Engelthal Monastery (Nürnberger Land)
The monastery Engelthal is a former convent of the Dominican Sisters in Engelthal in Nürnberger Land in Bavaria in the diocese of Eichstaett . In the 14th century it was a center of mystical spirituality and literature.
history
The founding of Engelthal Monastery was an indirect result of the power struggles between imperial and papal rule that had taken place in the first half of the 13th century. In the course of these disputes, the Eichstätter Bishop Friedrich II. Von Parsberg, on papal order, imposed the ban on church and the interdict against the city of Nuremberg , loyal to the emperor . A group of beguines , who had previously lived there in a monastery-like community , had to leave the city and sought refuge in the outskirts of the city. The Reich Ministerial Ulrich II von Königstein granted them this in the small town of Engelschalkesdorf, which was under his rule . A little later he donated the village Swinach to them , which was subsequently renamed Engelthal. With this donation, the economic conditions for the foundation of the monastery consecrated to John the Baptist had been created.
Under the direction of the chaplain Ulschalk von Vilseck, a new church was started, which was dedicated to the Mother of God and John the Baptist . In 1244 the women received permission from the bishop of Eichstätt to live according to the Sistine Augustinian rule . The first elected prioress was Dietmund von Gaylenhausen. In 1248 the monastery was incorporated into the Dominican order by Pope Innocent IV . In the following decades it developed relatively quickly into the most important manorial rule in the region, which was mainly due to numerous other donations. These came not only from the family of the monastery founder, but also came from many other ministerial families in the area. This led to the fact that around the year 1300 there were already 175 farms and estates in 54 localities in the possession of the monastery, and half a century later another 70 more. At this time of economic boom, the monastery also experienced its spiritual heyday when it opened up to the new religious developments of the 13th and early 14th centuries during Christine Ebner's lifetime ( see below ). Emperor Charles IV , who visited the monastery around 1350, included the area in New Bohemia in 1353 . After its sale, Engelthal came under Wittelsbach rule in 1373. With the Landshut War of Succession , Engelthal was added to the Nuremberg countryside as war wages in 1504 .
At the beginning of the 16th century, reforms were required of the monastery, as the monastery had been accused of a decline in discipline and order (even children were said to have been born to nuns). In 1512, the Augsburg Dominican prior Schmid carried out a visitation during which mild reforms were proposed. However, these did not work and the exam was opened again immediately. Finally, the order master Thomas Cajetan, with the support of the Pope, ordered a fundamental reform of the monastery. As a result, the prioress Margarethe Kürmreuther and the subprioress Martha Kürmreuther were deposed and replaced by the patricians Barbara Tucher and Brigitte Haller . In 1515 the city of Nuremberg appointed a nurse to whom the sisters had to give an economic account. These reforms were soon overtaken by the Lutheran Reformation .
With the era of the Reformation came the end of Engelthal Monastery. After the city of Nuremberg converted to Protestantism in the 1520s , the city council decided to dissolve all monasteries in the imperial city's territory. However, the dissolution was not implemented immediately, instead the monasteries were prohibited from accepting new members. The nuns and monks living there were not expelled from their monasteries, but were allowed to stay there until they died. Only after the death of the last member of the monastery was the final dissolution of the respective monastery to take place. This also affected Engelthal Monastery, which was not allowed to accept any new novices .
Even before the monastery was dissolved, it was completely burned down by margrave troops in 1552 during the Second Margrave War . The final end of the monastery finally came in July 1565 with the dissolution of the monastery convent. The monastery property of 327 farms and estates that existed at that time then became the complete property of the city of Nuremberg, which formed the Engelthal Care Office.
Mysticism and literary activity
Christine Ebner lived in the monastery from 1289 to 1356 , and because of her writings she is considered to be one of the most important representatives of the mysticism of the 14th century. At the suggestion of the Dominican Konrad von Füssen , from 1317 onwards, her experiences of grace were also reflected in writing. In the period that followed, the monastery developed a literary production that was unique in the German-speaking area, describing "revelations" and other experiences of grace, in which a specific theology was also expressed. Christine Ebner in particular developed in her writings the image of a God who is loving, loving and gracious towards people. In the sister book Von der genaden uberlast ( Von der Gnaden Überlast ) she also recorded the grace of her fellow sisters. In addition, the grace vita of the monastery chaplain Friedrich Sunder was created as well as, written by two chaplains of the monastery, the (only fragmentary preserved) vita of sister Gerdrut (sic!) Von Engelthal . After 1330, Adelheid Langmann (1306–1372) also wrote down revelations, which were then editorially revised into a grace vita. Perhaps the work Der Minnespiegel in Engelthal was also created. An Engelthaler library directory from 1447 also gives insight into the spiritual interests of the monastery community.
Overall, the Engelthaler literature is characterized by great formal variability; it is in constant development, whereby the individual authors could fall back on common source material and obviously influenced each other. The field of literary relationships has not yet been explored. The daughter Syon of Lamprecht of Regensburg was probably known in Engelthal ; Knowledge of the Cistercian mysticism and works from the Helfta monastery is also possible . Mystical sermons by Dominicans are attested in Engelthal around the year 1325. Later passed through Heinrich of Nördlingen the Flowing light of the Godhead the Matilda of Magdeburg according Engelthal. Engelthal's writings seem to have reached the monasteries of Pillenreuth , Kirchberg and Gotteszell . In today's research on literature in women's monasteries, Engelthal Monastery has attracted new interest due to the relatively broad tradition of sources and archive material.
Others
In the debut novel Gargoyle by the Canadian writer Andrew Davidson , Engelthal Monastery is a central setting. In the plot of this book, laid out on different levels of time and space, it is the scene of a love affair between a nun living there and a mercenary. By means of the characters acting in the novel - albeit purely fictional - the importance of the monastery as a medieval spiritual center is thematized.
photos
The former St. Willibald Chapel
A remnant of the former monastery wall
The north gate of the Engelthaler monastery wall
The east gate of the Engelthaler monastery wall
Individual evidence
- ↑ See Hans Neumann: "Der Minne Spiegel" and Mechthild von Magdeburg. In: Journal for German Philology 73 (1954), pp. 217–226, here p. 226
- ↑ Printed in Thali (see literature ), pp. 329–331
literature
- Matthias Binder: Engelthal Monastery - place of creation of mystical literature. In Tobias Appl; Manfred Knedlik (Ed.), Upper Palatinate Monastery Landscape. The monasteries, monasteries and colleges of the Upper Palatinate. Pp. 171 - 181. Friedrich Pustet, Regensburg 2016, ISBN 978-3-7917-2759-2 .
- Susanne Bürkle: Literature in the monastery. Historical function and rhetorical legitimation of women-mystical texts from the 14th century . Francke, Tübingen / Basel 1999 (Bibliotheca Germanica 38).
- Marie-Luise Ehrenschwendtner: The education of the Dominican women in southern Germany from 13. – 15. Century . Franz Steiner, Stuttgart 2004 (Contubernium 60).
- Leonard Patrick Hindsley: The Mystics of Engelthal: Writings from a Medieval Monastery . Palgrave MacMillan, New York 1998. ISBN 0-312-16251-0 .
- Ursula Peters: Religious Experience as a Literary Fact. On the prehistory and genesis of women-mystical texts of the 13th and 14th centuries . Niemeyer, Tübingen 1988 (Hermaea NF 56)
- Eckhardt Pfeiffer: Nürnberger Land . Karl Pfeiffer, Hersbruck 1993, ISBN 3-9800386-5-3 .
- Siegfried Ringler: Life and revelation literature in women's monasteries in the Middle Ages. Sources and Studies . Artemis, Munich 1980.
- Johanna Thali: Praying - Writing - Reading. Literary life and Marian spirituality in Engelthal Abbey . Francke, Tübingen / Basel 2003 (Bibliotheca Germanica 42).
- Gustav Voit: Engelthal. History of a Dominican convent in the Nuremberg area . 2 vols. Korn & Berg, Nuremberg 1977–1978 (series of publications of the Altnürnberger Landschaft XXVI).
Fiction
- Andrew Davidson: Gargoyle. Translation: Eike Schönfeldt. Berlin Verlag, Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-8270-0782-7 .
Engelthaler sister book
- The Nun von Engelthal booklet from the straight overload. Edited by Karl Schröder . Tübingen 1871 (library of the Litterarian Association Stuttgart 108).
Coordinates: 49 ° 28 '18.2 " N , 11 ° 23' 55.9" E
Web links
- Monasteries in Bavaria: Engelthal Monastery (House of Bavarian History)
- Engelthal in Monastic matrix (Engl.)
- On the history of the monastery