Cologne Cross Brothers

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Cologne Cross Brothers ("fratres sancte crucis in Colonia") were a branch of the Order of the Holy Cross (Kreuzherren) in Cologne , where they settled in 1309 on Schildergasse .

Arnold Mercator - Cologne city view from 1570 , Kreuzbrüderkloster and surroundings (1570)

History of origin

The Cross brothers had poverty and begging ( "paupertati et mendicitati") prescribed earned their living by alms and were in spite of this for mendicant typical feature for the religious family of Canons Regular . At the center of the piety of the Brothers on the Cross was the contemplation of the Passion of Christ . The starting point for the foundation in Cologne was Steinhaus monastery near Beyenburg, founded in 1298 . The Cross Brothers developed their first activities in Cologne in 1287. The Paris Cross Brother Johannes Novelan von Eppa from the Order of the Holy Cross acquired the bones of St. Odilia of Cologne , a companion of St. Ursula of Cologne , which made the order known in Germany. St. Odilia was made the patroness of the order and her bones were transferred to the mother monastery in Huy in 1292 . The first Kreuzbrothers settled in Cologne in 1305 when they bought a house on the Waidmarkt. They split into different branches, including the Holy Cross Brotherhood or the Sacrament and Agnes Brotherhood.

Founding of the Cologne Cross Brothers

Archbishop Heinrich II of Virneburg allowed her to settle in Cologne on April 21, 1307. Thus the city of Cologne could not prevent this monastic settlement, although it was rather hostile to the establishment of new monasteries within its walls, as church institutions were tax-exempt. However, the settlement was delayed until 1309. Two Brothers of the Cross from Steinhaus-Beyenburg, the priest Reinhard and the lay brother Johann de Brugis, moved to Cologne at the behest of the sixth prior general, Father Jacobus, to examine the possibilities of founding a monastery there. The widow Godelindis Hardefust of the patrician Hilger Hardefust received her in her house at today's Schildergasse 84. Reynardus Presbyter and Johannes de Brugis took over the property on April 5, 1309, the confirmation by a letter of protection from Pope Clement V. took place on May 15, 1311. They committed themselves to a pension payment of 13 marks annually to the widow, who reserved three rooms.

Johann Koelhoff (the Younger), Die Chronica van der hilliger Stat van Coellen from August 1499, woodcut, paper, Cologne, sheet 183

The Cross Brothers moved into the Hardefust estate and established a monastery there. The existing St. Barbara Chapel served as the first oratory . In order to increase their monastery library, the Cologne Cross Brothers carried out a particularly extensive writing activity. 97 manuscripts from their library have been preserved in the Cologne city archive . As early as 1575, manuscripts by the Cologne Cross Brothers were also in the Imperial Library in Vienna. One of the priors was Theodoricus von Hall, who was elected general of the order in 1449 as 22nd. Father Nicolaus of Harlem, who was elected General of the Order on September 21, 1473, also held this office. Johannes von Bongart took over the office of prior in 1551 and is considered to be the author of the monastery's yearbooks. One of the leading librarians in their library called “Libelli Rhenani” was Conradus de Grunenberg († 1455/1456).

Buildings and extensions

In 1358 they were given a neighboring property by will of Gertrud von Horne, where they broke through Kreuzgasse to build the new church. The previously used and now dilapidated Barbara Chapel could be expanded to a church with a tower and bell in 1390 and was consecrated in 1399. In 1417 the area of ​​the monastery was expanded and surrounded by a wall. There was now a large monastery complex between Schildergasse / Kreuzgasse / Streitzeuggasse, which in 1423 received another strip of land in the neighborhood through a gift from Eduard von Jülich.

The Cologne Cross Brothers bought a farm with 46 acres in Ingendorfer Feld as early as 1432 , between 1429 and 1443 the goldsmith Peter Ketzgyn contributed to the beautification of the interior of the monastery at his own expense and also donated two altars. In 1480 the Kreuzbrüder were exempted from the Cologne Rhine toll, which enabled the convent to buy a ship with Unkelsteinen. In 1486 the monastery property was expanded again to include 3 neighboring houses in Streitzeuggasse; the magnificent wing of the monastery was completed in 1499. The patrician Hermann Rinck had a chapel built at the southern end of the nave in 1513. The wealthy family of goldsmiths and merchants Adolf Rinck (1472–1541) bought two houses (“to the large and small Kneyart”; Schildergasse 74–76) from the Kreuzbruder Hermann Kneyart in 1513 and helped build the magnificent bourgeois building “to the golden ring” on the site a large vaulted hall that the patrician family Rinck made their ancestral home.

The Koelhoff Chronicle of August 1499 devoted a whole page to the Kreuzbrothers ("Cruytzbroder") with sheet 183. In Arnold Mercator Cologne Cityscape of 1570 is the area of the Cross Brothers monastery ( "Cruitsbroeder-cloister") between Schildergasse ( "schildergasse"), Kreuzgasse ( "cruisgaß") and dispute stuff alley ( "contending Gass") with the Cross Church of the Brethren as a walled area shown. The Kreuzbrüderkirche had a roof turret like the Antoniterkirche, which is diagonally opposite on the south side of Schildergasse .

Fate of the structures

Kreuzbrüderkirche Schildergasse - view from the south (before 1808)

The Kreuzbrüderkirche was rebuilt in 1737 in the Streitzeuggasse (today Kreuzgasse and Brüdergasse), but in 1802 fell victim to secularization along with the monastery . During the French era , the church and monastery were the second most expensive building after St. Cäcilien (35,000 francs) at 30,000 francs . In 1804, the Cologne master mason Franz Leisten (1754-1833) acquired the complex of the monastery of the Kreuzbrüder in Kreuzgasse, which he widened in November 1808 and had the buildings demolished in 1808. On the forecourt of the former church, the house at Schildergasse 84 was built in 1808 with a classical facade with a portico and monumental pilasters, built according to designs by Jakob Ignaz Hittorf , shortly before he emigrated to Paris and became famous. The royal police headquarters moved to No. 84 in 1816, before moving to Schildergasse 122 in 1913. The vacated building No. 84 was taken over by the brewery "Zum alten Praesidium" (owner Hermann Kleinsorg) on ​​January 26, 1917. Rudolf Schwarz rebuilt the war-damaged house in 1959 and replaced it with a commercial building in autumn 2011. A plaque in memory of the Cologne Cross Brothers is attached to this.

Today's Kreuzgasse and Brüderstraße are a reminder of Cologne's Kreuzbrüder.

Commemorative plaque for the Kreuzbrüderkloster in Cologne. The board is attached to a new office building built in 2011 at Kreuzgasse 2a / the corner of Schildergasse

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Klaus Goebel, Geschichte der Stadt Wuppertal , 1977, p. 172.
  2. ↑ Klaus Gereon Beuckers, Cologne, Die Kirchen in Gothic Zeit , 1998, p. 72.
  3. ↑ Anne-Marie Hecker / Susanne Röhl, Monastic Life in an Urban Context , 2010, p. 45
  4. ↑ a b Wilhelm Janssen, Between mendicant monks and canons: The Cologne Cross Brothers in the Late Middle Ages , in: Rheinische Vierteljahresblätter 71, 2007, p. 181.
  5. ↑ Andreas Speer / David Wirmer, 1308: A Topography of Historical Simultaneity , 2010, p. 467.
  6. ↑ a b Friedrich Ebert Frhr. von Mering / Ludwig Reischert, The bishops and archbishops of Cologne according to their order, together with the history of the origin , 1844, p. 546 f.
  7. ↑ Archive for the history of the book industry, Volume 4, 1963, p. 298
  8. ^ Paul Schwenke / Georg Leyh / Joris Vorstius, Central Journal for Libraries , Volume 44, 1927, p. 348.
  9. ↑ Friedrich Ebert Frhr. von Mering / Ludwig Reischert, The Bishops and Archbishops of Cologne according to their order, together with the history of the origin , 1844, p. 554.
  10. ↑ a b Robert Haaß , Rheinisches Archiv , Volume 23, 1932, p. 73 f.
  11. ^ A b Leonard Ennen, History of the City of Cologne , Volume 3, 1869, pp. 754 f.
  12. ↑ Anne-Marie Hecker / Susanne Röhl, Monastic Life in an Urban Context , 2010, p. 245.
  13. ↑ a b Friedrich Ebert Frhr. von Mering / Ludwig Reischert, The bishops and archbishops of Cologne according to their order, together with the history of the origin , 1844, p. 551 f.
  14. ↑ Werner Behnke, From Cologne's Franzosenzeit , 1901, p. 29.
  15. ^ Hans Vogts, The profane monuments of the city of Cologne , 1930, p. 546.
  16. ↑ Uta Grefe, Cologne in early photographs 1847-1914 , 1998, p. 47.
  17. ↑ Helmut Signon / Klaus Schmidt, all roads led through Cologne , 2006, p 110th

Coordinates: 50 ° 56 ′ 11.7 ″  N , 6 ° 57 ′ 6.4 ″  E