Hieronymus Keck

Jerome Keck (also Hieronymus Keck of Eisersdorf ; † 7. April 1652 in Glatz ) was a Catholic priest and dean of the Archdiocese of Prague belonging Glatz . During the time of the Bohemian Rebellion he was their only Catholic pastor.

Life

The origin and year of birth of Hieronymus Keck are not known. In 1604, as the pastor of Altwilmsdorf at that time, he took over the office of Dechant at Glatzer. After most Catholics and their pastors converted to the Lutheran faith during the Reformation and the Jesuits were expelled from Glatz during the Bohemian uprising in 1618 , Hieronymus Keck was the only Catholic clergyman in the county. Since he refused to recognize the Bohemian King Frederick of the Palatinate , who was elected by the estates , he was captured in January 1620 and, because of his loyalty to the emperor, brought to the Glatzer prison as a traitor . He was only released on October 28, 1622 when the imperial troops retook Glatz in 1622. Then, due to the lack of Catholic priests, he provided for several years with some chaplains the Glatzer parish district and the parishes of Altwilmsdorf, Pischkowitz , Königshain , Rengersdorf and Eisersdorf . As a reward for his loyalty, he was ennobled by Emperor Ferdinand II with the nobility title "von Eisersdorf" and compensated by gifts of goods. After the Jesuits returned in 1624, they took over the pastoral care of the Glatzer parish.

Subsequently he was entrusted with the forced catholicization of the Glatzer country, for which he earned great services. It was also pursued with determination by the then pledgee of the County of Glatz, Archduke Karl . As Bishop of Breslau, he was a rigid advocate of the re-Catholicisation measures and in 1624 also issued a decree for the Glatzer area, according to which citizenship could only be acquired with proof of the Catholic religion. The same restriction also applied to marriages. It was also decreed that all Lutheran books were to be handed in. In 1628 the imperial governor, Governor Carl Fuchs von Fuchsberg, called on the towns and villages to promote the reintroduction of the Catholic religion and to support Hieronymus Keck in every respect. At the same time, his position was strengthened by the fact that the Reyersdorf and Schönau estates had to provide 4,000 thalers to finance the dean's office .

After the Jesuits, who returned to Glatz in 1624, took over the educational system, they were able to exercise a corresponding influence on children and young people. Due to the threatened and carried out oppression, most of the residents converted, so that Hieronymus Keck was able to report the successful re-Catholicization in 1630 based on the counts at the Easter confession and communion. In 1631 Keck undertook a visitation trip to determine the denomination as well as the church assets and the income of the parishes. To do this, each pastor had to answer an extensive catalog of questions. He dealt with church institutions ( Responsa super quastiones ) and the salvation of the soul of believers and parishioners ( Circa curam animarum ). The result of the visitation was recorded by Keck in a dean's book. The results that are important for the history of the Reformation and re-Catholicization were only published in 1884 by Franz Volkmer and Franz Hohaus in Volume 3 of the series historical sources of the County of Glatz under the title Constitutiones Synodi Comitatus Glasencis in causis religionis . The number of remaining cryptocatholics is unknown. In the Habelschwerdter council minutes for the years 1635 and 1640 resistance and protests of the citizens against the requested conversion are recorded.

Hieronymus Keck, who had been chairman of the Mittelsteiner Foundation "Pia Causa" from 1628 , died in 1652 in Glatz. He dedicated his possessions to the Glatzer Jesuit College . Out of gratitude and in his honor, they had a portrait made of him, which is still in the former Glatzer Jesuit convict (today the Museum of the Glatzer Land / Muzeum Ziemi Kłodzkiej ).

swell

• Franz Volkmer , Wilhelm Hohaus ( arrangement ): Constitutiones Synodi Comitatus Glacensis in causis religionis, 1559. The deanery books of Christophorus Neaetius, 1560, and Hieronymus Keck, 1631 . (Historical sources of the County of Glatz 3). J. Franke, Habelschwerdt 1884 ( online ; djvu format at Śląska Biblioteka Cyfrowa - Silesian Digital Library)

literature

• Arno Herzig , Małgorzata Ruchniewicz : History of the Glatzer Land. DOBU-Verlag et al., Hamburg et al. 2006, ISBN 3-934632-12-2 , pp. 17, 117, 159-162 and 182.
• Dieter Pohl : Hieronymus Keck and the Counter Reformation. In: Franz Jung (Hrsg.): On the way through the centuries. Contributions to the church history of the County of Glatz. Visitatur der Grafschaft Glatz, Münster 2005, ISBN 3-00-015240-7 , pp. 97-103.
• Arno Herzig: Confession and assurance of salvation. Silesia and the County of Glatz in the early modern period. Verlag für Regionalgeschichte, Bielefeld 2002, ISBN 3-89534-459-1 , pp. 97ff. ( Religion in History 9).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Joseph Kögler : The chronicles of the county Glatz. Revised and edited by Dieter Pohl . Volume 2: The parish and town chronicles of Glatz - Habelschwerdt - Reinerz with the associated villages. Pohl, Modautal 1993, ISBN 3-927830-09-7 , p. 53 ( historical sources of the county of Glatz. Series A: Ortsgeschichte NF 2).