Matthias von Buchegg

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Archbishop Matthias von Buchegg. Grave monument in Mainz Cathedral .

Matthias von Buchegg OSB († September 9, 1328 in Miltenberg ) was Archbishop and Elector of Mainz and Imperial Chancellor of the Holy Roman Empire .

prehistory

Matthias came from the Swiss family of the Counts of Buchegg . His parents were Count Heinrich von Buchegg and Adelheid von Strassberg . 1304 he has been curator of the Alsatian Benedictine - Abbey Murbach testified. Later he was provost of dependent Murbach provost Lucerne .

Archbishop of Mainz

Matthias' election as Archbishop of Mainz was similar to that of his predecessor Peter von Aspelt . After his death, the Mainz Cathedral Chapter elected Trier Archbishop Baldwin of Luxembourg as the new Archbishop in 1320 . He immediately took up his office as administrator until the papal confirmation . However, his confirmation was given by Pope John XXII. never granted. Johannes insisted on Pope Boniface VIII's right to commission the Archbishopric of Mainz in 1300 and instead appointed Matthias von Buchegg as the new Archbishop on September 4, 1321. This was due to the fact that Baldwin was a partisan of Ludwig of Bavaria , whom the Pope fought out of his own power interests. Matthias, on the other hand, like Johannes, was on the side of the Austrian Friedrich . He was also the last monk to date on the Mainz bishopric.

Baldwin of Luxembourg immediately recognized Matthias as the rightful Archbishop of Mainz, which turned out to be far-sighted, because he won the Archbishop of Mainz as a confidante and was able to bring him closer to his own position on the open question of the king.

The Archbishop's attitude in the dispute between Pope John XXII. and King Ludwig the Bavarian

This rapprochement meant that Matthias was reluctant to support the Pope's politics and his fight against Ludwig, which is why he was often reprimanded by the Pope and even given church sentences. The Pope demanded allegiance from Matthias out of gratitude for his appointment to the high office of Archbishop of Mainz. In addition, he put the Archbishop under pressure with financial demands, which the Papal Curia demanded from the Archdiocese of Mainz. It was a matter of so-called servitia , i.e. taxes that a diocese had to pay to the pope, and claims from income that the archbishopric drew from mensal goods. Only after Matthias had partially settled these debts and committed himself to further payments, he was ordained a bishop on July 3, 1323. For financial reasons, however, he was never able to meet the promised payment obligations, which is why he was temporarily subjected to excommunication , suspension and interdict . John XXII. soon released him from these punishments (which had no effect) and also released him part of the debt in order to bind him to himself. In fact, until Matthias' death, no funds at all were transferred from the archbishopric to the papal court (then in Avignon ). However, John did not sanction this behavior any further, as he needed the archbishop as an ally to replace the resigned Frederick King Charles IV of France on the German royal throne.

In this increasingly fundamental dispute, Matthias took a wait-and-see position despite all the papal benevolence. However, he never entered into open opposition to the Pope.

Political activity

On January 17, 1328, Ludwig the Bavarian had Cardinal Sciarra Colonna put on his imperial crown "in the name of the Roman people" in Rome . This was an expression of a kingship now understood secularly, which was contrary to the pope's claims to power. But it was also an expression of a bourgeois self-image, which subsequently led to tensions between the citizens and the privileged clergy. Such efforts were also made in Erfurt and Mainz , the most important cities of the Archdiocese of Mainz. Matthias von Buchegg wanted to counteract this by confirming old rights (e.g. Mainz city freedom from 1254) and issuing new ones (no application of church penalties in tax matters). On the question of the clergy's tax and judicial privileges, however, he held back in order not to turn one side or the other into an opponent. As a result, the citizens did not come to rest and continued to protest against the privileges. Archbishop Matthias took a cautious stance on this, which, although keeping the peace in his episcopate, postponed the problems into the future. The citizens' aspirations for emancipation broke out more frequently and finally ended with the loss of urban freedom in 1462.

The Archbishop's territorial policy was also unsuccessful in the long term. Initial successes in the feud against the Landgraviate of Hesse (conquest of Gießen in 1327) was followed by a crushing defeat near Wetzlar in August 1328, in which the Mainz field captain, Count Johann von Nassau , fell.

Matthias von Buchegg died on September 9, 1328 in Miltenberg and was buried in Mainz Cathedral . His grave monument ushered in a new era in the design of these works of art.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Elmar Rettinger and Rebecca Mellone: The tomb of Matthias von Buchegg. In: 1000 years of Mainz Cathedral. Institute for Historical Regional Studies at the University of Mainz e. V., October 22, 2010, accessed December 15, 2010 .
predecessor Office successor
Peter von Aspelt Archbishop Elector of Mainz
1321–1328 		Baldwin of Luxembourg
personal data
SURNAME Buchegg, Matthias von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Archbishop of Mainz, Imperial Arch Chancellor
DATE OF BIRTH 13th Century
DATE OF DEATH September 9, 1328
Place of death Miltenberg