Johann Clare

Johann Clare († May 5, 1344 in Königsberg ) was a priest of the Teutonic Order and Bishop of Samland .

Johann Clare came from a middle class family in the old town of Thorner . His nephew Johann Clare is attested as the bishop's caravan master in 1325. A second nephew, Frowin Clare, he transferred the Schulzenamt von Neuendorf bei Fischhausen in 1327.

Since the reorganization of the cathedral chapter (1294) canon in Samland, Johann Clare became cathedral dean here in 1301 . After the death of Bishop Siegfried von Regenstein on December 13, 1310 in Königsberg , he was unanimously elected as the incumbent provost by the cathedral chapter, but the Archbishop of Riga, Friedrich von Pernstein , who was in conflict with the Teutonic Order, refused to confirm why Clare appealed to the curia . Pope Clement V commissioned Jakob Colonna , cardinal deacon of S. Maria in Via lata (1278–1297, 1306–1318), to investigate the case, as well as the elections of the elects from Kulm, Eberhard , and Pomesanien, Ludeko . After the death of Clement V, Pope John XXII renewed . the order, but in August 1318 the cardinal deacon also died. Ultimately, Clare relinquished all rights to which he was entitled from the election of the chapters in the hands of the Pope commissioned Bertrand de Montefaventio , cardinal deacon of S. Maria in Aquiro (1316-1342).

John XXII. provided him with the diocese on December 3, 1319 on his own authority. He received the episcopal ordination through Nikolaus Alberti OP , Cardinal Bishop of Ostia and Velletri (1303-1321). On December 13, 1319 in Avignon he personally promised to pay the servitia in the amount of 800  florins by Christmas of the following year and paid the first installment in October 1320. Clare also had 4,000 florins on the long-term vacancy of the Samland bishopric to pay the Apostolic Chamber. Their repayment dragged on until July 1321. For the cost of the commission he received a loan of 600 Prussian marks from the Königsberg Commander Heinrich von Plötzke , which he repaid in December 1326.

Clare returned to his diocese in April 1320 via Marburg , Prenzlau and Kolberg (Kolobrzeg), where he gave indulgences to the Elisabeth Church, the parish church and the old town Benedictine monastery . On October 24, 1320, he confirmed the cathedral chapter's patronage over the parish church of Königsberg, which was granted by the Teutonic Order in 1296. In June and July 1321 the Order tried in vain to get him through Pope John XXII. to be entrusted with the continuation and decision of the process that was carried out between the order and Duke Władysław I. Ellenlang over the possession of Pomerania . In August of that year, Clare appealed to the Curia on this matter in favor of the Order.

Johann Clare proved to be a partisan of his order, but immediately after taking office he also began to reclaim numerous rights and possessions of the Samland church that the order had appropriated under its predecessors, which led to violent disputes with the Prussian in 1321-1322 Landmeister Friedrich von Wildenberg (1317-1324) and the Komtur von Königsberg, Heinrich von Isenburg (1321-1326), led. He also had his complaints brought before the Chapter of the Order , which met in Frankfurt-Sachsenhausen in 1321, and to Grand Master Karl von Trier, who was outside Prussia . In a contract concluded on May 20, 1322 with the Prussian landmaster, he was only able to partially enforce his demands. The Samland monastery area, the boundaries of which were again determined more precisely around 1331, at that time comprised a strip north of Königsberg and a western part on the Baltic coast with the Fischhausen bishop's residence. In October 1340, in the presence of Grand Master Dietrich von Altenburg (1335-1341) , he reached an agreement with the Warmian Bishop Hermann of Prague on the course of the western diocesan border.

After the order had ceded the eastern half of the Königsberg Kneiphofinsel to the Samland church in 1322, Clare and his cathedral chapter began building a new cathedral. In 1327 he donated and endowed a Corpus Christi altar there, gave his cathedral chapter eight mainly theological manuscripts and also transferred him 300 marks for the construction of the cathedral choir. The intention to design the cathedral as a fortified church failed due to the resistance of the order. With Grand Master Luther von Braunschweig , who was later buried in the cathedral, he and the chapter concluded two contracts in September 1333 on the building of the church, the patronage rights of the chapter and the cathedral district, to which the cathedral school and the hospital were also relocated. The chapter also allowed the establishment of a courtyard south of the cathedral.

Numerous hand-held festivals for native Sami and German new settlers testify to his endeavors to colonize and develop the episcopal parts of the country, most of which have been handed down in a register of documents kept by the episcopal notary Johann von Thierenberg since 1322, the oldest of its kind in Prussia . In order to better develop his northern parts of the country, he had the old bishop's castle in Powunden near Laptau expanded and administered by his own treasurer.

Clare donated 40 marks and a chasuble to the Pomeranian Cistercian monastery Pelplin. In October 1343 he granted to all visitors of Augustine -Altars in Thorner Dominikanerkirche a drain . During his reign, the epitome gestorum Prussie of an unnamed Samland canon , which lasted until 1338, was created . His grave is in Königsberg Cathedral .

See also : List of Bishops of the Teutonic Order

literature

• Mario Glauert: Johann Clare (OT) († 1344). In: Erwin Gatz (ed.), With the assistance of Clemens Brodkorb: The Bishops of the Holy Roman Empire 1198 to 1448. A biographical encyclopedia. Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-428-10303-3 , pp. 682-684.

predecessor	Office	successor
Siegfried von Regenstein	Bishop of Samland 1320-1344	Johann von Bludau