John IV. Burckhardt

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Johannes IV. Burckhardt as Abbot of Banz

Johannes IV. Burckhardt (* 1538 in Wettelsheim near Treuchtlingen , † January 26, 1598 in Banz Monastery ) was abbot of the Benedictine monastery Münsterschwarzach from 1563 to 1598 , from 1575 he also headed the Banz monastery and from 1590 also the St. Stephan monastery in Würzburg .

The monasteries in front of Johannes Burckhardt

The 16th century was marked in all of Franconia by the beginning of the Reformation . Münsterschwarzach was destroyed in 1525 by peasants moving through and had to be rebuilt in the course of the century. At the same time, the lack of support for the ailing abbey led to a distance from the goals of the Bursfeld congregation . The monastery was in debt, and services were hardly celebrated. The situation worsened due to further destruction in 1546 and 1553. The escalating mismanagement under Abbot Leonhard Gnetzamer also did not contribute to the relaxation.

The peasant uprisings and the Protestant principalities in its vicinity also caused problems for the Upper Franconian monastery of Banz. In order to attract more offspring to the monastery, the nobility privilege was lifted in 1550 , so that simple peasant sons now also had the opportunity to become monks. The plague raged in the Würzburg city ​​monastery of St. Stephan in the 16th century. The monastery received fewer and fewer new professions , at the same time its debt rose to previously unimagined heights.

Life

Abbot Johannes IV. Burckhardt, contemporary engraving, 1574

Early years

Johannes Burckhardt was born in Wettelsheim , today a district of Treuchtlingen, in 1538 . He was the son of Heinrich Burckhardt, who worked as Vogt for the Ansbach Hohenzollern in the Wettelsheim office. Burckhardt's mother was Eva Widmann, who came from a Protestant family. Her brother worked as a Lutheran pastor near Nuremberg. Burckhardt's older brother Georg , born January 5, 1539, later became known as a Lutheran professor.

With the outbreak of the Schmalkaldic War , the father sent the two brothers to his brother-in-law in the Nuremberg area. When the war reached this place soon afterwards, they fled to Windsheim . The school education of the two began there, but was suddenly interrupted by the news of their father's death in 1546. Johannes and Georg left their place of refuge again and moved to Ochsenfurt to live with their father's brothers . In the prince-bishop's official city on the Main, Johannes was taught by private tutors for two more years.

On December 25, 1548, ten-year-old Johannes was brought to the Benedictine monastery in Münsterschwarzach . Due to the small strength of the convent, in 1551 there were only seven monks in the monastery, the boy rose quickly. On March 14, 1551 he was already ordained a minor priest. A year later, on September 24, 1552, he became a subdeacon and in 1554 a deacon . He was ordained a priest on March 30, 1555. He quickly gained the confidence of his predecessor in the abbot, Wolfgang Zobell, and filled the offices of cellar and prior .

Abbot of Münsterschwarzach

Burckhardt's coat of arms as Abbot of Münsterschwarzach

After the death of Wolfgang Zobell, the remaining monks elected Johannes Burckhardt unanimously as Abbot Johannes IV on May 24th, 1563. On June 23rd of the same year the election received the blessing of the Vicar General of Würzburg, on June 24th Johannes was consecrated. The new abbot reformed the monastery. He called for the monks to renounce their private property and encouraged common choir prayer in the dilapidated monastery church . He had the monastery library rebuilt and equipped with new works.

Johannes Burckhardt also quickly returned to the Bursfeld customs, even if the abbey never officially became part of the monastery association. Johannes IV. Burckhardt pushed for the re-creation of the lost hall books in order to be able to get better information about the monastery property . This enabled him to build up a closed monastery area that was preserved until secularization . He did not shy away from any legal dispute with the other landlords on the Main.

The abbot faced the Reformation with a mixture of harshness and polite interest. On the one hand, he tried to re-Catholicize monastery villages that had accepted the new creed; he was successful in Gerlachshausen and failed in Eichfeld . On the other hand, he also received neighboring Protestant landlords such as Count Georg II zu Castell in 1570. Only when Prince-Bishop Julius Echter von Mespelbrunn took office in Würzburg did the Counter-Reformation intensify in the Main Abbey. At the same time, discrimination against Jews in the monastery’s sphere of influence also increased.

Abbot of Banz

In Banz in Upper Franconia , which was between the spheres of influence of the bishops from Würzburg and Bamberg, the situation worsened in the sixties of the 16th century. Rumors circulated that the abbot would hand over the monastery to the Protestant Saxons . In 1566, therefore, troops from Würzburg and Bamberg occupied the abbey. Prince-Bishop Friedrich von Wirsberg therefore called the young abbot from Münsterschwarzach to help. Johannes visited the monastery with two monks as a visitor.

During this visit on March 2, 1567, Protestant citizens of Coburg occupied the monastery buildings. The visitor and his monks were chased out of the monastery and had to return to Münsterschwarzach on foot. He did not return to Banz until 1575. Before that, in 1573, Johannes Burckhardt was electoral commissioner for the bishops' elections in Würzburg. The young Julius Echter von Mespelbrunn emerged as the winner from the vote . He held Johannes Burckhardt in high esteem and urged him to take over the Banz Abbey as director and innovator.

Johannes IV. Burckhardt initially refused, but had to give in to the bishop on June 9, 1575. Because of the suspicion of the accumulation of offices, the men agreed on John's future title. It read: "Abbot zu Banz and Administrator zu Münsterschwarzach". The journey to the still contested monastery took place under military protection by soldiers from Würzburg. On June 20, 1575, John was elected. One month later, on July 9th, the Bamberg Bishop Veit von Würtzburg enfeoffed him with the abbey after initial resistance.

In Banz, Johannes Burckhardt first began to expand the convent . Then he took on the destroyed buildings. In 1578 the floor plan of the new church was available, after its completion the convent building could be started in 1580. Again Burckhardt introduced the customs of the Bursfeld congregation without joining the alliance. At the same time he continued to work in Münsterschwarzach. After the renovation of the monastery church, he donated a poor fund from his inheritance in 1582.

Abbot of St. Stephan

On December 25, 1582, Johannes Burckhardt asked for his resignation in Banz. Julius Echter von Mespelbrunn refused this request. When Burckhardt's health problems increased in the late eighties of the 16th century, he tried several times to convince the Prince-Bishop of his recall. Instead, Julius Echter transferred another abbey to him on February 22, 1590, St. Stephan in Würzburg, which Burckhardt was to run as administrator.

Burckhardt tried to reform the city monastery with loans from the Münsterschwarzach Abbey, which had been discharged. At the same time, illnesses such as rose sores and pulmonary edema troubled him through the many journeys between the monasteries . In the years 1592 and 1597 further attempts at resignation failed due to the rejection of the Prince-Bishop from Würzburg. Johannes Burckhardt died on January 26, 1597 in Banz and was buried in Münsterschwarzach.

coat of arms

The coat of arms in Stadelschwarzach

Burckhardt was one of the first abbots of Münsterschwarzach, whose coat of arms has been handed down. Description: A curved, overturned black tip in gold; Above everything an upright linden branch with three 1: 2 leaves, the lower ones bent downwards, everything in mixed up colors.

Due to the abbot's brisk building activity, the coat of arms can be found on several objects in the former monastery villages. A particularly splendid one was installed above the portal of the Stadelschwarzacher Amtshaus. It is also carved on an epitaph in the St. Eucharius parish church in Sommerach and on a wayside shrine in the village. Another version of the coat of arms is on a bell in the church of Stadtschwarzach.

plant

  • Johannes Burckhardt: Funebris oratio in obitum Reverendi Admodum in Christo Patris ac Domini, D. Joannis Burckhardi . Wuerzburg 1601.

literature

  • Franziskus Büll, Herbert Müller: Abbot Johannes IV. Burckhardt von Münsterschwarzach and the book . In: Elmar Hochholzer (Ed.): Benedictine monasticism in Franconia from the 12th to the 17th century. On the 400th anniversary of the death of the Münsterschwarzach abbot Johannes IV. Burckhardt (1563-1598) . Münsterschwarzach 2000.
  • Franziskus Büll: Traces of the building activity of Abbot Johannes IV. Burckhardt OSB inside and outside the Münsterschwarzach Abbey . In: Elmar Hochholzer (Ed.): Benedictine monasticism in Franconia from the 12th to the 17th century. On the 400th anniversary of the death of the Münsterschwarzach abbot Johannes IV. Burckhardt (1563-1598) . Münsterschwarzach 2000.
  • Lambert Dörr : Johannes IV. Burckhardt, Abbot of Münsterschwarzach and Banz . In: Benedictine Monthly 34 . 1958.
  • Elmar Hochholzer: The Münsterschwarzach Abbey during the Reformation . In: Pirmin Hugger (Ed.): Magna Gratia. Festschrift for the 50th anniversary of the consecration of the Münsterschwarzach Abbey Church 1938-1988 . Münsterschwarzach 1992.
  • Rainer Kengel: The coat of arms of the abbots of Münsterschwarzach . In: Abtei Münsterschwarzach (Ed.): Abtei Münsterschwarzach. Works from their history . Münsterschwarzach 1938.
  • Johannes Mahr: blossom in ruins. Life and work of the Münsterschwarzach abbot Johannes Burckhardt (1563–1598) . In: Münsterschwarzacher studies. Volume 46 . Münsterschwarzach 1998.

Web links

Commons : Johannes IV. Burckhardt  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Elmar Hochholzer: The Münsterschwarzach Abbey during the Reformation. P. 263.
  2. Johannes Mahr: Bloom in ruins. P. 32.
  3. See: Franziskus Büll (among others): Abbot Johannes IV. Burckhardt von Münsterschwarzach and the book. P. 91 ff.
  4. See: Lambert Dörr: Johannes IV. Burckhardt.
  5. Johannes Mahr: Bloom in ruins. P. 104.
  6. Johannes Mahr: Bloom in ruins. P. 122.
  7. Rainer Kengel: The coat of arms of the abbots of Münsterschwarzach. P. 146.
predecessor Office successor
Wolfgang Zobel Abbot of Münsterschwarzach
1563–1598
Johannes V. pitcher