John VII Kaspar Pflüger

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Johannes VII. Kaspar Pflüger (born January 4, 1620 in Koblenz , † August 21, 1688 in Marienstatt ) was a German Roman Catholic clergyman and the 39th abbot of Marienstatt Abbey . His abbatiate lasted from 1658 to 1688.

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Johannes Kaspar Pflüger comes from a rich family in Koblenz. He made his profession in Heisterbach Monastery , the mother monastery of the Marienstatts. Pflüger was a pastor in Höhn from 1650 to 1658 , and there is evidence that he served in the Kirburg community . His abbot election took place on August 12, 1658 - on the same day his predecessor John VI. Wittig resigned. In June 1659 he was assigned.

With Pflüger's election as abbot, Marienstatt received the pontificals of the Michaelstein Cistercian in the Harz, which was abandoned during the Reformation in 1543 . This made Pflüger the first abbot of Marienstatt to be infected with a miter and abbot's staff . He was also the first abbot to have his own coat of arms .

It was important for Marienstatt that in the post-Reformation period with Count Saltentin Ernst von Sayn-Hachenburg, the county of Hachenburg-Sayn again had a Catholic government. He allowed the free practice of religion, and in 1665 he allowed the first public Catholic worship in Marienstatt. The count was also very committed to Marienstatt when Jesuits wanted to take over the abbey in 1670 . Abbot John VII carefully tried to recatholize the region around Hachenburg, and with the permission of the count he appointed two religious Marienstatts for sermons and confessions in the county.

Nevertheless, the relationship between the abbot and the count was marked by conflicts: the count wanted to assert his claim to power over the abbey and in 1688 forbade the monks to baptize outside the monastery valley. Other sacraments were only allowed to be donated by the Virgin Marys with the permission of the Count.

The county of Sayn was divided by inheritance, and the abbot also had problems with Countess Johannetta from Sayn-Altenkirchen : In 1671 she refused to adhere to the 1582 recess and insisted on her rights to the Kirburg parish . It demanded that the abbey adhered to the regulations of the Peace of Westphalia - which it favored. The disputes escalated, so that the abbey called the Reichshofrat in 1688 .

Under Abbot Johannes, the monastery recovered from the Thirty Years' War and the number of monks was stable.

Abbot Johannes died on August 21, 1688; his grave is in the chapter house of the abbey.

literature

  • E. Pfeiffer: The order of the Abbots from Marienstatt. CistC 50 (1938) 244
  • Gilbert Wellstein: The Cistercian Abbey Marienstatt in the Westerwald. 1955, p. 319.
  • The Cistercian Abbey of Marienstatt. The dioceses of the ecclesiastical province of Cologne. The Archdiocese of Cologne 7. Volume 14
  • Wolf-Heino Struck: The Cistercian monastery Marienstatt in the Middle Ages. Wiesbaden: Historical Commission for Nassau (= publications of the Historical Commission for Nassau Vol. 18), 1965.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.zisterzienserlexikon.de/wiki/Pfl%C3%BCger,_Johann_Kaspar
  2. ^ Christian Hillen: The Archdiocese of Cologne 7: The Cistercian Abbey of Marienstatt (Germania Sacra. Third part 14). Berlin / Boston: Walter de Gruyter, 2017
  3. ^ Christian Hillen: The Archdiocese of Cologne 7: The Cistercian Abbey of Marienstatt (Germania Sacra. Third part 14). Berlin / Boston: Walter de Gruyter, 2017
personal data
SURNAME Pflüger, Johannes VII. Kaspar
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Roman Catholic clergyman and abbot of Marienstatt Abbey
DATE OF BIRTH January 4, 1620
PLACE OF BIRTH Koblenz
DATE OF DEATH August 21, 1688
Place of death Marienstatt