Lorenz III. from Freiberg

Lorenz Edler von Freiberg (* before 1459; † August 15, 1487 ) was named Lorenz III. Bishop of Gurk .

Life

Lorenz von Freiberg came from an old Carinthian aristocratic family who lived in Drasenberg near Meiselding. In 1459 Lorenz von Freiberg was elected provost of Gurk. In this office he had made a great contribution. When the parish Neukirchen in southern Styria was incorporated into the collegiate chapter of St. Nikolai in Strasbourg with papal authority, Provost Lorenz carried out the handover.

In 1472 he was by Emperor Friedrich III. appointed Bishop of Gurk, but the Salzburg Archbishop Bernhard appointed his nephew Sixtus von Tannberg , who also received confirmation from the Pope. Under threat of excommunication, both candidates were invited to Augsburg and the dispute was settled by the Patriarch of Aquileja, Cardinal Markus, who was nuncio for Germany, and it was decided in favor of Sixtus von Tannberg. However, after he renounced Gurk's chair two years later in favor of the bishop's chair in Freising, the way was clear for Lorenz von Freiberg.

On March 12, 1474, he received from Pope Sixtus IV. Permission to be ordained bishop by any bishop. But only on October 4, 1478, he was in Gurk cathedral consecrated after 1474 already by the Pope from the canon law provided penalties dispensed are needed. It is not known why he delayed his episcopal ordination for so long. It was to take 352 years before Jakob Peregrin Paulitsch , a native of Carinthia, ascended the bishopric of Gurk again in 1824 . As a bishop he wore the ordinal number Lorenz III., Although Lorenz II. Von Lichtenberg is considered to be an opposing bishop.

The bishop led his diocese with a strong hand; his reign was marked by Turkish invasions in Carinthia and the occupation of Friesach and Althofen by the Hungarians.

Bishop Lorenz died in 1487. He was buried in the Gurk Cathedral and is the last Gurk Bishop to find his final resting place in his Gurk Cathedral.

literature

• Jakob Obersteiner: The bishops of Gurk. 1072–1822 (= From Research and Art. 5, ISSN  0067-0642 ). Verlag des Geschichtsverein für Kärnten, Klagenfurt 1969, pp. 252–268.