Johann von Zesterfleth

Johann II von Zesterfleth (* around 1314; † December 11, 1388 on the Rotenburg, also: Johannes ) was Bishop of Verden from 1381 to 1388 .

Johann came from the ministerial family of the von Zesterfleth , who were wealthy in the old country and part of the Horneburg castle team .

In 1339 he received from Pope Benedict XII. an entitlement to a canon position in the Bremen cathedral chapter. In 1346 he can be verified for the first time as a canon. In 1350 he is attested as a count in Buxtehude, from 1365 as cathedral treasurer in Bremen and from 1374 in addition to this dignity as cathedral dean there.

Johann caused a scandal in 1376 when he accused the incumbent Archbishop Albert of Bremen of being a hermaphrodite . This accusation was made in the course of the Lüneburg War of Succession in order to oust the Brunswick Albrecht. The accusation had been that the archbishop was both a woman and a man. Presumably the dean of the cathedral wanted to accuse his archbishop of homosexual practices, which the archbishop interpreted differently, in order to refute the accusations through four public inspections. A subsequent feud of the cathedral dean with the support of the nobility ended with a reconciliation, so that Johann continued to hold his offices as cathedral treasurer and cathedral dean until his election as Bishop of Verden in 1380.

Johann saw himself at the height of his power when Elector Wenzel I granted him feudal sovereignty over the counties of Lüchow and Dannenberg and half of the county of Lüneburg in 1386 . During this time he tried in vain to win John II von Schlamstorf, who was involved in the scandal against Albrecht, as his successor. After Wenceslas's death in 1388, however, he lost the freshly won goods again.

As his successor he now foresaw Otto II of Braunschweig-Lüneburg , a relative of Bishop Albert, whom he had fought in Bremen. He died on December 11th on the Rotenburg and was buried in the Bredenbeck Monastery (today: Neukloster in Buxtehude ), near his family estates.

literature

• Karl Ernst Hermann Krause:  Johann II of Zesterflethe . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 14, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1881, p. 433 f.
• Arend Mindermann: Johann von Zesterfleth († 1388), an Altländer nobleman as Bremen cathedral dean and bishop of Verden - Part 1: The Bremen cathedral dean. Stader Jahrbuch 2008, pp. 13–34.

predecessor	Office	successor
Heinrich I of Langeln	Bishop of Verden 1381–1388	Otto II of Braunschweig-Lüneburg