Michael Landgraf (Abbot)

Michael Landgraf (born 1498 in Rasdorf ; died May 4, 1571 in Hersfeld ) was abbot of the Imperial Abbey of Hersfeld from 1556 to 1571 .

Life

Michael Landgraf was born as a citizen's son in 1498 in Rasdorf, which at that time belonged to the Fulda monastery . Around 1530 he entered the Hersfeld Abbey as a novice , the abbot of which at that time was Crato I (civil Kraft Myle ) as the first abbot of civil descent. For Crato I, he took part in 1548 as an envoy to the Reichstag in Augsburg . Before 1554 he was dean and provost of the two monasteries Petersberg near Hersfeld and Kreuzberg, which belonged to Hersfeld . The elderly Abbot Crato I appointed Michael Landgraf in 1554 as his coadjutor with the right to succeed him. At the beginning of 1556 Crato I. gave him full power of government. After Cratos' death shortly afterwards on March 12th, Michael succeeded him and was confirmed by Pope Paul IV on June 12th of this year . The Landgraviate of Hesse-Kassel , which had become Protestant, had held the patronage of the imperial abbey since 1432 .

Abbot Michael had to agree to a contract with the Landgraviate in 1558, which transferred half of the city of Hersfeld to it. In addition, he put the focus of his office on charitable activities and the promotion of education. Around 1560, a city school in Kaplangasse was built as a boys' school in Hersfeld. The original school of the imperial abbey, which was widely recognized in the Middle Ages and probably headed by the historian Lampert von Hersfeld in the 11th century, had already died a few years ago. As a result of the Reformation, hardly any monks had entered the abbey, which had remained Catholic, especially since the city of Hersfeld and the monastery area had become predominantly Protestant. Abbot Michael also held an evangelical court preacher in the monastery. On June 2, 1570 he founded the grammar school in Hersfeld, later known as the “Old Monastery School”, today's Konrad Duden School. Abbot Michael had already received the buildings of the former Hersfeld Franciscan monastery , which was dissolved during the Reformation , in the course of the contract with the Landgraviate of Hessen-Kassel in 1558 . The new school has now been set up in its rooms. Abbot Michael transferred the proceeds of the Blankenheim monastery to the school he had donated to finance it . As a safeguard, he also obtained a letter of protection from Emperor Maximilian II , which was issued on November 7, 1570. At this time, Abbot Michael also founded a hospital in the Niederaula, which was part of the monastery .

After a short illness, Abbot Michael died on May 4, 1571. He was succeeded by Abbot Ludwig V (civil: Ludwig Landau ), who had previously been his coadjutor. Abbot Michael was probably buried like almost all Hersfeld abbots in the church of the monastery, today's ruins of the monastery . His grave has not been preserved. In Bad Hersfeld, Abt-Michael-Strasse is named after him.

Footnotes

1. ↑ Konrad Lipphardt: The Old Monastery School in Bad Hersfeld , accessed on April 15, 2019

literature

• Elisabeth Ziegler: With miter and crook - the abbots of the Reichskloster (the Reichsabtei) Hersfeld , in: Bad Hersfelder Jahresheft, Volume 16, Bad Hersfeld 1970, pp. 6–22

Web links

• Landgraf, Michael in the Hessian biography

predecessor	Office	successor
Crato I.	Abbot of Hersfeld 1556 - 1571	Ludwig V.