Johannes I. (Kraichgau)

John I , Count in Kraichgau (* 1063 / 1064 ; † 26. October 1104 ), was bishop of Speyer from 1090 to 1104.

John I came from the dynasty of the Counts of Zeisolf-Wolfram . His parents were Wolfram and Atzela, his uncle was the Archbishop of Cologne, Hermann III.

Before his bishopric, Johannes worked as archdeacon at the collegiate church in Sinsheim . On March 7, 1090 he became Bishop of Speyer.

The counts were closely associated with the Salians . John I was also a loyal follower of Henry IV and stayed at his side in the investiture dispute . During the persecution of the Jews that broke out in connection with the crusade of 1096 , he took the Jews under his personal protection. He converted the canons of Sinsheim into a monastery, for which he made rich foundations from his private property. He and his niece Adelheid were involved in founding the Blaubeuren monastery , who after his death in Rome tried to resolve a ban imposed by the Pope .

Bishop Johannes died on October 26, 1104, at the age of 41, and is entered in the younger Seelbuch of the Speyer Cathedral on the day of his death with a memorial for the year . After a last will he was buried in the collegiate church in Sinsheim, in a crypt in front of the high altar, where his mother was also resting. The father and brother Wolfram were buried there in front of the apostle altar.

According to the chroniclers Philipp Simonis (1532–1587) and Wilhelm Eysengrein, he bequeathed Spangenberg Castle, which belongs to his family, to the diocese of Speyer .

The writer Wilhelm Hünermann chose Bishop Johannes vom Kraichgau in 1941 as a literary figure in his novel The Living Light (Verlag der Buchgemeinde Bonn), about the life of St. Hildegard von Bingen .

literature

• Johannes Emil Gugumus:  Johannes I., Count in Kraichgau. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 10, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1974, ISBN 3-428-00191-5 , p. 536 f. ( Digitized version ).
• Konrad von Busch and Franz Xaver Glasschröder : Choir Rule and Younger Sea Book of the old Speyer Cathedral Chapter , Speyer, Historischer Verein der Pfalz, 1923, pages 454 and 455 (with biographical information on the person)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Erich Wisplinghoff :  Hermann III .. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 8, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1969, ISBN 3-428-00189-3 , p. 635 ( digitized version ).
2. ↑ Website on the history of Spangenberg Castle ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  

predecessor	Office	successor
Rudiger Huzmann	Bishop of Speyer 1090–1104	Gebhard II of Urach