Kaspar von Breitenlandenberg

Kaspar von Breitenlandenberg († April 24, 1463 in Constance ) was Prince Abbot of St. Gallen from 1442 to 1463 . He came from an aristocratic family in Thurgau, his father was Rudolf V. von Breitenlandenberg (→ Lords of Landenberg ).

Von Breitenlandenberg entered the Reichenau monastery in 1439 , made his profession there and then moved to Bologna to study canon law . After his return on June 18, 1442, Pope Eugene IV appointed him abbot of St. Gallen. He received his episcopal ordination on September 24th of the same year. He was considered a very educated man and was highly respected among the nobility. So he became a president of the provincial chapter of the Benedictine order in Mainz and Bamberg . He later held the office of treasurer of the chapter.

The city of St. Gallen , of which he was feudal lord , refused to pay homage to him because he wanted to assert old property claims, which the citizens no longer wanted to grant him. Emperor Friedrich III. , the Confederates and various nobles were called on in turns by both parties in the lengthy dispute that followed over the city's independence rights. On August 17, 1451, the abbot concluded perpetual land rights with the federal cities of Zurich , Lucerne , Schwyz and Glarus . However, the legal dispute was not settled until 1457 through the mediation of Bern . The abbot should be able to keep most of his rights, but the city could buy them from him. On May 14, 1457, the city paid the sum of 7,000 guilders and thus became a free imperial city. For Kaspar von Breitenlandenberg, however, it was not all over. The monks of the monastery had been accusing him of mismanagement and pacts with the opposing party for a long time. In the course of the negotiations, his opinion on the rights of the city had shifted more and more in its favor, so that in the end he wanted to give her the entire sovereign rights of the monastery for only 1000 guilders, which the convention was able to prevent. In November 1457, the abbot's administration of the monastery was definitively withdrawn; the financial administration had been held by his later successor Ulrich Rösch for a long time .

Most of the last years of his life he spent in Reichenau or in Konstanz. He died on April 24, 1463 in Konstanz, but was buried in St. Gallen. During his tenure, the Convention had more members than in the entire previous century combined.

literature

• Kaspar von Breitenlandenberg , in: Helvetia Sacra III / 1/2 (1986), pp. 1317-1319

Web links

• Abbot Kaspar von Breitenlandenberg (1442-1463) in the city encyclopedia of the city of Wil

predecessor	Office	successor
Eglolf Blarer	Abbot of St. Gallen 1442–1463	Ulrich Rösch