Johann von Hernen

Hernen Castle in Hernen near Arnhem, Holland

Johann von Hernen was an abbot of the Werden monastery from 1330 to 1343 .

The name Hernen goes back to the village of Hernen (today Heeren ) in the city of Kamen in Westphalia. The noble family of the same name, mentioned in a document in 1173, was in the service of the Archbishop of Cologne . The spelling of this place name is used differently in the documents of this time or has been translated incorrectly in more recent times. It is also called Herro, Herlen, Horne, Hormen, and Hirnen . A mix-up with the city of Herne in the Ruhr area is not possible, because there was demonstrably no noble family with this name.

In 1214, the presence of members of the von Hernen family in what was then the county of Geldern is mentioned for the first time in a document. A castle is named after them: today's Hernen Castle in the village of Hernen near Arnhem in Geldern, Holland. At the beginning of the 13th century, the Geldrian rulers increased their efforts to expand their territory. In the course of this development, members of the von Hernen family of ministers who were in the service of the Archbishop of Cologne also came to Geldern. One branch of the family presumably became noble-free by marriage. It was quite common at that time for ministerial noblewomen to marry. According to the rule partus sequitur ventrem, the children from these marriages received the higher status of their mother.

The heir to the Hernen Castle married into the von Wisch family around 1300 . Johann von Hernen was probably her brother, who was mentioned in a document as early as 1310 as a monk of Werden Abbey and was therefore no longer part of the line of succession. Immediately after the death of Abbot Heinrich , the Prior, Probst, Kellner and the monk Johann von Hernen carried out via compromissi the election of Wilhelm von Hardenberg as abbot of the Werden monastery and had this election by Heinrich II , Archbishop of Cologne on November 13, 1310 , to confirm. Johann von Hernen is mentioned in a document in 1312 as provost and in 1330 as abbot of the monastery. While Kisky translated the name in the document from 1310 as Herne and added it to the Arnsberg district register , Stüwer took the view that the name Herle was mentioned in the document . A place or a family from Herle does not appear otherwise. In the following years the name Hernen was handed down for the provost and later abbot, who ruled from 1330 to 1343 . At the time of the election of Abbot Johann, membership of the baronial circle was still a prerequisite for eligibility. There is no evidence of another noble von Hernen family, so that the abbot Johann von Hernen can be assigned to the noble von Hernen family branch in Geldern.

literature

• Wilhelm Stüwer: The imperial abbey on the Ruhr . 1980.
• Karl-Heinz Stoltefuß: The noble family von Herne in the medieval counties Mark and Geldern and the origin of the abbot of the realm abbey of Werden, Johann von Hernen . In: Yearbook for Westphalian Church History, Vol. 95, 2000.
• Karl-Heinz Stoltefuß: Heeren-Werve. The story of a Hellweg parish from the 12th to the 20th century . Arrived in 2000.
• Johanna Maria van Winter: Ministerialiteit en Ridderschap in Geldre en Zutphen . Arnhem 1962.