Ludwig von Helmstatt

Family coat of arms

Ludwig von Helmstatt (* approx. 1435; † August 24, 1504 in Philippsburg ) was the 66th Bishop of Speyer from 1478 to 1504 .

Origin and family

Ludwig was the fifth son of Hans II von Helmstatt zu Grumbach († 1471) and nephew of the Speyer bishop Reinhard von Helmstatt († 1456) and the great nephew of Bishop Raban von Helmstatt († 1439). Ulrich von Helmstatt († 1488), his half-brother (from a previous marriage of the Father), served as a canon in the Episcopal Principalities of Worms and Speyer, where he in 1456 and Bishop elekt was.

Life

cleric

Ludwig von Helmstatt appears in literature from 1453, in which year he appears as the Speyer canon . On December 12, 1454, he enrolled at the University of Cologne , and on February 6, 1457 - as “Canon in Speyer and Mainz” - at the University of Heidelberg . On January 2, 1461, he received an additional canonical at the Worms Cathedral . On the occasion of a stay in Rome , Ludwig von Helmstatt was accepted into the brotherhood of the German national church Santa Maria dell'Anima on February 13, 1476 . His rich knowledge induced the Archbishop of Mainz, Diether von Isenburg , to appoint Helmstatt as his vicar general on May 15, 1478 .

Bishop of Speyer

On August 5th of the same year, the Speyer cathedral chapter unanimously elected Ludwig von Helmstatt as bishop, which was confirmed by Pope Sixtus IV on September 28th, 1478. Then the Bishop of Worms Reinhard I. von Sickingen, with the assistance of the then Auxiliary Bishop of Mainz and the Auxiliary Bishop of Speyer, Johann von Isenberg , on December 13th of that year, in the Church of Our Lady Bruchsal , ordained him as bishop. During the liturgical sacrifice on the occasion of this consecration, Provost Ulrich von Helmstatt (his brother) and Eitel von Sickingen carried two large green candles, Hans von Helmstatt and Werner Horneck two large rolls and Hans von Gemmingen, called Giener and Philipp von Angelach, two large bottles of wine to the altar .

Ludwig von Helmstatt becomes a. a. named as the foundation stone of the old Bruchsal Castle. During his term of office there were significant tax increases for various reasons, while at the same time he restricted the forest, grazing and fishing rights of his subjects. The displeasure of the farmers in the communities of the Hochstift Speyer during Helmstatt's tenure is one of the reasons for the later outbreaks of violence in the Peasants' War in 1525.

According to the Neuer Deutscher Biographie, the bishop's work was “determined by efforts to promote the religious and moral renewal of the secular clergy and their reform work in the monasteries of the diocese”. He tried to implement reform approaches with all his might without achieving any significant success. However, he succeeded in at least raising the moral level of the clergy, which in turn had a positive effect on the religious and moral behavior of the general population. The humanist Jakob Wimpfeling praised the justice and piety of the shepherd in his poem De laudibus et ceremoniis ecclesie Spirensis .

The noble Hartung Fuchs von Dornheim († 1512) was his court master and confidante in government matters.

Bishop von Helmstatt died in Udenheim (= Philippsburg) and was taken to the Speyer Cathedral on the day of his death , where he was buried in the center of the cathedral, in the grave of his episcopal uncles Raban and Reinhard von Helmstatt. When the body was transferred, Hartung Fuchs von Dornheim, as well as the deceased nephew and successor Philipp von Rosenberg , went in a celebratory funeral procession.

coat of arms

Parish church St. Ulrich (Deidesheim) , coat of arms keystone of Bishop Ludwig von Helmstatt (family coat of arms applied to Speyer diocese coat of arms)

The prince-bishop's coat of arms is usually quartered . The fields of the coat of arms alternate with the family coat of arms of the Helmstatt, a black raven on silver and the coat of arms of the diocese of Speyer, a silver cross on a blue background.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Carl WFL Stocker: Family Chronicle of the Barons of Gemmingen . Heidelberg 1895, p. 24.
2. ^ Franz Xaver Remling : History of the Bishops of Speyer . Volume 2, Mainz, 1854, p. 208; ( Digitized version )

literature

• Hans Ammerich : The diocese of Speyer and its history. Volume 2: From the Staufer period (1125) to the beginning of the 16th century. Kehl am Rhein 1999, ISBN 3-927095-44-3 , p. 27.
• Hermann Stein with Arnold Scheuerbrandt: The Lords of Helmstatt from the Bischofsheimer line in spiritual (and secular) functions of the Catholic Church from the late 14th to the early 16th century . In: Origin and history of the (Neckar) Bischofsheimer main line of the Lords of Helmstatt. Their tombs and their buildings. Sinsheim 2005, ISBN 3-921214-31-9 .
• Hans Ammerich:  Ludwig I. Frhr. v. Helmstatt. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 15, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1987, ISBN 3-428-00196-6 , p. 418 ( digitized version ).
• Konrad von Busch and Franz Xaver Glasschröder : choir rules and younger sea book of the old Speyer cathedral chapter , Speyer, Historischer Verein der Pfalz, 1923, pages 424 u. 425 (with biographical information about the person)

Web links

• Ludwig von Helmstatt in the Saarland biographies

predecessor	Office	successor
Matthias von Rammung	Bishop of Speyer 1478–1504	Philip I of Rosenberg