Kaspar Gotthard

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Kaspar Gotthard (* in Würzburg ; † September 1, 1526 ) was abbot of the Premonstratensian monastery of Oberzell in Zell am Main from 1519 to 1526 .

Oberzell before Gotthard

The time before Abbot Kaspar Gotthard took office in Oberzell was marked by several contrary developments. At the beginning of the 16th century the Oberzell monastery was the most important monastery of the Premonstratensians in the diocese of Würzburg, but the monks did not manage to catch up economically with the large monasteries in Münsterschwarzach and Ebrach . However, they had enough money to renovate the Romanesque monastery church under Abbot Christophorus Steffer before 1507 .

Life

Kaspar Gotthard was born in Würzburg at the end of the 15th century and the beginning of the 16th century. Nothing is known about the family of the future abbot, nor is there any tradition of schooling. Gotthard probably attended the University of Würzburg . As a young man he must have entered the Premonstratensian order and became part of the Oberzell convent at the gates of his native town.

When Abbot Johannes Streuber died in August 1519, an abbot election was necessary to determine the successor. Kaspar Gotthard emerged as the winner from this election. The area of ​​influence of the monastery was in the middle of the Würzburg bishopric , which was shaped by the ideas of the Reformation soon after Gotthard took office . However, the inhabitants of the monastery villages were not as enthusiastic about the new ideas.

With the Reformation, ideas of peasant equality also reached the Hochstift. Finally the German Peasants' War broke out. The farmers reached Oberzell on April 23rd and plundered the abbey until April 29th. On April 29, 1525, the dependent women's monastery in Unterzell was also plundered by the marauding farmers. The farmers quartered themselves in the buildings of the monastery, probably Abbot Kaspar Gotthard had fled with the convent.

As a result of the steady influx of farmers from Karlburg , up to 18,000 insurgents, who were reinforced by farmers from the Neckar region , finally gathered in the buildings of the monastery. They wreaked havoc. Gotthard saw the uprising being put down and returned to the destroyed monastery buildings. However, he was no longer able to repair the devastation because he died on September 1, 1526.

literature

  • Helmut Flachenecker , Stefan Petersen: Personnel lists for upper and lower cell. In: Helmut Flachenecker, Wolfgang Weiß (ed.): Oberzell - From the Premonstratensian Monastery (until 1803) to the motherhouse of the Congregation of the Servants of the Holy Childhood of Jesus (= sources and research on the history of the diocese and bishopric of Würzburg, Volume LXII). Würzburg 2006, pp. 521-570.
  • Leo Günther: Oberzell Monastery. From foundation to secularization 1128–1802 . In: Festschrift for the 800th anniversary of the Norbertus monastery in Oberzell . Würzburg 1928. pp. 5-55.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Günther, Leo: Oberzell Abbey . P. 19.
  2. ^ Günther, Leo: Oberzell Abbey . P. 19.
  3. ^ Günther, Leo: Oberzell Abbey . P. 20.
  4. ↑ Flachenecker, Helmut (among others): Personal lists for Ober- and Unterzell . P. 528 (footnotes).
personal data
SURNAME Gotthard, Kaspar
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Premonstratensian Abbot
DATE OF BIRTH 15th century or 16th century
PLACE OF BIRTH Wurzburg
DATE OF DEATH September 1, 1526