Jan Volek

Seal Jav Volek 1325

Jan Volek (also: Johann the Ochslein ; according to the list of bishops of Olomouc: Johannes VII. Volek ; Czech: Jan ( řečený ) Volek ; † September 27, 1351 in Olomouc ) was provost of Vyšehrad and chancellor of the Bohemian King John of Bohemia . 1333-1351 he was Bishop of Olomouc .

Origin and career

As the illegitimate son of the Přemyslid King Wenceslaus II , Jan Volek was a step-uncle of the Moravian Margrave and later Emperor Charles IV. Although he had not received any priestly ordinations, he was Canon of Prague and Olomouc. In 1310 he became Jan II, provost of Vyšehrad and in this position at the same time Chancellor of the Bohemian King John of Bohemia, who was his step-brother-in-law.

Bishop of Olomouc

After the death of the Olomouc bishop Heinrich Berka von Dubá appointed Pope John XXII. on April 10, 1334 Jan Volek to his successor. The ordination took place only after the appointment in May of that year. Immediately after taking office, he appointed the Vyšehrad dean Peter as his vicar general . In 1343 he appointed the Brno provost Hermann von Erfurt as the second vicar general .

Jan Volek occupied an important position in political life. He was the adviser to his stepsister Elisabeth, the wife of Johann von Böhmen. He also maintained good relations with his nephew Karl, who made him deputy governor of Moravia. In 1340 he sold the Rotiberg near Jívová ( Giebau ) to Margrave Karl, who had the Twingenberg Castle built there. In the same year Jan Volek donated a canonical to the Olomouc Chapter and, with the support of Charles, founded a Benedictine monastery in Pustiměř near Wischau .

After the diocese of Prague was raised to an archbishopric in 1344, Olomouc became its suffragan . This ended the metropolitan relationship with Mainz that had existed since the 11th century . Jan Volek had to cede small areas from his district to the newly founded diocese of Leitomischl . The first Archbishop of Prague, Ernst von Pardubitz, visited his new ecclesiastical province. The "Statuta Arnesti" of 1349 that he wrote were also valid for the Olomouc bishopric.

Jan Volek arranged for a Gothic vault to be built in the cloister of the Olomouc Cathedral and also had work carried out on the St. Mauritius Church in Kremsier . During his tenure, the Diocese of Olomouc with the Margraviate of Moravia and the Duchy of Opava became a fiefdom of the Crown of Bohemia .

Jan Volek was the last male Přemyslid. He died in Olomouc and was buried in the monastery church of Pustiměř .

literature

• Jan Bistřický : Johann the Ox (Volek) († 1351) . In: Erwin Gatz : The Bishops of the Holy Roman Empire 1198 to 1448. ISBN 3-428-10303-3 , pp. 511-512

predecessor	Office	successor
Henry III. Berka of Dubá	Bishop of Olomouc 1333–1351	John VIII. Očko of Wlašim