Johannes Scotus (Bishop)

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Johannes I. Scotus , also John Scotus (* around 990 ; † November 10, 1066 in Rethra ) was the first Mecklenburg bishop of Irish or Scottish origin.

Life

John was probably identical to that John, who is said to have been Bishop of Glasgow between 1055 and 1060-1066 . He came to Saxony from Scotland and was nicknamed Scotus as a Scot . This probably held the title of Bishop of Orkney in 1055 .

Since Archbishop Adalbert von Bremen intended to establish twelve bishoprics in his archdiocese to expand his power, many clergymen and priests, but also bishops who had been driven from their seats, gathered at his court. This is also where Johannes went, who according to Helmold had left Scotland out of a pilgrimage .

Adalbert divided the diocese of Oldenburg between 1055 and 1057 into the dioceses of Oldenburg, Ratzeburg and Mecklenburg, and around 1062 appointed Johannes as bishop of the newly formed diocese of Mecklenburg. Johannes took his official seat in Mecklenburg , the residence of the Abodritic velvet ruler Gottschalk . The latter, raised in Lüneburg as a Christian, had leaned politically close to Adalbert in order to increase his own power base vis-à-vis the pagan nobility and the priesthood by building up a church organization.

But the missionary work of the aged bishop was not only moderately successful because of his advanced age. Helmold von Bosau attests to the bishop that he baptized many thousands of pagans during his stay on the Mecklenburg. But elsewhere the chronicler complains that in the entire Abodritic Empire not even a third of those Slavs were turned towards Christianity as they were under the Abodritic velvet ruler Mistivoy . The main problem with John's Slavic mission was rather the language barrier. The missionaries preached in Latin, which none of the Abodrites could understand. An anecdote by Helmold is indicative of the extent of the calamity, according to which the velvet ruler Gottschalk himself had to translate the visitors of a service from Latin into the Polish language .

During an uprising of the pagan forces against Gottschalk and operated by control and Christianisierungspolitik which limited in particular the influence of the nobility, was John captured in 1066 on the Mecklenburg and then guided through the castle districts before it in the Slavic central sanctuary Rethra spent has been. Here his hands and feet were chopped off and his head was cut off. This, impaled on a lance, was sacrificed to Radegast , the god of war, on November 10, 1066.

John left neither certificates nor seals. He is classified as a martyr and named in the martyrology of the Benedictine order.

swell

  • Adam of Bremen : Bishop history of the Hamburg church. In: Werner Trillmich , Rudolf Buchner (ed.): Sources of the 9th and 11th centuries on the history of Hamburg's history and the empire. = Fontes saeculorum noni et undecimi historiam ecclesiae Hammaburgensis necnon imperii illustrantes (= selected sources on German history in the Middle Ages. 11). 5th revised edition. Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 1978, ISBN 3-534-00602-X , pp. 137-499.

literature

  • Julius Wiggers : Church history of Mecklenburg. Verlag der Hinstorff'schen Hofbuchhandlung, Parchim u. a. 1840, pp. 24-25 .
  • S. Johannes Scotus Ep. Mart. In: Johann Evang. Stadler , Franz Joseph Heim (Ed.): Complete Lexicon of Saints. Volume 3: I - L. Schmid, Augsburg 1869, p. 268, no. 152 .
  • Alfred Rische: Directory of the bishops and canons of Schwerin. With biographical remarks (= report from the school year about the Grand Ducal Realgymnasium in Ludwigslust. Enclosure . 29, 1899/1900, ZDB -ID 1066964-4 ). Kober, Ludwigslust 1900.
  • Josef Traeger : Johannes I., Scotus, approx. 1062-1066. In: Josef Traeger: The bishops of the medieval diocese of Schwerin. Benno, Leipzig 1984, pp. 16-18.
  • Donald ER Watt: Fasti Ecclesiae Scotinanae Medii Aevi ad annum 1638 (= Scottish Record Society. New series No. 1, ISSN  0143-9448 ). 2nd draft. Scottish Record Society, Edinburgh 1969, p. 144.
  • Grete Grewolls: Who was who in Mecklenburg and Western Pomerania. The dictionary of persons . Hinstorff Verlag, Rostock 2011, ISBN 978-3-356-01301-6 , p. 4691 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Helmold von Bosau : Slawenchronik , I, 23.
  2. ↑ Herbert Remmelt: The first bishop of Mecklenburg. SVZ Schwerin, Mecklenburg-Magazin, October 13, 2017.
  3. ↑ Adam von Bremen p. 431 = III, 77.
  4. ↑ a b Helmold von Bosau: Slawenchronik , I, 22.
  5. ^ Helmold von Bosau: Slawenchronik , I, 22: peregrinacionis amore , see also Peregrinatio .
  6. ↑ Karl Jordan : The founding of the diocese of Henry the Lion. Studies on the history of the East German colonization (= Monumenta Germaniae Historica. Schriften. 3, ISSN  0080-6951 ). Hiersemann, Leipzig 1939, p. 72.
  7. ^ Alfred Rische: Directory of the bishops and canons of Schwerin. 1900, p. 11.
  8. ↑ Lexicon for Theology and Church . Volume 1-10. Herder, Freiburg (Breisgau) 1930–1938.
personal data
SURNAME John Scotus
ALTERNATIVE NAMES John Scotus; Johann Scotus
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Bishop of Glasgow, Bishop of Orkney and First Bishop of Mecklenburg
DATE OF BIRTH around 990
DATE OF DEATH November 10, 1066
Place of death Rethra