Constance diocese dispute
The Constance diocese dispute shook the Swabian diocese and the city of Constance between 1474 and 1480 , when the candidates for the emperor and the pope competed for the office of Bishop of Constance . The dispute was only one in a series of such conflicts over the occupation of the bishopric, which took place in the course of the 11th – 15th centuries. Century had led to double elections and multiple appointments.
Because of the poor health of the Constance Bishop Hermann III. von Breitenlandenberg (1466–1474) appointed Pope Sixtus IV (1471–1484) at the beginning of September 1474 Ludwig von Freiberg as coadjutor of the bishop. In addition, Ludwig should in the event of the death of Hermann III. follow this in the episcopate. Hermann actually died on September 18, whereupon the Konstanz cathedral chapter , unaware of the papal commission made in favor of Ludwig, stepped for the new election of the bishop and on September 30, the majority elected Otto IV von Sonnenberg (1474-1491) to succeed Hermann. The claims of the provided stood against those of the elected, and the Constance diocese dispute eased.
Ludwig von Freiberg , who came from the lower nobility , found support from the Pope, from the Austrian Duke Sigmund and from the Württemberg Count Ulrich V. Otto von Sonnenberg from the Count's House of Waldburg was mainly supported by Emperor Friedrich III. (1440–1493) and the cathedral chapter. Logically, Friedrich den Sonnenberger enfeoffed the Regalia on October 24, 1475 .
In order to regulate the almost chaotic conditions in the diocese and Constance and to enforce the recognition of Otto, the emperor sent the Reichshermarschall Rudolf von Pappenheim in June 1476 , whereupon the papal and imperial parties agreed on an interim . In 1478 and March 1479, respectively, Sixtus IV entrusted the emperor with arbitration in the diocese dispute. Friedrich decided on Otto, whereupon Ludwig appealed to the Pope . With a mandate from August 1, 1480, the emperor finally ordered Otto to be recognized as bishop. Ludwig, who had traveled to Rome, died in the autumn of that year. Finally, on November 10, 1480, Sixtus IV recognized Otto as bishop; the diocese dispute was over.
literature
- Peter F. Kramml: Emperor Friedrich III. and the imperial city of Constance (1440–1493). The Lake Constance metropolis at the end of the Middle Ages (= Konstanzer Geschichts- und Rechtsquellen, vol. 29), Sigmaringen 1985, pp. 223–229