Johann von Vlatten

Johann von Vlatten (* around 1498; † June 11, 1562 in Düsseldorf ) was a German humanist , politician and canon .

Origin and education

Johann von Vlatten came from the influential family of ministers von Vlatten / Scheiffart v. Merode with extensive possessions in the Duchy of Jülich . His birthday is unknown. From the course of his studies and the commencement of his first and second canons , the year 1498 has been derived as the likely year of birth. He died on June 11, 1562 in Düsseldorf .

As one of four sons he embarked on a spiritual career at an early age and received his first canonical at the age of just 17 .

In 1516 he enrolled at the artist faculty at the University of Cologne . During this time there was heated discussion there about humanism and the so-called dark man letters caricature the Cologne scholarly world. Even Erasmus was at that time occasionally in Cologne and in person or by mail took part in it. Johanns probably became acquainted with both Erasmus and Konrad Heresbach , who also studied there around 1520. Since the beginning of the 1520s, Vlatten also studied law. He left Cologne University in 1521 to continue his studies in Orleans, Paris and Freiburg.

Financially he was through Duke Johann III. secured with several spiritual benefices and thus tied to the Bergisch-Markische Hof . Among other things, Vlatten occupied the provosts of Kranenburg (1521–1562), Xanten (1536–1543), St. Marien in Aachen (1541–1562) and Kerpen (1544–1562).

In the service of the Dukes of Jülich-Berg and Kleve

Vlatten was in the winter of 1523/24 by Duke Johann III. appointed ducal councilor and went to the Jülich-Bergisch court . During this time Duke Johann III appointed. - possibly with mediation or on the recommendation of Vlatten - Konrad Heresbach as tutor of the heir Wilhelm V (1516–1592) to his court in the Duchy of Kleve . In this position, too, the "Erasmus-Intimus" (Tobias Arand) Johann von Vlatten maintained a lively correspondence with Erasmus of Rotterdam and tried very hard in the 1520s to relocate Erasmus to the Lower Rhine .

In 1525 Johann von Vlatten moved together with the somewhat younger Heresbach student and later judge at the Imperial Court of Justice , Caspar Schober , for about 2 years to study in Bologna.

He also took on diplomatic tasks for his sovereign and was now and then on an official mission with Chancellor Johann Ghogreve to the Reichstag and at religious talks. From about 1530 Vlatten acted as Ghogreves Vice Chancellor; Simon Reichwein (1501–1559) called him in 1530 in a letter to Erasmus of Rotterdam the “ fidum Achatem ” (“ faithful Achates ”).

After the death of Chancellor Ghogreve (1554), Vlatten became permanent chancellor at the court of Jülich-Berg, responsible for overseeing church visits , and provost in Aachen. He also worked out the Jülich-Bergisch church ordinances of 1532 and 1533 and was one of the most influential at the court of Duke Wilhelm V, known as “the rich”, even during his “vice chancellorship”.

Via media politicians

Until his death and - by setting the course for personal and content-related questions - he, the clear partisan of Erasmus, has a balancing and at the same time humanistic character (between Protestantism and Catholicism ) with regard to necessity through his theological and legal knowledge of ducal church politics a church reform. Through his political activities and his letters "he embodies the prototype of the via-media politician" (Eckehard Stöve).

Appreciation

Vlattenstraße in Düsseldorf (crosses Gogrevestraße).

literature

• Anton Gail: Johann von Vlatten and the influence of Erasmus of Rotterdam on the church politics of the united duchies. In: Düsseldorfer Jahrbuch , vol. 45, Düsseldorf 1951, pp. 1–109.
• Woldemar Harleß :  Vlatten, Johann von . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 40, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1896, pp. 87-89.
• Dieter Scheler: The Duke's lawyers and the court. In: Mainhard Pohl (ed.): The Lower Rhine in the Age of Humanism. Konrad Heresbach and his group. Bielefeld 1997, pp. 75-92.
• Eckehard Stöve: Via media. Humanistic dream or church political opportunity? On the religious policy of the united duchies of Jülich-Kleve-Berg in the 16th century. In: Monthly Issues for Church History of the Rhineland , Volume 39, Cologne / Bonn 1990, pp. 115–133.

Individual evidence

1. ^ W. Kohlhammer: "Publications of the Commission for Historical Regional Studies in Baden-Württemberg: Research, Volumes 18-21" , pages 42 and 87, 1961; Excerpts from the source
2. ^ Letter of March 29, 1530, in: Joseph Förstemann / Otto Günther (ed.), Letters to Desiderius Erasmus von Rotterdam (supplements to the Centralblatt für das Bibliothekswesen 27), Leipzig: Otto Harrassowitz 1904, pp. 135f.

predecessor	Office	successor
Johann Ghogreff	Chancellor of Jülich-Berg and Ravensberg 1554–1562	Wilhelm von Orsbeck