Nikolaus Heyendal

Nikolaus Heyndal, as Abbot of Rolduc

Nicholas Heyendal , Flemish also: Nicolaus , Nicolaes or Nicolas and Heyendael (*, 1. September 1658 in Walhorn , † 5. May 1733 in Klosterrath ) was an out of the Duchy of Limburg derived theologian and abbot of the abbey Rolduc .

Live and act

Coming from an old Limburg family, whose members held important positions as Drossarte of the Walhorn Bank and lay judges of the High Court in the Duchy of Limburg , the son of the community secretary Henricus Heyendael (1631–1662) and Margaretha Franck († 1709) attended the "Jesuit School Marianum" in Aachen, later the Kaiser-Karls-Gymnasium, and then began studying philosophy in the former Dominican monastery in Aachen . After two years he traveled to Rome to complete his studies, but was captured by Venetian mercenaries on the way there . They forced him to train for military service and sent Heyendal to Corfu , where an important base of the Venetian fleet was located. Despite all the adversities, he learned the Greek language there. This helped him to flee to Italy after a few years and initially to remain in Milan , where he now learned Italian and gave lessons in rhetoric .

Four years after his imprisonment, he finally returned to his hometown Walhorn, where they were about to hold a spiritual office for those who were believed to be dead, which, to the surprise of the community, he unexpectedly attended. In 1681 Heyendal moved to the University of Leuven , where he began to study law and ancient languages, but also took part in theological lectures. Here he came into contact with lecturers who were close to Jansenism , which should have an influence on his further theological attitude and development.

After only two years, he registered as a postulant in the Rolduc monastery of the Augustinian Canons in the summer of 1683 , from whom he had heard that a reform of communal life in the abbey was to be carried out and a stricter rule to be introduced. Despite the initial reluctance of several canons to accept him due to his military service, the incumbent abbot Johann Bock nevertheless decided on Heyendal. A year later he was accepted as a novice and made his vows on November 25, 1685 . He then began studying theology as a novice master and was appointed chief administrator of the monastery by Johann Bock in 1689. During this time, Heyendal also turned some of his fellow believers in Rolduc into opponents when, in accordance with his Jansenite convictions, he wanted to prevent the Aachen Jesuits from studying in Rolduc due to their supposed erroneous beliefs. In 1691 this led to his abbot Bock transferring him as rector to the Nikolauskirche in Eupen .

Here, too, Heyendal made enemies again when he criticized the, in his opinion, poor religious education, especially by Walloon Capuchins . He released them from teaching and took it over himself. After several attempts to murder Heyendal and the tense situation, the Eupen city fathers and citizens complained about his adherence to the doctrine of Jansenism both to the governor-general of the Spanish Netherlands , Elector Maximilian II. Emanuel of Bavaria , and to Joseph Clemens of Bavaria , who had been since 1695 in personal union Archbishop of Cologne and Prince-Bishop of Liège and thus also responsible for Eupen and all other parishes in the duchy. Thereupon Abbot Johann Bock elevated the Nikolauskirche to an independent parish in 1695 with the permission of the prince-bishop in order to upgrade and strengthen Heyendal's position, now active as pastor and not only as rector. The hostility did not abate, however, the consistently unsuccessful complaints and threats continued and Heyendal's sermons were made impossible by yelling and yelling. But for “the sake of peace”, Bock then ordered Eupen's first pastor, Heyendal, back to Rolduc on August 11, 1697 and made him a professor of theology. Heyendal wrote down the Eupen incidents in 1698 in his essay "Persecutio Eupennensis ad anno 1694 usque ad annum 1697", which, apart from a few surviving text passages, is considered lost.

On November 17, 1706 Heyendal was first appointed prior and after the death of Johann Bock on June 24, 1712, abbot. But even now the hostilities against Heyendal should not end and especially the former theology professor and Augustinian Bernard Desirant (1656–1725) undertook a passionate but ultimately unsuccessful polemic against him and the monastery from Aachen.

In his time as prior and abbot, Heyendal wrote several publications, for whose excellent writing style he was called "calamus aureus", the golden pen. It was above all to his credit that the interest and loan books of the abbey were revised and the Klosterrath yearbooks, Annales Rodenses , were updated, which were later published by one of the last canons of the abbey, Simon Peter Ernst (1744-1817) Supplement were issued. In addition, in 1714 he had the collapsed Klosterrather Hof in Ahrweiler , which had been in the possession of the Augustinian Canons of Rolduc as a manor since 1300, rebuilt and expanded it with two wine presses, a circular wall and an exit gate. This new building was now called Rodderhof, which now serves as a first-class hotel.

Fonts (selection)

• Nicolas Heyendal, Jean Bock: Le Jour évangélique, ou Trois-cens-soixante-… véritez tirées de la Morale du Nouveau-Testament:… recueillies par un abbé régulier de l'Ordre de S. Augustin. 1699.
• Orthodoxia fidei et doctrinae Abbatis et Canonicorum Regularium s. Augustini monasterii Rodensis. 1710.
• Apologia per Abbate et Priore monasterii Rodensis contra eximium Bernardum Desirant. Antwerp, 1710.
• Annales Rodenses. City Archives Aachen .

literature

• Friedrich Haagen :  Heyendal, Nikolaus . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 12, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1880, p. 363 f.
• Emil Pauls : On the life story of Abbot Niklas Heyendal zu Klosterrath (Rolduc) near Herzogenrath . In: Annals of the Historical Association for the Lower Rhine. (AHVN) 51 (1891). Pp. 166-169 ( archive.org ).
• JWH Goossens: Etude sur les etats de Limbourg et de Pays d'Outre Meuse pendant le premier tiers du XVIII siècle suivie du texte de la "notitia de rebus statuum provinciae limburgensis" de l'abbe Nicolas Heyendal, dans Université de Louvain. Recueil de travaux publiés par les membres des conférences d'histoire et de philologie. 26e fascicule, Kerkrade, Louvain, Paris 1910.
• JM Gijsen: Nikolaus Heyendal, 1658–1733, Abbot of Rolduc and his position on Jansenism. van Gorcum, Assen 1964.
• J. Clooth: Nicolaus Heyendal. In: Historical Eupen. Yearbook 1984, Eupener Geschichts- und Museumsverein, 1984, pp. 43–98.

Web links

• Short biography and picture portrait ( Memento from July 9, 2007 in the Internet Archive )

Individual evidence

1. ^ Heyendal Genealogy
2. ↑ Klosterrather Hof Ahrweiler ( Memento of the original from July 8, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.