Michael Helding

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Bishop Michael Helding
Catechism of 1562

Michael Helding (also called "Sidonius" ; * 1506 in Langenenslingen near Riedlingen / Sigmaringen ; † September 30, 1561 in Vienna ) was a Catholic bishop , scholar, writer and humanist .

Life

Born as the son of the miller Konrad Helding and his wife Barbara geb. Kneb (Knab), he enrolled at the University of Tübingen in autumn 1525 . As early as Whitsun 1527 he received his baccalaureate and at Christmas 1528 his master's degree. He then went to Mainz as a teacher and took over the rectorate of the cathedral school in 1531 on the recommendation of the cathedral dean Johannes von Ehrenberg . Here he came into close contact with humanism, to which he remained connected throughout his life. Ordained as a priest, Ehrenberg brought him to Mainz Cathedral in 1533 as assistant preacher, and from 1536–1550 he worked there as cathedral priest.

Cardinal Albrecht von Brandenburg appointed Helding on October 18, 1537 as titular bishop of Sidon and auxiliary bishop of Mainz . On August 4, In 1538 he gave him in the collegiate Aschaffenburg , the episcopal ordination . In 1543 Helding received his doctorate in theology. In 1540/1541 he took part in the Worms Religious Discussion as a Catholic delegate , at the opening of the Council of Trento on December 13, 1545, he was the only German bishop present, and he also took part in the Regensburg Religious Discussion in 1546 . At the armored Reichstag in Augsburg (1547/48) he worked as a co-author of the Augsburg interim . This attracted him to the harsh polemics of Matthias Flacius and other Protestants. In December 1550 he moved as the successor to the Protestant George III. von Anhalt as the last Catholic bishop in the diocese of Merseburg . He was present at the Augsburg Reichstag in 1555 as well as in the autumn of 1557 at the Worms Religious Discussion , where his questions entangled Lutheran theologians in controversy and discord.

On May 7th, 1558 Michael Helding was appointed judge and finally president of the Imperial Court of Justice in Speyer . In Merseburg he therefore set up a board of directors and now lived alternately in Speyer and Vienna. In 1561 Emperor Ferdinand I appointed him chairman of the Imperial Court Council . He died here in September of the same year and found his final resting place in St. Stephen's Cathedral .

Helding is considered to be one of the most important representatives of reform Catholicism of his time, who tried, through word and writing, to preserve the unity of faith and to actively participate in the necessary restructuring of the Catholic Church. He remained true to his faith and was still considered reform-minded and tolerant of people of other faiths.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Konrad von Busch and Franz Xaver Glasschröder : Choir Rule and Younger Sea Book of the Old Speyer Cathedral Chapter , Speyer 1923, page 391
  2. ↑ ibid
personal data
SURNAME Helding, Michael
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Sidonius
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Catholic bishop, poet of humanism
DATE OF BIRTH 1506
PLACE OF BIRTH Langenenslingen
DATE OF DEATH September 30, 1561
Place of death Vienna