Jesuit College Speyer

Keystone of the coat of arms of the entrance gate of the Jesuit College Speyer (1714), now in Grünstadt

The Jesuit College was a branch of the Jesuit Order founded in 1567 or 1571 on the initiative of the Speyer cathedral chapter with an associated college and church, which had its seat in the core city of Speyer , north of the cathedral.

history

The ruins of St. Nikolaus in 1782. The first Jesuit settlement in Speyer was located here (to the left is the Nikolaus tower or the cathedral tower of the city fortifications, which does not belong to the church).

The so-called "Cologne drawing" of the Speyer Cathedral , from 1606. To the left, the Jesuit Church

The so-called "Viennese drawing" of the Speyer Cathedral (north side), from 1610. To the right, the east facade of the Jesuit Church

In the course of the Counter Reformation , the Jesuits came to Speyer. After St. Petrus Faber had already worked there in 1542, the order settled here permanently from 1567.

In 1564, Lambert Auer , the rector of the Mainz Jesuit College, stayed in Speyer to relax and inspired people with his sermons in the cathedral and in St. Jakob . In 1565 the local cathedral preacher Hans Hering was unable to exercise his office due to illness. In November of that year his representative, the priest on the cross altar, Nikolaus Hutzel, died. In this emergency situation, the dutiful Speyer vicar general Andreas von Oberstein turned to Archbishop Daniel Brendel von Homburg in Mainz, whom he knew well because he had emerged from the Speyer cathedral monastery. He formally urged him to leave Father Lambert Auer from Mainz on leave and to send him back to Speyer so that a good preacher would be available for the cathedral. Archbishop Brendel approved this, but attached the condition that a Jesuit college should be founded in Speyer as soon as possible in order to have such clergymen in the future. Auer therefore came to Speyer as a provisional cathedral preacher at the end of 1565 and held this office until autumn 1566. He was replaced by Father Hermes Halpaur, who succeeded him as cathedral preacher and in 1567 became the first rector of the Jesuit college in Speyer.

In its session on January 17, 1567, the cathedral chapter approved the establishment of a Jesuit college, and on May 5, 1567 the Jesuits began to teach at the cathedral school. During this time, St. Petrus Canisius was also active in Speyer.

Due to difficulties with the city administration, which rejected the Jesuits, the cathedral chapter only issued the formal deed of foundation for the Speyer Jesuit college in 1571, with the consent of Bishop Marquard von Hattstein . In this, the college was given the St. Nicholas chapel north of the cathedral with an adjacent house for an annual payment of 700 guilders, 50 Malter corn, 20 Malter barley and 5 loads of wine . In addition, the cathedral chapter asked the Jesuit general Franz von Borgia at the time to send five Jesuits to Speyer, one of whom should understand Greek, a second preach in High German in the cathedral and the other three theological lectures.

The college was created against the objection of the majority Protestant city council, which was delaying its founding, and, as Franz Xaver Remling writes, "was filled with excellent men who worked hard in the spirit of the order in the schools and in pastoral care." As already mentioned, its members took over 1567 also the cathedral school, which was formerly run by the cathedral chapter, on the corner of Stuhlbrudergasse and Pistoreigasse. They expanded it into a (Catholic) grammar school, which was attended by 400 to 500 students around 1600.

Since the Jesuit church services and lectures were apparently very popular, the Nikolauskapelle and the adjoining house turned out to be too small, so that in 1598 the cathedral chapter handed over to them the Christopheruskapelle near the westwork of the cathedral with the adjoining old cathedral mechanic. The Jesuits had both buildings torn down around 1600 and built a church with a polygonal stair tower on the north side at this point, the floor plan being a somewhat shifted rectangle. The hall-like church space probably had a flat ceiling and in front of the straight east wall of the building a retracted semicircular apse behind which there was still a sacristy. The Jesuit Church can also be seen on the Cologne and Vienna cathedral drawings from 1606 and 1610, respectively. The same building is shown on both views, but on the Viennese drawing the east side without an apse. It is therefore questionable whether the new Jesuit building appears on these historical representations or whether the old buildings from around 1600 still appear.

The Belgian Jesuit and Bollandist Daniel Papebroch (1628–1714) wrote in 1660 in his travel notes about college and church:

“ Our college is located in a rectangular space on the north side of the cathedral, the opposite side of which is occupied by the bishop 's palace and the other two sides are occupied by the college with its church and the Nikolauskirche , which our people use for civil sodality . The college library is well stocked with books. In the sacristy we saw three silver statues of the Blessed Virgin, Saints Ignatius and Xaverius, almost three feet high and a crucifix made of cast silver, plus four crystal candlesticks. The church itself doesn't look valuable from the outside. Inside it is very well adapted to our needs and very attractive. The ceiling above is not arched, but nicely coffered. A wide balcony runs all around the church, which is also secured by a tastefully carved and painted wooden balustrade with its openings for light to the front. And here almost all Catholic citizens come together for religious exercises. They are few, but influential. Then there is the majority of the members of the imperial chamber with their servants. There is a pieta in the middle of the church; the virgin mother holds the body of her son on her lap under the cross. "

The new buildings did not even exist for 100 years, as they fell victim to the city ​​fire in 1689, like large parts of the city of Speyer . After the return of the residents around 1698, with the help of donations from the faithful and funds made available by the relatively wealthy order, the school building was first rebuilt and a new college built between Stuhlbrudergasse and Domgarten in the form of a four-wing complex with an inner courtyard, its two-story main building was on Stuhlbrudergasse and was divided in the middle by a risalit. The complex was completed in 1727 with the construction of the new Jesuit church, which stood not far from the cathedral on the site of the church that was destroyed in 1689 and thus formed the south wing of the complex. Inside it was 33 meters long, 14.11 meters wide and 12.26 meters high up to the flat ceiling, had five window axes and, in contrast to the church that was destroyed in 1689, had no recessed apse, but rounded corners, which made the room slightly larger.

As in 1752, without warning, a tower of Guido pen , which the city fire had survived, rushed to the nave of the Guido church, which a man from Otterstadt was killed, it was realized that the west wing of the cathedral, which had survived the great fire, especially its towers posed a danger. Therefore, in 1752 the north-western tower and in 1757 the rest of the western building, apart from the Romanesque vestibule, was demolished.

All these efforts to protect the college did not change the fact that the Jesuit order was repealed on July 21, 1773 by the Breve Dominus ac Redemptor by Pope Clement XIV , who had previously been pressured by Spain, France and Portugal . This also ended the history of the Speyer Jesuit College, with which its buildings passed back into the possession of the cathedral chapter. The Catholic grammar school (Stuhlbrudergasse 5), run by the Jesuits, continued to exist while the other buildings were being converted. It was first run by secular clergy, then from 1777 to 1779 by Franciscans, then again by secular clergy, until it was finally handed over to the Augustinians in 1787, who directed it until it was dissolved in the French Revolution.

After Speyer was conquered by revolutionary troops, the college, the church and the crypt located under the western part of the church, as well as the neighboring cathedral, were looted and, when Speyer officially belonged to France, was confiscated as national property and leased. However, during the period when the cathedral was closed for services, the Jesuit Church was briefly used as a church by the Catholic community, to which the church had been left for services. In 1806, by an imperial decree, this was merged with the Franciscan parish, which celebrated its services in the church of the former Franciscan monastery . As a parish church, this parish received the cathedral, which had been devastated as a result of the revolution, the restoration of which was to be financed from the sale of the Capuchin Church, the Franciscan Church and the Jesuit Church, which Napoleon allowed with a decree signed on September 23 in Saint-Cloud near Paris . The so-acquired funds, the sale of the Jesuit church, which was carried out on February 4, 1807 order of the prefect, earned 3,150 francs, but were enough only for a rough repair the damage so that the service continues in the monastery church of St. Magdalena took place .

After the end of French rule and the annexation of the Palatinate to Bavaria, the church was used as a riding hall, while the college served as barracks. In 1816 the buildings were measured and various plans and sections of the buildings were made, whereby it was stated that the buildings were in good structural condition. In 1867 a new construction of the south and east wing with facades in the Maximilian style was planned , which would have seriously affected the cathedral. However, these plans were never implemented, they are now stored in the Munich War Archives. In 1880, the building was finally torn down and the Canon Curia was set up on the site. The crypt was filled in and dug up again in 1925 during sewer work and made accessible through a modern staircase, the entrance to which is behind an inconspicuous iron door in the terrace wall of Edith-Stein-Platz at the beginning of Stuhlbrudergasse.

The crypt of the former Jesuit church

Entrance gate of the Speyer Jesuit College (1714), since 1961 at the Catholic. Church of St. Peter, Grünstadt

Today's remains

Today, the preserved crypt at the former location still reminds of the Jesuit monastery. There is only contemporary pictorial representation on the so-called “Cologne drawing” from 1606, on which the church is on the left edge of the picture, and on the “Vienna drawing” from 1610. The church and the buildings belonging to it cannot be seen on the various city views, as they are always covered by the cathedral due to their location, but Matthäus Merian's cityscape from 1637 shows a building east of the cathedral (it bears the number 9) Jesuit Coll. referred to, by which Merian probably means the school belonging to the church, which, however, was north of the church (today Stuhlbrudergasse 5) and is thus covered by other buildings, especially the cathedral. Also in Philipp Stürmer's picture The Free Imperial City of Speyer before its destruction in the Palatine War of Succession in 1689 , the entire complex is covered by the cathedral. In addition, according to Bernhard Röttger, there are plans in the Bavarian War Archives showing the facility in 1816 and 1821.

The qualitative baroque portal of the Speyer college, made of yellow sandstone, with a Jesuit coat of arms cartouche (marked 1714), has been located at the Catholic Church of Grünstadt since 1961 (entrance to the courtyard of the parish house or sister house). It once stood in Stuhlbrudergasse, had been stored in Speyer since its demolition and was reused in Grünstadt on the initiative of the then pastor Theodor Nauerz .

Personalities

• Hermes Halpaur († 1572); Jesuit, preacher, first Speyer rector from 1567–1571
• Peter Michael Brillmacher (1542–1595); Jesuit, theologian, from 1569 at the college in Speyer, 1570 there vice-rector, 1571–1579 rector
• Petrus Canisius (1521-1597); Jesuit, theologian, doctor of the church, saint, worked in Speyer before 1571
• Athanasius Kircher (1602-1680); Jesuit, universal scholar, spent his third degree in Speyer in 1628/29 and stayed there again in 1632.
• Johannes Magirus (1559-1609); worked 1592–1609 at the Speyer College as a school principal, preacher and controversial theologian
• Wilhelm Wolff von Metternich zur Gracht (1563–1636); noble Jesuit, writer, 1595–1617 rector of the Speyer College
• Friedrich Spee (1591-1635); Jesuit, theologian and poet, taught at the Speyer college around 1616/17 and spent his third degree here in 1627/28.
• Peter Kircher (1592-1629); Preacher and witch chaplain in Bamberg , entered the local college in 1610
• Philipp Kisel (1609-1681); As a Speyer cathedral preacher, he was part of the local college, later rector of the Worms Jesuit college and professor of theology in Bamberg
• Philipp Gersenius (1665-1727); Cathedral preacher in Würzburg, university professor in Würzburg and Bamberg, from 1723 rector of the Speyer College
• Joseph Pfriemb (1711 – after 1771); 1762 to 1770 rector of the Speyer College, teacher at various universities

Web links

Commons : Jesuitengruft (Speyer)  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Website on the history of the Speyer grammar school with its own chapter on the Jesuit school ( memento from December 25, 2014 in the Internet Archive )

literature

• Franz Xaver Remling: Documented history of the former abbeys and monasteries in what is now Rhine Bavaria . tape 1 . Christmann, Neustadt an der Haardt 1836, p. 310–312 ( full text in Google Book Search).
• Bernh. Hermann Röttger, Albert Pfeiffer: The art monuments of the Palatinate, III, city and district office Speyer . edited by Bernh. Hermann Röttger, with a historical introduction by Albert Pfeiffer, with drawings by Georg Lösti and Kurt Müllerklein. tape 3 . Published by R. Oldenbourg, Munich 1934, p. 456-458 .
• Brief historical description of the ruins and main public buildings of the district capital Speyer . Lang, 1853, p. 13 ( full text in the Google book search - in the Google Books version, pages 1 and 2 are at the end of the book).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Bernh. Hermann Röttger, Albert Pfeiffer: The art monuments of the Palatinate, III, city and district office Speyer . edited by Bernh. Hermann Röttger, with a historical introduction by Albert Pfeiffer, with drawings by Georg Lösti and Kurt Müllerklein. tape 3 . Published by R. Oldenbourg, Munich 1934, p. 456 .
2. ↑ Ludwig Stamer : Church History of the Palatinate , Part 3, Volume 1, pp. 63-64, Pilger Verlag Speyer, 1954
3. ↑ Oberrheinische Studien, Volume 6, Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Geschichtliche Landeskunde am Oberrhein, 1985, p. 306; (Detail scan)
4. ↑ Website on the history of the Gymnasium am Kaiserdom, Speyer ( Memento from December 25, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
5. ↑ Klaus Herbers, Peter Rückert: Pilgrim saints and their memoria , German St. Jakobus Society, Books on Demand, 2012, ISBN 382336684X , p. 158; (Digital scan)
6. ^ ^{A b} Franz Xaver Remling: Documented history of the former abbeys and monasteries in what is now Rhine Bavaria . tape 1 . Christmann, Neustadt an der Haardt 1836 ( full text in the Google book search).
7. ^ Franz Xaver Remling (ed.): Document book for the history of the bishops of Speyer. Newer documents . tape 2 . Mainz 1853, p. 644–646 ( digitized version from Heidelberg University Library ).
8. ↑ Digital scan from the source
9. ^ Udo Kindermann : Art monuments between Antwerp and Trento: Descriptions and evaluations by the Jesuit Daniel Papebroch from 1660. First edition, translation and commentary . Böhlau Verlag, Cologne 2002, ISBN 3-412-16701-0 , p. 97
10. ^ Franz Xaver Remling: History of the Bishops of Speyer . Kirchheim 1854, p. 787 ( full text in Google Book Search).
11. ^ Franz Xaver Remling : Modern history of the bishops of Speyer: Sammt deed book . Kleeberger, 1867, p. 212 ( full text in Google Book Search).
12. ^ Fritz Klotz: Speyer - Small town history . 4th expanded edition. Speyer 1971, p. 145-146 .
13. ↑ Newspaper article on the development of the portal in Grünstadt (1961)
14. ^ Biographical website on Athanasius Kircher
15. ^ Johann Friedrich Schannat : Eiflia illustrata or geographical and historical description of the Eifel , Volume 2, 1st section, p. 563, Aachen, 1829; (Digital scan)
16. ^ Biographical website on Friedrich Spee

Coordinates: 49 ° 19 ′ 3.3 ″  N , 8 ° 26 ′ 29.1 ″  E