three Austrian feudal farmers from Englisweiler remained . They had committed offenses in the forest repeatedly and made inflammatory speeches against the pen at every opportunity. The rebels had to throw themselves on the ground in front of the abbot and the assembled subjects in the monastery courtyard, abandon their deeds and repent them. Abbot Hieronymus then assured them of his undeniable reconciliation and promised the other assembled subjects that he would be ready to listen to their concerns at any time. These improvements for the monastery serfs prevented the peasant uprising of 1525 from spreading to the clerical area and ensured that it remained quiet throughout the Reformation.

In 1501 Pope Alexander VI incorporated the parish of Kirchdorf an der Iller to Ochsenhausen. Abbot Hieronymus died on August 30, 1508 in Ochsenhausen.

literature

• Georg Geisenhof : Brief history of the former Reichsstift Ochsenhausen in Swabia. Ganser, Ottobeuren 1829 ( digitized version ).
• Volker Himmelein (ed.): Old monasteries, new masters. The secularization in the German southwest 1803. Large state exhibition Baden-Württemberg 2003. Thorbecke, Ostfildern 2003, ISBN 3-7995-0212-2 (exhibition catalog and essay volume).
• Volker Himmelein, Franz Quarthal (Ed.): Vorderösterreich, Only the tail feather of the imperial eagle? The Habsburgs in the German southwest. Süddeutsche Verlagsgesellschaft, Ulm 1999, ISBN 3-88294-277-0 (catalog of the state exhibition).
• Elmar Kuhn (Ed.): The Peasants' War in Oberschwaben. Tübingen.
• Heribert Smolinsky : Church history of the modern age. Part 1. 2008.
• City of Ochsenhausen (Ed.): Reichsabtei Ochsenhausen. History and art. Ochsenhausen 1984.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Georg Geisenhof : Brief history of the former imperial monastery Ochsenhausen in Swabia . Ganser, Ottobeuren 1829 ( digitized , p. 67)
2. ^ City of Ochsenhausen (Ed.): Reichsabtei Ochsenhausen. History and art. Ochsenhausen 1984, p. 132

predecessor	Office	successor
Simon Lengenberger	Abbot of Ochsenhausen 1498–1508	Andreas Kindscher