Memmingen Treaty
The Memmingen contract existed between the prince monastery of Kempten and its subjects. The handwritten document from January 1526 consists of 26 leaves and ten seals. It measures 36.5 by 28 centimeters. The treaty was an aftermath of the German Peasant War , which granted the peasants certain rights from the secular and spiritual ruled prince monastery. The contract was signed in Memmingen .
history
Despite their military defeat in the Peasants' War, the rebellious peasants of the Princely Monastery of Kempten had not suffered an absolute failure. The Swabian League , it was a goal of ending the violence in Prince pen. For this reason, the federal councils, acting as mediators, agreed to accommodate the peasants working in the princely area on some points. And urged Prince Abbot Sebastian von Breitenstein to compromise.
The greatest advantage for the peasants was the end of the arbitrary tax and fee decisions of the prince abbot. The fee in the event of death was confirmed, but set at the rate of 30 kreuzers per 100 guilders . The fees due upon release were also fixed.
The peacemaking document was so important to the subjects that in 1531 they kept it in a box secured with four locks in the imperial city. On the occasion of another conflict in 1666, the treaty became a central element of the constitution of the absolutist prince-monastery.
Here, the subjects complained about rapid tax increases by the Prince Abbot Roman Giel von Gielsberg before the Reichshofrat because of the violation of the Memming Treaty. The arbitrary introduction of new types of taxes and the winding up of various taxes on the subjects also prompted a lawsuit. Many subjects also complained about the waste of the prince abbot, which had been marked by regularly high travel expenses to the Pope and Emperor. All of this gave the impression that the prince's monastery was supposed to have been excessively rich, and obliged it to pay high imperial and district taxes.
The subjects' list of complaints, together with other documents, served as the basis for a legal opinion from the Law Faculty of Ingolstadt University . The standpoint of the subjects was essentially confirmed by this. An imperial commission sent by the Reichshofrat to Kempten in 1667 expressed this judgment.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Wolfgang Petz, Josef Kirmeier, Wolfgang Jahn and Evamaria Brockhoff (eds.): "Citizen diligence and prince-luster." Imperial city and prince abbey of Kempten. House of Bavarian History , Augsburg 1998, ISBN 3-927233-60-9 , pp. 87f.
- ↑ Wolfgang Petz, Josef Kirmeier, Wolfgang Jahn and Evamaria Brockhoff (eds.): "Citizen diligence and prince-luster." Imperial city and prince abbey of Kempten. House of Bavarian History , Augsburg 1998, ISBN 3-927233-60-9 , p. 275.