Johann Georg von Gleißenthal

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Hans Georg von Gleißenthal

Johann Georg von Gleißenthal (* around 1507 in Emhof im Vilstal ; † February 13, 1580 in Speinshart ) was a German abbot during the Reformation , leader of the prelate bank in the Upper Palatinate and vicarage of the Upper Palatinate. His tomb is in the parish church in the Protestant Neustadt am Kulm .

Life

Gleißenthal comes from a noble family from Upper Palatinate, which comes from the village of Gleißenthal near Windischeschenbach . Nothing is known about his youth. His father was Christoph von Gleißenthal († 1527), his mother Amelie von Gleißenthal († 1556). The time of his entry into the Premonstratensian order is also unknown . In 1538, the eight “district towns” of the Upper Palatinate, together with the nobility, demanded that the country turn away from Catholicism and turn to Luther's teaching . In 1539 he was named as abbot coadjutor in Speinshart and as visitor of the order in Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia and Hungary. On behalf of Elector Friedrich II , he was to take part in the Council of Trent in 1548 . He refused, because by that time he had already turned away from the old faith.

After the Schmalkaldic War , the only three-member convent elected him abbot of his monastery in Speinshart in 1552 . The formal connection to the Reformation followed a short time later. In 1554 he had preachers from Wittenberg proclaim Lutheran doctrine in the Speinshart monastery , and in 1556 he married. In the period that followed, Elector Ottheinrich arranged for the monasteries to continue to exist as a separate body, but had the monastery property inventoried and administered by secular monastery administrators. The advantage for the electoral regiment was that the monastery administrators appointed also formed the prelate class and thus the first bank in the landscape, the Upper Palatinate custodial representation.

Gleißenthal was initially appointed administrator of Speinshart, later elected as commissarius at the head of the prelate class. He retained this important financial control function until his death. In 1562 he opposed the formal abolition of the monasteries under Elector Friedrich III. , but was settled with a substantial pension and was able to keep the title of prelate, the administration of the monastery and its strong position.

In parallel to his leading position in the representation of the estates, Johann Georg von Gleißenthal was appointed to the government of the Upper Palatinate as a church and chancellery councilor in 1557. He moved to Amberg and initially lived in the abandoned Franciscan monastery. Because of the Calvinist orientation of Elector Friedrich III. he resigned this government function as “councilor from home” in 1564, but retained his leading position in the representation of the estates. Due to his immense influence in the tax approval, he was able to the evangelical Prince Elector Ludwig VI. effectively support him in his defense against the Calvinist attempts at conversion from Heidelberg.

When Ludwig took control of Heidelberg in 1576 , he was accompanied by Gleißenthal. In the following year Gleißenthal was appointed by Ludwig to the vice-office of the Upper Palatinate in Amberg and thus to the highest administrative officer in times without governor . In this function, Gleißenthal represented the politics of this last Lutheran Elector of the Palatinate until he resigned from office at the age of about 72 because of his poor health. He died on February 13, 1580 in Speinshart.

The further fate of his epitaph is significant : it was initially set up in the monastery church, but after the re-Catholicization of Upper Palatinate it was walled up as a tombstone of a renegade in the brewery building. It was rediscovered in a fire around 1880. The then Catholic priest forbade the installation in the monastery church. That is why his epitaph was transferred to the Protestant parish church in Neustadt am Kulm .

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Volker Press :  Gleißenthal, Johann Georg von. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 6, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1964, ISBN 3-428-00187-7 , p. 452 ( digitized version ).
personal data
SURNAME Gleißenthal, Johann Georg von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gleissental, Johann Georg von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Protestant clergyman, abbot in the Reformation, leader of the Reich prelate bank in the Upper Palatinate, victum of the Upper Palatinate
DATE OF BIRTH around 1507
PLACE OF BIRTH Emhof in the Vilstal
DATE OF DEATH February 13, 1580
Place of death Super tough