Martinian Constitutions

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Martinian Constitutions (Latin Constitutiones Martini or Constitutiones Martinianae ) represent an attempt at a compromise between different branches of the Franciscan Order in the poverty struggle . This consensus, however, remained only superficial. Ultimately, a separation between the two lines was made in 1517.

history

In the Franciscan order, there were soon two different manifestations: In addition to the conventuals , whose monasteries were getting richer through endowments and thus violated the rule of Francis of Assisi , the stricter direction of the observants emerged , among others from Bernardine von Siena was particularly encouraged. In 1415 the French observants were given permission to elect their own commissarius , who remained subordinate to the general minister, but was in fact an independent superior. In other countries, too, they received their own rights. This independence led to a spatially overlapping double structure of observant and conventually oriented convents , which endangered the unity of the order and subsequently led to rivalries and disputes within the various groups in the order as a whole. There were regional battles for every convention; In some cases - as in Wismar in 1493 - the conventually oriented brothers brought valuables to safety from the observants.

Pope Martin V therefore commissioned Johannes Capistranus in 1430 to draft the so-called Martinian Constitutions as a mediation proposal. The main points were the renunciation of papal dispensations from the vows of poverty for the conventuals and a renunciation of the superiors of their parallel structure with the observants.

For the most part, the Constitutiones were order laws, which were adopted by numerous provinces of the order, but not applied or gradually weakened. Just six weeks after the conclusion of the negotiations, the Minister General Guillermo Robazoglio da Casale (1430–1442, 32nd Minister General) obtained the dispensation from vows of poverty through the Breve Ad Statum . The separation of the Franciscan Order into the Conventuals - since then referred to as Minorites in German - and the Observants was inevitable and was declared on May 19, 1517 by Pope Leo X. with the Bull Ite et vos in vineam meam ("You too go into my vineyard" , Mt 20.4  EU ).

Martinians

In some places, towards the end of the 15th century, groups of Martinians formed among the observant Franciscans who tried to strike a balance between strict observance and the conventuals. This included the abandonment of property owned by the monasteries, which generated lease income, and permanent income from sea equipment foundations and annual memories , as had become common in the course of the 14th century. Pensions in favor of a single Franciscan should also be prohibited. The monasteries should continue to be allowed to receive money as alms to maintain their buildings, but this was formally the property of the Apostolic See and was administered on site by secular “conductors”, “tutors” or “procurators”, who in Germany were often members of the city councils or from City council delegates were.

Even after the conventuals formed their own order from 1517, it was not possible to bring together the strictly observant convents and those living according to the Martinian statutes; the local situations were very uneven, city councilors and sovereigns exerted influence. Even the reform statutes published by Pope Julius II in 1508, the Statuta Julii , did not bring about any lasting compensation. The Saxon Franciscan Province ( Saxonia ), for example , had taken over the Statuta Julii in 1509 , but had to be divided into two provinces by the order's leadership as early as 1518: the observant province of St. Cross with initially 37 and later 41 monasteries and after the Martinianischen Constitutions living Province of St.. John the Baptist with 78 monasteries. However, the Reformation that soon began led to the closure of almost all of these monasteries and made the separation irrelevant.

literature

  • Annette von Boetticher : Orders and monasteries in the age of Reformation and Catholic reform. 1500-1700. (= Catholic life and church reform in the age of religious schism: Association publications of the society for the publication of the Corpus Catholicorum. Vol. 65–66). Volume 3, Aschendorff, Münster 2007, ISBN 978-3-402-11085-0 , p. 149.
  • Ferdinand Doelle : The Martinian reform movement in the Saxon Franciscan province in the 15th and 16th centuries. Munster 1921.
  • Susanne Drexhage-Leisebein: Reformer. Engagement of city authorities in the 2nd half of the 15th century. The Franciscan reform movements in urban church and monastery politics using the example of selected cities in the area of ​​the Saxon Order Province. In: Dieter Berg : mendicant orders and city. Mendicant orders and urban life in the Middle Ages and in modern times. Werl 1992, pp. 209-234.
  • Karel Halla: The reform of the convent of the Franciscan order of Eger and the entry of the observants. In: The diocese of Bamberg in the world of the Middle Ages. Lectures of the lecture series of the Center for Medieval Studies at the Otto-Friedrich-Universität Bamberg in the summer semester 2007. pp. 151–163. Online edition
  • Katharina Ulrike Mersch: Social dimensions of visual communication in high and late medieval women's communities: pens, women's choirs and monasteries in comparison. (= Nova Mediaevalia Series. Volume 10). V&R unipress, 2012, ISBN 978-3-89971-930-7 , p. 358 f.
  • John Richard Humpidge Moorman: History of the Franciscan Order: From Its Origins to the Year 1517. Oxford 1968. (English)
  • Bernhard Neidiger: The Martian Constitutions of 1430 as a reform program of the Franciscan conventuals. A contribution to the history of the Cologne Minorite Monastery and the Cologne Order Province in the 15th century. In: Journal of Church History. 95, 1984, pp. 337-381.
  • Bernhard Neidiger: The observance movements of the mendicant orders in southwest Germany. In: Rottenburger yearbook for church history. 11, 1992, p. 175.
  • Manfred Schulze : Princes and Reformation: Spiritual reform policy of secular princes before the Reformation. (= New Series, Late Middle Ages and Reformation. Volume 1. Volume 2). Mohr Siebeck, 1991, ISBN 3-16-145738-2 , p. 179 ff.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Bernhard Neidiger: The Martian Constitutions of 1430 as a reform program of the Franciscan conventuals. In: Journal of Church History. 95, 1984, p. 337.
  2. ^ Ingo Ulpts: The mendicant orders in Mecklenburg. A contribution to the history of the Franciscans, Poor Clares, Dominicans and Augustinian Hermits in the Middle Ages. (= Saxonia Franciscana. 6). Dietrich-Coelde-Verlag, Werl 1995, ISBN 3-87163-216-3 , pp. 316-320.
  3. ↑ John Richard Humpidge Moorman: History of the Franciscan Order. Oxford 1968, p. 448.
  4. ↑ Katharina Ulrike Mersch: Social dimensions of visual communication in high and late medieval women's communities: pens, women's choirs and monasteries in comparison. 2012, p. 368.
  5. ^ Ingo Ulpts: The mendicant orders in Mecklenburg. A contribution to the history of the Franciscans, Poor Clares, Dominicans and Augustinian Hermits in the Middle Ages. (= Saxonia Franciscana. 6). Dietrich-Coelde-Verlag, Werl 1995, ISBN 3-87163-216-3 , p. 317.