Marinus de Fregeno

Marinus de Fregeno (* in Parma ; † July 7, 1482 in Rome ; also Marino de Fregeno or Marinus Freganus ) was an Italian Roman Catholic theologian. In the 15th century he was a papal legate and trader of indulgences in Northern and Central Europe and finally for several years Bishop of Cammin .

Life

Marinus de Fregeno probably came from Parma. He had a humanistic education and was professor of theology. Pope Kalixt III. commissioned him in 1457 with the elevation of the Turkish tenth in Denmark, Sweden and Norway as well as in parts of Poland and Lithuania. Pope Pius II renewed this order in 1459 and expanded it to include some central and northern German areas. In Saxony, Marinus de Fregeno came into conflict with Elector Friedrich II and Bishop Caspar von Meißen , by whom he was imprisoned for some time, because of the tithe collection .

Marinus de Fregeno then went to the Scandinavian countries for several years, where he successfully traded indulgences to finance the Turkish war . Although he was able to send large sums of money to Italy several times, he had to put up with the fact that King Christian I of Denmark and other secular rulers confiscated part of the money he had collected. His fame was so great that he was the target of violent attacks by the indulgence critics and was given numerous nicknames and scornful names.

In 1465 he went to Poland, where he is said to have been imprisoned by Casimir IV , who also confiscated the money he had collected. Since no more funds arrived in Rome and de Fregeno's whereabouts were unknown, Paul II issued an arrest warrant against him. He was obviously able to refute the allegations made against him, because in 1467 he appeared in Lübeck. In 1471 he was commissioned again by Pope Sixtus IV to deal with indulgences in order to finance the Turkish war in Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Schleswig and Holstein. He was engaged in this task for several years, as evidenced by news from various places.

In the middle of 1479 Pope Sixtus IV appointed Marinus de Fregeno as Bishop of Cammin in Pomerania . The Pope canceled the transfer of the Bishop of Warmia, Nikolaus von Tüngen , to this bishopric, which was ordered but not carried out in 1471 . Fregeno did not immediately leave Italy for his new diocese, where Ludwig von Eberstein , who had been elected bishop but was not recognized by the Pope, ruled as a postulate, but instead sent the Stargard archdeacon Peter Schönfeld ahead as his vicar and administrator . At the beginning of 1480, Fregeno first went to Ansbach to visit Elector Albrecht Achilles in order to have his support promised. He was appointed advisor to the Elector and received a letter of recommendation to the Elector's son, Margrave Johann Cicero von Brandenburg .

On March 24, 1480 Marinus de Fregeno was solemnly received in Greifswald and introduced to the office of bishop. At the same time, negotiations began with the former postulate Ludwig von Eberstein , who demanded compensation for the time of his administration, but delayed the negotiations. Duke Bogislaw X. finally had Fregeno enthroned in Cammin in May 1480, regardless of the Ebersteiner. After recognition by the two fore cities of the monastery, Kolberg and Köslin , whose privileges he confirmed and expanded, Bishop Marinus first visited his monastery area. With Bogislaw X. he concluded a contract that laid down the diocese's dependence on the Pomeranian dukes.

However, Bishop Marinus got into a heated argument with his clergy when he demanded from the clergy and also enforced a payment (“subsidium caritativum”) that was customary when the bishop took office and which he had also been granted at a synod in Stettin . The cathedral chapters also opposed him by criticizing the severance payments to the Eberstein Count and blaming the bishop for his non-compliance with the contracts. Finally, on February 3, 1481, numerous representatives of the clergy drafted an extensive complaint to the Pope, in which they accused Bishop Marinus of acting to the detriment of the diocese and the church. They also received support from Bogislaw X., who was probably dissatisfied with the bishop's policies, especially his relations with Brandenburg. In March 1481, Bishop Marinus in Greifswald was physically attacked by an angry crowd, but was able to save himself in the St. Nikolai Cathedral . Soon after he sent his written objection to the letter of complaint to the Pope, the Camminer cathedral chapter declared him deposed. Bishop Marinus then stayed in Kołobrzeg until August 1481, from where he issued a few decrees and issued documents, since the cities of his monastery apparently still stood by him before he left for Rome. There he litigated, it seems, with increasing success, against his dismissal. However, his sudden death in 1482 ended his episcopate.

literature

• Peter Wiegand:  MARINO da Fregeno (Marinus Nicolai de Fregeno). In: Mario Caravale (ed.): Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (DBI). Volume 70:  Marcora – Marsilio. Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 2007.
• Jürgen Petersohn : Fregeno, Marinus de († 1482). In: Erwin Gatz (ed.), With the assistance of Clemens Brodkorb: The Bishops of the Holy Roman Empire 1448 to 1648. A biographical encyclopedia. Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1996, ISBN 3-428-08422-5 , pp. 195-197.
• Martin Wehrmann :  Bishop Marinus von Kammin (1479–1482). An Italian on the Kamminer bishop's chair . In: Society for Pomeranian History and Archeology (Hrsg): Baltic studies . New series vol. 18, Léon Saunier, Stettin 1914 ( digitized ).
• Martin Wehrmann: History of Pomerania . Volume 1, Weltbild Verlag 1992, reprint of the 1919 and 1921 editions, ISBN 3-89350-112-6 , pp. 123ff.

predecessor	Office	successor
Nikolaus Ludwig von Eberstein (Postulate)	Bishop of Cammin 1479–1482	Angelo Geraldini