Jakob von Bruck

Grave slab of the abbot, in the cloister of St. Peter and Paul, Wissembourg (Alsace)

Jakob von Bruck († 10. August 1472 ) was a Benedictine and abbot of the monastery White Castle (Wissembourg) in Alsace .

Live and act

Jakob von Bruck came from a noble family in Lorraine. In 1468 he was elected as the successor to Philipps Schenk von Erbach as abbot of the Alsatian monastery in Weißenburg. He held office for just under five years, died on August 10, 1472 and was buried in the cloister of the Weissenburg Abbey Church of St. Peter and Paul , where his grave slab was preserved. According to the monastery chronicle by Kaspar Brusch (1551), Abbot Jakob ruled "gloriously" .

The Weißenburg collegiate feud

His relatively short term of office was filled with events and struggles to keep his office, which he achieved with papal and imperial support. This episode is referred to in historiography as the Weißenburger Stiftsfehde .

Under the secular predecessor Philipp Schenk von Erbach, a religious and moral decline and indebtedness of the abbey had set in during his 33 years in office. Although the new abbot Jakob von Bruck, in contrast to Philipp Schenk von Erbach, is described as pious, amiable and clever and was highly regarded by the citizens of Weißenburg, Elector Friedrich I of the Palatinate , as the Alsatian governor , wanted the Weissenburg monastery forcibly through let the Bursfeld congregation reform and hand it over to them. In addition, he intended to strengthen his political influence over the abbey and saw the provost Anton von Leinigen appointed by Abbot Jakob , as well as his brother Count Emich VIII von Leiningen-Hardenburg, as his declared opponents.

Even before Jakob von Bruck had received his confirmation from Rome , Elector Friedrich had the monastery occupied by hand strokes on January 7, 1469. The abbot was ousted and was supposed to come to an agreement with the elector in Heidelberg , which he refused. Thereupon the Palatinate seized the castle St. Paul north of Weißenburg, one of the four fortifications to protect the abbey. The abbot and provost escaped; beforehand they had had valuables and documents brought to Drachenfels Castle .

The city of Weißenburg was on the abbot's side. There was general unrest there, the Electoral Palatinate officials and the Bursfeld monks were expelled and had to retreat to St. Paul Castle. In return, Elector Friedrich imposed a fine of 3000 guilders on the city, which the city ignored.

The elector had meanwhile sent an Italian legal scholar to the papal court to bring an action against the abbot and provost of Weissenburg. But Jakob von Bruck had also sent his chaplain Stephan Widtman to Pope Paul II . He obtained the appointment of the abbot of Gottesaue monastery as papal legate , with the power to take legal action, if necessary also with the application of the ban , against the elector until the abbot and convent of Weißenburg were reinstated in their rights.

The Weißenburg abbot also turned to Emperor Friedrich III. who enfeoffed him as imperial prince and thus also recognized him. The ruler ordered all vassals of the monastery to recognize only Abbot Jacob as their liege lord . With the date of July 31, 1469 he issued a document to reinstate the expelled Abbot Jakob von Bruck. On October 24, 1469, the papal and imperial decision went to the Weißenburg city council. On January 8, 1470, Emperor Friedrich ordered the Elector of the Palatinate “to leave Abbot Jakob and Provost Anton von Weissenburg in the possession of their monastery and to obey them” .

Jakob von Bruck was meanwhile living in exile with the Margrave of Baden in Baden-Baden . A resident resident brought the prelate disguised as a woman on a farmer's cart to Weissenburg. Abbot Bruck entered the city undetected and went into hiding in the Augustinian monastery . On November 1, 1470, the city council picked him up there and he was solemnly reinstated in his office.

Elector Friedrich, for his part, ordered that the monastery should no longer be paid any taxes, but that everything should be delivered to St. Paul Castle, which he held. On November 27, 1470, Frederick I began to besiege the city and the monastery and open hostilities broke out. In February 1471, after 71 days of siege, the elector relented and promised to keep the abbot and his provost in their dignity. With that, the affair ended happily for Jakob von Bruck and he could rule unchallenged until his death in the summer of 1472.

For Elector Friedrich, however, a long, difficult struggle for his rights as bailiff of Alsace developed, which they wanted to deprive him of. The emperor called for war against him, and he was temporarily put under the papal ban. In 1476 he died after many - mostly victorious - battles. The historians have therefore given him the nickname Frederick the Victorious .

After the death of Abbot Jakob, Emperor Friedrich III. on October 3, 1472 the protection of the Abbey of Weißenburg the council of the city of Strasbourg . Abbot Heinrich was elected as his successor only in 1475, under whom the convent joined the Bursfeld congregation in 1482, as requested by Elector Friedrich I in 1469.

literature

• Michael Frey : Attempt of a geographical-historical-statistical description of the royal Bavarian Rhine district , Volume 1, Speyer, 1836, p. 471; (Digital scan)

Web links

• Hagen Seehase: The Weißenburger Stiftsfehde , PDF document
• Website on the history of Weißenburg monastery