Johann Hugo von Orsbeck

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Johann Hugo von Orsbeck, with coat of arms. Engraving by Leonhard Heckenauer , around 1680
Signature Johann Hugo von Orsbeck.PNG
Johann Hugo von Orsbeck, 1701

Johann Hugo von Orsbeck (born January 13 or 30, 1634 at Vernich Castle , today part of Weilerswist ; † January 6, 1711 at Philippsburg Castle in Ehrenbreitstein ) was Bishop of Speyer from 1675 to 1711 and as Johann VIII from 1676 to 1711 Archbishop and Elector of Trier .

Life

origin

Johann Hugo was the third of nine children of Jülich Chamberlain Wilhelm von Orsbeck , Lord of Groß-Vernich Castle († 1648), and Katharina von der Leyen († 1673), daughter of the Trier court master Damian von der Leyen (1583–1639) and Anna Katharina Waldbott von Bassenheim (1587–1666). Katharina von der Leyen was the sister of the Trier bishop Karl Kaspar von der Leyen (1618–1676) and the chief shepherd of Mainz, Damian Hartard von der Leyen (1624–1678).

Training and early action

Together with his brother Damian Emmerich (1632–1682), Johann Hugo attended the high school in Cologne from 1642, and in 1648 he switched to the Mainz Jesuit high school . With the receipt of the tonsure , he was accepted into the clergy in 1650. In 1652 the Orsbeck brothers began studying at the famous Collegium Germanicum in Rome. Johann Hugo finished his theological studies in 1655 and went on a two-month trip to Italy. In the meantime it had already been accepted into the cathedral chapters of Trier (1651) and Speyer (1653). In 1655 he received a parish pledge in Oberdrees (today a district of Rheinbach ), and in 1656 a second in Kettig, not far from Koblenz. In the years 1655 to 1657 the young cleric completed his studies at the University of Paris and in Pont-à-Mousson .

In 1658 Orsbeck received the minor orders and took up positions in the cathedral capitals of Speyer and Trier. In 1660 he was elected as the successor to the late Gerhard Lothar von Büren to the Speyer cathedral dean , on January 2, 1672 in Trier to the coadjutor and successor of his uncle Karl Kaspar von der Leyen. On March 24, 1674 Orsbeck was ordained a priest in the court chapel of Philippsburg Palace (Ehrenbreitstein) .

Bishop of Speyer and Trier

Personal coat of arms on the grave altar in Trier Cathedral
Three King Altar, burial place of Bishop Orsbeck in Trier Cathedral (sculptor Johann Mauritz Gröninger )

Orsbeck was elected Bishop of Speyer on July 16, 1675 . Less than a year later, on June 4, 1676, his uncle died in Trier. Bishop Orsbeck succeeded and therefore left Speyer; only once, namely in 1677, did he briefly return to the homage. On August 13, 1676, the chief shepherd appointed canon Heinrich Hartard von Rollingen , who also had episcopal ordination, to be his Speyer diocese administrator and governor . In 1688 he was promoted to dean of the Speyer cathedral , from 1692 he was also vicar general of the diocese and, after Orsbeck's death, was his successor as bishop of Speyer.

In 1676, at the age of 42, Orsbeck ascended to the archbishopric of Trier and thereby also obtained the electoral dignity . During his reign three of the most devastating wars of his time fell, which again plagued the country, which had already been badly damaged and impoverished by the Thirty Years' War . Until 1678, these were the final stages of the Franco-Dutch War led by the French King Louis XIV against the Netherlands, the War of the Palatinate Succession from 1688 to 1697, which is considered one of the worst wars of the time, and the War of the Spanish Succession , which began in 1701 lasted until 1714.

Accordingly, Orsbeck began his reign by demanding 150,000 thalers from the estates ; but he only received 86,000 on the grounds that the country was too poor to raise a larger sum. The Archbishopric of Trier was also severely affected by the annexations of imperial territory by Louis XIV, known as "reunions". Orsbeck protested to Emperor Leopold I on June 22, 1680 and asked for help from the Empire, but the request was unsuccessful because of the France-friendly policies of the other imperial estates and the weakness of the Empire towards France.

In June and July 1684, after the conquest of Luxembourg, the city of Trier was also occupied by French troops. After the outbreak of the Palatinate War of Succession in 1688, France occupied the diocese of Speyer and the Archbishopric of Trier almost completely; there was severe destruction there. Speyer was completely destroyed, the cities of Cochem, Mayen, Wittlich and many others went up in flames. After the unfortunate course of the war for the empire, the left bank of the Rhine remained in French hands for a long time. Orsbeck's own armed forces could only save Koblenz and Ehrenbreitstein from being conquered. In the Peace of Rijswijk , France finally gave back all reunited areas of the Hochstifte Trier and Speyer, withdrew its remaining troops and destroyed its Mont Royal fortress near Traben-Trarbach , which was still under construction and originally intended to rule the Moselle area.

During the war, on January 24, 1690, Orsbeck took part in the election of the 11-year-old Joseph I , the son of Leopold, as Roman-German king. When there were disputes within the electoral college in 1692 because of Hanover's elevation to the ninth electorate , Orsbeck was on the side of Kurköln and the Electoral Palatinate , which rejected this elevation.

Soon after the War of the Spanish Succession began, Orsbeck joined the alliance against France on May 8, 1702 through an alliance with England and the Dutch States General . In this alliance he was assured the greatest possible protection of the archbishopric and the city of Trier against France, but this turned out to be deceptive. As early as October 1702, the French general Tallard conquered Trier and parts of the archbishopric, which was again associated with great destruction. It was only after the victory in the Battle of Höchstädt , at the end of October 1704, that English troops succeeded in at least a temporary retake.

Orsbeck's merits as sovereign include the economic stabilization of his territory, the enactment of new land law and a new medical order, as well as efforts to promote popular education by setting up schools in the countryside.

Spiritual work

The east choir of Trier Cathedral, redesigned under Bishop Orsbeck, with stairways leading to the illuminated healing chamber ; the modern celebration altar island comes from the cathedral renovation in the 1970s.

As a bishop, Orsbeck was characterized by deep personal piety and great zeal, he drove the church reforms forward. He particularly promoted the orders of the Jesuits and Capuchins . In Koblenz he had the grammar school restored and supported an educational institution run by the Dominicans . He also issued synodal statutes for the Archdiocese of Trier in 1678 and published a new diocesan ritual in 1688 .

Orsbeck loved music and the theater; As a patron of the arts, he commissioned a precious miter , which is now in the Limburg Cathedral Treasury. He had security work carried out on the partially destroyed Speyer Cathedral and the associated episcopal castle rebuilt. He commissioned a new chapel for the miraculous image in the pilgrimage church in Bornhofen , which is looked after by the Capuchins .

From 1687 the cathedral choir in Trier was redesigned according to plans by Johann Wolfgang Frölicher (1652–1700). Orsbeck had a healing chamber for the Holy Rock added to the Romanesque apse, to which two staircases led up from the interior of the cathedral and which had an altar-like facade as the entrance and front side. Thereby he made the relic of the Holy Rock the optical as well as the spiritual center of the cathedral church.

Because of the constant armed conflicts in which the Archbishopric was involved, Orsbeck was hardly able to work personally, but was the mainspring of the religious renewal and mostly used his auxiliary bishops and other clerics for this purpose. On September 24, 1710 he appointed Bishop Karl Joseph of Lorraine , the second son of Duke Charles of Lorraine , as his coadjutor and successor. Soon afterwards Orsbeck died at the age of 77 after 35 years of rule, which were almost exclusively characterized by wars.

The bishop is said to have foreseen his death on a future Epiphany (January 6th) in a vision in 1701 in which he (probably in a dream ) witnessed his own funeral mass. Under the impression of this experience, he donated the Three Kings Altar in Trier Cathedral , in front of which he was also buried. Orsbeck was portrayed as one of the three wise men kissing the baby Jesus' feet. The actual grave slab was not completed and has been in the cloister of Trier Cathedral since 1974. The heart of Johann Hugo von Orsbeck was transferred to the Speyer Cathedral as requested. Today it is located with the associated epitaph of the heart in the Katharinenkapelle; the location of the grave is marked by a bronze heart set into the floor.

The personality

Johann Hugo's coat of arms with the electoral insignia Kurhut, sword and crook (excerpt from an engraving by Leonhard Heckenauer, around 1680)

“Johann Hugo didn't just support charitable institutions in his will, but had an open hand and an open ear for those in need throughout his life. He made little fuss about it, but he was available to everyone. […] The word that his confessor passed down from his deathbed is also characteristic: he does not know that he has wronged anyone. "

He felt a lifelong connection to his hometown Vernich and donated the local church to him , which, however, could only be built after his death. A folk tradition, initially passed down orally, grew around this foundation, according to which Johann Hugo's former Vernicher Meisterknecht hiked to Trier on foot and received from him the promise of building a new church in Vernich. This touching story appeared in 1859 as a narrative poem with 45 stanzas in the poetic collection "Blüthenhain" of the Enzen canon Johann Heinrich Steinhausen and was changed and adapted several times in the course of its transmission.

Coat of arms and motto

As Archbishop of Trier, Orsbeck had a multiple ( quartered ) personal coat of arms . It shows the Kurtrier cross at the top right (seen from the coat of arms), next to it the lamb of God with the flag of the cross for the Prüm Abbey , at the bottom left the cross for the Prince Diocese of Speyer, to the right of it a tower with a crown for the Weißenburg provost ; in the middle the Orsbeck family coat of arms (red St. Andrew's cross on a gold background and four green water lily leaves ). - The coat of arms was also available in a different arrangement of the individual coats of arms as "clover leaf coat of arms".

Johann Hugo's motto is “steadfast at all times!”, But also “my time in unrest, my hope in God”.

literature

Web links

Commons : Johann Hugo von Orsbeck  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
  • o. author [ Johann Nicolaus von Hontheim ], Historia Trevirensis diplomatica et pragmatica, Tomus tertius, MDCCL (1750), pp. 782-787; Digitized at Google books (accessed March 9, 2020)
  • Franz Xaver Remling , History of the Bishops of Speyer, 2nd vol., Mainz 1854, pp. 553-596; Digitized at Google books (accessed March 9, 2020)
  • Ed. [ Karl Eduard] Vehse , The German Church Princes in Trier - Salzburg - Munster and the Courts of the Franconian Dioceses. Secret stories, Leipzig undated [presumably 1859], pp. 24-28; Digitized at Google books (accessed March 9, 2020)
  • o. Author [ Johann Christian von Stramberg ], memorable and useful Rhenish antiquarian, who depicts the most important and pleasant geographical, historical and political peculiarities of the whole Rhine river from its outflow into the sea to its origin. From a historical researcher. 2nd division, 1st volume, Coblenz 1845, pp. 173-184; Digitized at Google books (accessed March 9, 2020)

Individual evidence

  1. Sources s. Web links
  2. Max BraubachJohann Hugo von Orsbeck. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 10, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1974, ISBN 3-428-00191-5 , pp. 540-542 ( digitized version ).
  3. photo and description of pomp Mitra Johann Hugo von Orsbecks in the Limburg Cathedral Treasury
  4. This experience, which Johann Hugo told his Auxiliary Bishop Verhorst (but did not expressly call a “vision” himself), has been passed down several times, namely in “Antiquarius” pp. 173–177 as well as by Remling pp. 590–593 and Vehse p. 26–28 (these three sources as digital copies, see under web links ); In addition, in the Ahr Valley, a partially different content, enriched with local components, has formed an independent tradition (→ online , accessed on March 9, 2020). - The text communicated by the "Antiquarius" can be found in Schorn p. 145f and previously in Emmerich Joseph Pesch, Die Vision des Kurfürsten, in: Dreikönigen-Poesie - Celebrations of Christmas in the Family , Verlag Euskirchener Volksblatt 1924, p. 53– 58; Repro in: Weilerswister Heimatblätter (WHBl. - published by the history and homeland association of the community of Weilerswist eV ) issue 47/2018, pp. 81–86; on this in the same issue: Joachim Donsbach, explanations on "The Elector's Vision" by EJ Pesch , WHBl. 47/2018, pp. 61-80.
  5. ^ Franz Ronig: The Trier Cathedral . Königstein im Taunus 1982, p. 20.
  6. Schorn p. 102
  7. In his will of October 30, 1709, Johann Hugo decreed the donation of 6,000 Reichstalers for the new building of the church and confirmed this on January 6, 1710 ( Schorn p. 109).
  8. ^ Article Steinhausen, Johann Heinrich in: Brümmer, Franz, Lexicon of German poets and prose writers from the beginning of the 19th century to the present. Vol. 7th 6th edition Leipzig, 1913, p. 47 - digitized
  9. Blüthenhain for young and old - of seals JH Steinhausen, canon, 1859. pressure of Aug. Rabuske in Euskirchen; therein pp. 103–114: Clemens [sic!] von Orsbeck and the loyal master servant, or the church in Groß-Vernich near Euskirchen. - Here the elector bears the name Clemens with poetic freedom .
  10. A shorter version has five completely rewritten stanzas at the beginning. - For the whole s. Joachim Donsbach, Various text forms of the narrative poem of the loyal master servant Johann Hugo von Orsbecks - A text-critical investigation , in: Weilerswister Heimatblätter (WHBl. - published by the Geschichts- und Heimatverein der Gemeinde Weilerswist eV ) Issue 45/2016, pp. 30–49; ders., The original version of the Meisterknecht poem from 1859 - a supplement to issue 45, in: WHBl. 46/2017, p. 41f
  11. Complete text (in the version by Franz Schorn ) on the homepage of the parish community Weilerswist (accessed on April 7, 2020) - The introductory explanations of the poem are not up to date.
  12. Johann Hugo led a. a. the title "Administrator von Prüm and Provost von Weißenburg": Schorn p. 22
  13. ^ Franz Schorn, The Catholic Parish Church of the Holy Cross in Weilerswist-Vernich , in: Rheinische Kunststätten , Issue 325, Cologne 1987 (= church guide), p. 8; also Schorn p. 22f
  14. Schorn p. 73
  15. Schorn p. 72
  16. Jakob Rausch: The Epiphany experience of the Archbishop and Elector Johann Hugo von Orsbeck. Retrieved April 7, 2020 .
predecessor Office successor
Karl Kaspar von der Leyen Archbishop Elector of Trier
1676–1711
Karl Joseph of Lorraine
Lothar Friedrich von Metternich-Burscheid Prince-Bishop of Speyer and
Prince Provost of Weissenburg
1675–1711
Heinrich Hartard von Rollingen