Johann of Mayrhofen

Johann von Mayrhofen († January 30, 1402 in Strasbourg (Carinthia) ) was as Johannes IV. Bishop of Gurk .

Johann von Mayrhofen was probably born in Mairhof in Eastern Styria and was of bourgeois-rural descent. He was first a priest in the diocese of Passau , from 1365 pastor at the Stephanskirche in Vienna, which was elevated to a collegiate church . Shortly afterwards he became the first provost of the chapter there and first chancellor of the newly founded Vienna University . Because a dispute between the Duke of Austria and the Bishop of Passau was pending due to the collegiate survey of the parish church St. Stephan , Mayrhofen was summoned to the papal court in Avignon in 1366 .

On June 3, 1376, Pope Gregory XI appointed against the proposal of the Salzburg Archbishop Pilgrim II. Johann von Mayrhofen as Bishop of Gurk. His confirmation by the archbishop took place on July 7, 1376.

Politically, the bishop always acted as a faithful servant of the Austrian duke. As Meinhard VI. Count von Görz died in 1385, Bishop Mayrhofen took over the guardianship of his underage sons Heinrich and Johann Meinhard . In this capacity he was embroiled in various political agreements. As Duke Albrecht III. came to Carinthia from Austria in 1387, he concluded an alliance with the Gurk bishop as guardian of the Gorizia. When Count Heinrich came of age in 1393, the guardianship came to an end.

After a reign of 25 years, the bishop died and was buried in the Romanesque predecessor of today's collegiate church in Strasbourg. His grave is no longer preserved.

literature

• Jakob Obersteiner: The bishops of Gurk. 1072–1822 (= From Research and Art. 5, ISSN  0067-0642 ). Verlag des Geschichtsverein für Kärnten, Klagenfurt 1969, pp. 181–189.
• Erwin Gatz (ed.): The bishops of the Holy Roman Empire. A biographical lexicon. 1198 to 1448. Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-428-10303-3 .