Mariental Monastery (Böckingen)

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The Mariental Monastery was a medieval nunnery, which is essentially evidenced by two documents from the 13th century and a grave slab found in Böckingen , today a district of Heilbronn in northern Baden-Württemberg . The exact location of the monastery is unknown. The field name Nonnenbuckel in Böckingen could mark the former location of the monastery, but the monastery could also have been in the former town of Altböckingen a few kilometers east of the Neckar .

history

According to Dambacher , a women's monastery to be founded in Bogkingen , Vallis sancte Marie (Mariental), was first mentioned in a document from Würzburg Bishop Hermann I von Lobdeburg from 1238. The bishop reserved jurisdiction over the monastery according to the Constitutions of Citeaux . An older document from Pope Gregory IX. from 1237 assures an unspecified monastery Vallis sancte Marie the rights of the Cistercian monasteries, but does not name any location or monastery property, so that the monastery otherwise not mentioned in the documents was probably only planned at that time and did not yet exist. Based on a found grave slab, the first abbess of the monastery was probably a Böckingen noblewoman, the Lords of Böckingen or the Lords of Neipperg could be considered as the founder of the monastery .

Bishop Hermann von Lobdeburg founded several other women's monasteries such as Seligental , Lichtenstern , Gnadental and Wechterswinkel . The nunnery flourished in the 13th century due to a religious movement among the lower nobility. According to Riecke, the Cistercian Konrad von Urach and the Würzburg canon Salomo established a piety among the lower nobility with his sermons in Eastern Franconia. Other foundations of monasteries in this area were the Lichtenstern monastery Stella Praeclara , which was founded in 1242 by Luitgard von Weinsberg, a native donor of Limpurg and widow Engelhard III. von Weinsberg , as well as the monasteries mentioned in the Lichtensterner Kopialbuch due to donations from the Lords of Magenheim and the Lords of Neuffen .

Access to the exclusive Benedictine monasteries was not permitted for the lower nobility, as a resolution of the Cistercian General Chapter from 1228 forbade accepting economically weak nunneries into the Cistercian order. As a result, the small monasteries were not monasteries in the strict sense of the word, but merely congregations of nuns who were subordinate to the Bishop of Würzburg as their spiritual master.

The economic difficulties of the small monasteries soon led to several resettlements and associations. The Böckingen monastery also fell victim to such an association. Due to several connections to the monastery in Frauenzimmern , it is assumed that the Mariental monastery was merged with the Frauenzimmern monastery and that the location in Böckingen was abandoned in the 13th century.

Location question

Since there are no certain structural remains and the documents do not specify the exact location of the monastery, there is only speculation about the location. Alfred Schliz , Heim and Karl Heinz Mistele locate the monastery in Böckingen, where the field name Nonnenbuckel could mark the former location. Wanner and Kiefner, on the other hand, locate the place of the monastery in the former place Altböckingen , east of the Neckar , as this belonged to the diocese of Würzburg , while Böckingen belonged to the diocese of Worms . Böckingen and Altböckingen cannot be clearly distinguished in older documents.

Grave slab

The inscription on the epitaph may have read: ANNO DOMINI M CC LXXX VIII IN DIE SANCTIJ VRBANI OBIIT… [ABBA or ADVOCA] TISSA DE BECKINGE.
Grave slab from the Böckingen Monastery from 1288 in 1900 with the following inscription: ANNO D […] M […] IM CC LXXX VIII I […] DIE […] VRBAN […] TISSA DE […] KINGE.

In 1900, the Pankratiuskirche in Böckingen was rebuilt, and an epitaph was found that was 200 × 80 cm in size when it was discovered, whereas today only fragments of the plate are preserved. The condition when it was found is recorded in a drawing. The lower third, which is no longer available today, was badly damaged by fire or reworking with a pointed iron.

In the upper half of the plate a large cross can be seen, which has the shape of two intersecting labrys . In the middle of this large cross there is a small shield with three small rings. Otherwise, three rings are also part of the coat of arms of the Lords of Neipperg . The lower half of the plate shows a large helmet ornament with again three rings. The heraldic elements are framed by a circumferential inscription made of differently shaped capitals , which, however, was only preserved in fragments when the plate was found.

The inscription begins clockwise in the upper left corner. When it was discovered, the following could be read from the inscription: ANNO D […] M […] IM CC LXXX VIII I […] DIE […] VRBAN […] TISSA DE […] KINGE. While one is clear about the interpretation of large parts of the inscription, there are different interpretations of the letters TISSA , which form the last part of the title of the deceased. She could have been Abbatissa ( Abbess ) or Advocatissa ( Vögtin ).

According to Schliz, Heim and Mistele, the inscription could be completely as follows: ANNO DOMINI M CC LXXX VIII IN THE SANCTIJ VRBANI OBIIT… ABBA TISSA DE BECKINGE Translated this means: In the year of the Lord 1288 on the day of St. Urban (May 25th) the abbess of Böckingen died. This addition is justified as follows: The cross on the upper half of the epitaph is to be compared with the cross of the globe in other comparable epitaphs and the miter is to be compared with those of other abbot epitaphs. The field name Nonnenbuckel and archaeological excavations would have proven a women's monastery.

According to Kolb and Wanner, the complete inscription could read as follows: ANNO DOMINI M CC LXXX VIII IN THE SANCTIJ VRBANI OBIIT… ADVOCA TISSA DE BECKINGE In the year of the Lord 1288 on the day of St. Urban (May 25th) the Vogtin von Böckingen died. This interpretation is justified with a Cunradus advocatus mentioned from 1279 to 1295 , who was bailiff and lord of the church, and whose wife the deceased could have been.

literature

  • Werner Heim: The Mariental Monastery . In: Heilbronn Historical Association. 24th publication , Heilbronn 1963
  • Karl Heinz Mistele: The Mariental Monastery in Böckingen - the problem of church history . In: Heilbronn Historical Association. 24th publication , Heilbronn 1963

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Dambacher, document archive of the Mariental monastery, magazine for the history of the Upper Rhine (ZGO) 4, 1853, p. 172 ff.
  2. ↑ Böckingen am See. A district of Heilbronn - yesterday and today . Heilbronn City Archives, Heilbronn 1998 ( Publications of the Heilbronn City Archives . Volume 37), p. 70: A copy of this document is in the copy book of the Frauenzimmern monastery

    "Noverit igitur [...] quod nos consensu capituli nostri locum, dictum volgariter Bogkingen, ad honorem Dei et patroni nostri Kyliani et sociorum eius sanctimonialium deputavimus, noun eidem imonentes Vallis dedice Marie in cuius honorem monasterium ibidem duxius"

  3. ↑ Viktor Riecke: nunnery of the Cistercian order in the former diocese of Würzburg . MS dissertation Stuttgart (TH) 1944
  4. ↑ Joseph-Marie Canivez OCr. Statuta Capitulorum Geralium Ordinis Cisterciensis II, Bibliothèque de la Révue d'Histoire Ecclesiastique 10, 1934, ad annum 1228, 68

    "Nulla monasteria monialia de cetero sub nomine aut sub iuriscitone Ordinis nostri construantur vel Ordine socientur"

  5. ↑ a b Alfred Schliz: Gravestone of a noblewoman from the von Böckingen family from 1288 , Historischer Verein Heilbronn (HVH) VI., 1900, p. 63 ff
  6. ↑ a b Werner Heim: The Mariental Monastery , Histor. Heilbronn Association 24th publication 1963, p. 44
  7. ^ A b Karl Heinz Mistele: The Mariental Monastery in Böckingen - the problem of church history , histor. Heilbronn Association 24th publication 1963, p. 46
  8. ↑ Peter Wanner: The tomb of the wife of Böckingen - Abbess or Vögtin , Böckingen am See. A district of Heilbronn - yesterday and today. Heilbronn City Archives, Heilbronn 1998 (Publications of the Heilbronn City Archives, 37), p. 66
  9. ^ Theo Kiefner : The Mariental Monastery in Altböckingen . In: Zeitschrift des Zabergäuvereins, 1966, pp. 31–32
  10. ^ AG Kolb: Gravestone of a noblewoman from the von Böckingen family from 1288 , Historischer Verein Heilbronn (HVH) Publication 7, 1906, p. 81
  11. ↑ Peter Wanner: The tomb of the wife of Böckingen - Abbess or Vögtin . In: Böckingen am See. A district of Heilbronn - yesterday and today . Stadtarchiv Heilbronn, Heilbronn 1998 ( publications of the archive of the city of Heilbronn . Volume 37), p. 66