Matthew Enzlin

Matthew Enzlin

Matthäus Enzlin (born May 16, 1556 in Stuttgart , † November 22, 1613 in Urach ) was a German lawyer .

Life

Matthäus Enzlin was the son of the church council director Johann Enzlin (* approx. 1530 in Ditzingen; † 1601 in Stuttgart) and his wife Maria Alber (* 1528; † 1591 in Stuttgart).

Enzlin studied both rights at the University of Tübingen and graduated with a doctorate in 1577 . After the first lectures, he was appointed to the Speyer Chamber of Commerce .

His reputation as an excellent lawyer brought him an appointment as a full professor at the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg by Elector Ludwig VI. from the Palatinate. There he was rector from 1583 to 1584. When his patron died in 1585, Enzlin moved to the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen and immediately became a full member of the Senate. As such, he was appointed rector of the university from 1588 to 1589 and 1591.

In 1581 Matthäus Enzlin married Sabina Varnbuler, the daughter of his colleague Nikolaus Varnbuler from the University of Tübingen .

Duke Friedrich I appointed Enzlin to the council from home . After he was officially appointed to the Privy Council in 1599, Enzlin gladly accepted this title. He supported his employer in an early absolutist - mercantilist mode of government. He wrote a decree on the Tübingen Treaty , the state constitution of 1514. With this declaration, Duke Friedrich I was able to smash the power of the estates in 1607. After the death of Duke Friedrich I in 1608, the hated Enzlin was charged with corruption , embezzlement , abuse of office and various other offenses that were not unusual at the time.

The investigative commission commissioned by Duke Johann Friedrich considered it so serious that Enzlin should be opened to the embarrassing trial . It was clear to Enzlin that he would not only face the death penalty as a result, but also the torture during the investigation, which is why he confessed and swore primal feud . By doing so, he was sentenced to life imprisonment .

After Enzlin, with the help of his relatives, had made several attempts at liberation from the Hohenneuffen fortress , he was transferred to Hohenurach Castle . Here he tried to escape from prison by threatening to reveal state secrets. In 1613 a second trial was opened against Enzlin, in which he was then sentenced to death, mainly for breaking the original feud.

On November 22nd, 1613, the judgment was carried out publicly on the market square of Urach by beheading.

Act

Although Enzlin was personally not guilty, the fact that he was not convicted of violating the Tübingen Treaty is remarkable. What is astonishing, however, is that the lawyer Enzlin fell into the trap, made a confession and swore primal feud. The Tübingen Treaty, which had been in effect again in its old form since 1608, only provided for the death penalty in the event of high treason , which is why Enzlin was executed in his second trial. The violation of the Tübingen Treaty and the other offenses, however, could only be punished with a fine. Enzlin would probably have gotten away with it if he hadn't given in. The land procurator Georg Eßlinger , who had also served Duke Friedrich I, saved his head. Esslinger had been charged in a similar form, but insisted from the outset that the trial was unlawful and had to be released in 1615.

literature

• Johann Morhard: Haller Haus-Chronik, Schwäbisch Hall, Eppinger 1962, pp. 88-89,105.
• Bernd Ottnad:  Enzlin, Matthäus. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 4, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1959, ISBN 3-428-00185-0 , p. 542 f. ( Digitized version ).
• Karl Pfaff: Matthäus Enzlin . In: Wirtenbergischer Plutarch. Biographies of famous landlords . Volume I, Esslingen 1830, pp. 11-35.
• Christian F. Sattler: History of the Duchy Würtenberg under the government of the dukes . Volume VI, Tübingen 1773, pp. 16-23.

Web links

• Entry at LEO-BW
• Mattäus Enzlin at wirtemberg.de