Johann II of Werdenberg

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dedication of the Augsburg Breviary by Erhard Ratdolt to Bishop Johann von Werdenberg (1485); On the right, the Werdenberg family coat of arms;

Johann II von Werdenberg (* around 1430; † February 23, 1486 in Frankfurt am Main ) was a count from the noble family of Werdenberg and from 1469 to 1486 Bishop of Augsburg .

Origin and family

He was born as one of sixteen children of Count Johann IV von Werdenberg-Sargans († 1465) and his wife Elisabeth von Württemberg , great-granddaughter of Emperor Karl IV , and daughter of Count Eberhard III. von Württemberg and Elisabeth von Nürnberg-Hohenzollern .

His brothers were Count Hugo XI. von Werdenberg († 1508), Heinrich XIII. von Werdenberg († 1505), Canon of Strasbourg and Rudolf X. von Werdenberg († 1505), German Johanniter Grand Prior . The sisters Margarete von Werdenberg († 1496) and Anna von Werdenberg († 1497) officiated as abbesses of the Buchau women's monastery . Another sister, Agnes von Werdenberg, married Count Jobst Nikolaus I von Hohenzollern , and one of her sons, Friedrich II von Zollern , succeeded him as Bishop of Augsburg.

In the family genealogy, Johann von Werdenberg bears the designation V, as Bishop of Augsburg II. The father's grave is preserved in the Martinskirche Trochtelfingen .

Live and act

He studied in 1446 at the University of Heidelberg , where he acquired the title of Baccalaureus Artium in 1448 . Later he obtained - presumably in Italy - the degree of licentiate in theology. In addition, he was particularly interested in pharmacy.

Johann von Werdenberg entered the clergy, in 1449 he became Canon of Augsburg, 1451 in Strasbourg and 1454 in Constance . In 1461 he appears as provost of the collegiate monastery Wiesensteig , where he had the Gothic collegiate church of St. Cyriakus built around 1466 . In 1466 he was ordained a priest.

Pope Pius II appointed Johann von Werdenberg in 1463 as coadjutor and successor to Cardinal Peter von Schaumberg, Bishop of Augsburg . The pontiff, famous as a humanist, referred to Werdenberg's great erudition; the papal decision was also accepted by the cathedral chapter.Stiftskirche St. Cyriakus

Emperor Friedrich III. appointed Bishop Johann to his council . At the same time he gave him the order to settle the feuds between the city and the Duke of Bavaria, which he did in 1469 in the Peace of Landshut, with the help of his brother-in-law Count Hugo XIII. von Montfort-Argen , succeeded. Werdenberg made sustained efforts to improve pastoral care and worship. He brought Erhard Ratdolt , one of the best contemporary printers, back to Augsburg from Venice and supported the development of the art of printing in Augsburg. He also promoted the book lover and humanist Adolph Occo , whom he had chosen to be his doctor. In 1471, Johann von Werdenberg took part in the great Christian Day in Regensburg , which was about defending against the Turkish threat and introducing the Turkish tax . During the Augsburg Diet of 1473, Emperor Friedrich III lived. and his son Maximilian in the episcopal palatinate. In 1480 the ruler sent the bishop of Augsburg as an envoy to King Ludwig XI. to France. In 1482 Johann von Werdenberg donated a silver altar for the east choir of Augsburg Cathedral, which was lost.

Werdenberg died in 1486 when he was staying at the Reichstag in Frankfurt am Main, where Maximilian I was elected King of Germany. He was buried in Augsburg Cathedral , where his Tumba tomb has been preserved. The grave inscription comes from the aforementioned doctor Adolph Occo. Heart and entrails were buried in the Carmelite Church in Frankfurt . The brother Heinrich XIII. von Werdenberg had a coat of arms stone placed for him in the Johannes chapel of the Strasbourg cathedral with the following inscription: "Memoria venerabilis et generosi domini Johannis Comitis de Werdenberg, Episcopi Augustensis, huius ecclesie Canonici, obiit 1486"

The historian Friedrich Zoepfl writes about the bishop: "A man with a pronounced sense of justice, winning kindness, conciliatory attitude, a ruler who aroused trust in high and low and found it in full."

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Wolfgang Zorn (Ed.): Lebensbilder aus dem Bayerischen Schwaben , Volume 10, P. 79, Verlag Konrad, Weissenhorn, 1973, ISBN 3-87437-083-6 ; (Detail scan)
  2. ^ Helmuth Scherer: The living cathedral: the Augsburg bishop's church in the course of the centuries , Verlag Winfried-Werk, 1965, p. 79; (Detail scan)
  3. ^ Denis André Chevalley: Der Dom zu Augsburg , p. 291, Oldenbourg Verlag, 1995, ISBN 3-486-55960-5 ; (Digital scan)
  4. ^ Illustration of the grave inscription for Bishop Johann von Werdenberg written by Adolph Occo
  5. ^ Placidus Braun : History of the Bishops of Augsburg , Volume 3, p. 86
  6. ^ Friedrich Zoepfl : The diocese of Augsburg and its bishops in the Middle Ages , Augsburg 1955, p. 482
predecessor Office successor
Peter von Schaumberg Bishop of Augsburg
1469–1486 		Friedrich II of Zollern
personal data
SURNAME Werdenberg, Johann II of
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Werdenberg, Johann V. von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Bishop of Augsburg
DATE OF BIRTH around 1430
DATE OF DEATH February 23, 1486
Place of death Frankfurt am Main