Nikolaus Faber

This article deals with the Benedictine Abbot Nikolaus Faber. For the cantor see Nicolaus Faber .

Nikolaus Faber

Nikolaus Faber or Nikolaus Schmid OSB (* 1350 in Biberach ; † after June 11, 1422) was from April 19, 1392 to June 11, 1422 the 1st abbot of the later imperial abbey of Ochsenhausen in what is now the Biberach district in Upper Swabia .

Life

Nikolaus Faber's exact dates of birth and death are not known. The focus of his tenure was the elevation of the Ochsenhausen priory to an abbey . The actual reason for the separation of the Ochsenhausen Priory from the mother monastery of St. Blasien was the occidental schism that lasted from 1378 to 1417 . During the temporary split in the church, Ochsenhausen stayed on the side of the regular Pope Urban VI. while the mother monastery submitted to the antipope . In 1388 Nikolaus Faber was elected provost and prior of the convent. Prior Heinrich Laurin, appointed by St. Blasien, and provost Heinrich von Södorf were referred back to St. Blasien in the same year. Heinrich IV. Von Eschenz, the experienced abbot of the mother monastery of St. Blasien, did not want to submit to the decision so easily and presented the case to a theological commission in Ulm . The Ulm committee made the following preliminary decision in 1389:

“ The Prior of Ochsenhausen appointed by St. Blasien, go home as a schismatic to the schismatics, and St. Blasien should no longer set up a prior until the church division has been resolved. The seal of the Ochsenhausen monastery, which up to now was always kept by the prior, is kept by the Senate of Ulm, where the monastery has been naturalized for a long time, so that nothing can be negotiated without our (the senate's) prior knowledge, and possibly to the detriment of the monastery . "

The matter remained contentious and Nikolaus Faber traveled to Rome in 1391 to see a decision made by the new Pope Boniface IX. to obtain. Boniface decided after an audience that Ochsenhausen should be elevated to an independent abbey.

The convent , consisting of seven monks, elected Nicholas as abbot on April 19, 1392. At the time of election he was about 42 years old. On April 26, 1392 Constance Bishop Burkard granted I of Hewen to this decision, the blessing and approval to Engen in the Hegau .

In a document dated October 13, 1397, King Wenzel granted the abbot and convent the right to freely choose bailiffs and to be free from foreign courts. He gave them the imperial city of Ulm as their patron. On June 11, 1422, Nikolaus Faber resigned from the abbot. It is no longer possible to determine when he died.

Acquisitions, gifts and foundations

• In 1396 he bought an estate in Bellamont from a citizen of Memmingen .
• In 1398 the monastery in Rot an der Rot left all possessions in Berkheim , Thannheim , Schelleneigen and Bachen with all claims and rights to the Ochsenhausen Abbey .
• In 1404 the monastery of Marquard from Erolzheim acquired the fishing waters and two farms in Notham.
• 1407 Construction of the St. Vitus chapel in Bechtenrot .
• 1411 a mill called Elend in Reinstetten .
• In 1418 a citizen from Markdorf called a winery zum Lichteberg.

As so-called benefactor donors , under the first abbot's government, they distinguished themselves as follows:

• Johannes Schmid, a citizen from Biberach, gave his obese soul to consolation in 1397 his estate with everything that goes with it, except for the meadow at the Schindelbach.
• In 1413, Duke Friedrich of Austria granted the monastery the right of patronage over the parish church in Laupheim .

Manuscripts available in the monastery

Excerpts from the following manuscripts were already in the monastery:

• Sacra Biblia, in folio
• Liber consuetudinum Hirsaugiensium sub Wilhelmo Abbate
• Sermones ad Patres from Adolpho Monacho
• Vitae Sanctorum Patrum
• De bello sacro in terra sancta
• S. Augustini Sermones de Verbis Domini
• S Hieronymie Tractatus in Danielem
• S. Jsidori Hisp. Episc. Synonima, seu Soliloquia, sive Dialogus Hominis & rationis

literature

• Georg Geisenhof : Brief history of the former Reichsstift Ochsenhausen in Swabia. Ganser, Ottobeuren 1829 ( digitized version ).
• Volker Himmelein (ed.): Old monasteries, new masters. The secularization in the German southwest 1803. Large state exhibition Baden-Württemberg 2003. Thorbecke, Ostfildern 2003, ISBN 3-7995-0212-2 (exhibition catalog and essay volume).
• Volker Himmelein, Franz Quarthal (Ed.): Vorderösterreich, Only the tail feather of the imperial eagle? The Habsburgs in the German southwest. Süddeutsche Verlagsgesellschaft, Ulm 1999, ISBN 3-88294-277-0 (catalog of the state exhibition).

Individual evidence

1. ^ City of Ochsenhausen (Ed.): Reichsabtei Ochsenhausen. History and art. Ochsenhausen 1984, p. 113

predecessor	Office	successor
-	Abbot of Ochsenhausen 1392–1422	Heinrich Faber OSB