Nicholas of Wiesbaden

Nikolaus von Wiesbaden († June 7, 1396 in Bruchsal ) was bishop of the Principality of Speyer from 1381 to 1396 .

Life

As a citizen of Wiesbaden, he was, according to the bishop's chronicle of Philipp Simonis published in 1608, "born of humble parents, but even a highly learned, skilful and sensible man ".

Nikolaus von Wiesbaden worked for twelve years as an auditor of the Rota in Rome and was provost or archdeacon at St. Lebuin in Deventer . In 1369 he was promoted to cathedral custodian in Worms , from 1375 to 1379 he was chancellor or protonotarius of the Electoral Palatinate .

Pope Urban VI. appointed Nikolaus von Wiesbaden in 1380 bishop of Speyer. At that time he was also the canon of St. Peter in Mainz and of the local monastery of St. Maria ad Gradus . In the same year the antipope Clement VII appointed the Mainz bishop Adolf von Nassau-Wiesbaden-Idstein as administrator of the diocese of Speyer.

Nicholas therefore had to fight for his office with the counter-bishop . Due to his previous position as Chancellor of the Electorate of the Palatinate, he had an important ally in Elector Ruprecht I. In 1386 there was an armistice with Bishop Adolf von Nassau and King Wenzel enfeoffed him with the regalia on June 29th of that year, on the part of the empire . On June 12, 1388 Nikolaus von Wiesbaden received the episcopal ordination in the St. Michaelskapelle of the Kestenburg , where he also mainly lived . Consecrators were the Worms bishop Eckard von Dersch and the Würzburg auxiliary bishops Johannes Opfinger OFM and Conrad von Cana . In 1389 the episcopal spheres of influence were agreed, but it was not until 1390, when Bishop Adolf I died, that Nicholas was fully recognized.

Due to the previous battles in the struggle for the office of bishop, the financial situation of the bishopric was very tense. The relationship with the own cathedral chapter was also disturbed, since the bishop had not been elected and the bishop did not want to take over the electoral surrender of his predecessor in full. There were also differences with the city government of Speyer, as the municipality assumed many rights in the long absence of the bishop, which it now insisted on. Bishop Nicholas never made the solemn entry into his episcopal city, nor did he take possession of his cathedral. Alliances with the Margrave Bernhard von Baden and the Count Palatine Ruprecht II. And Ruprecht III. led above all to the further strengthening of the influence of the Electoral Palatinate in the interests of the diocese, which z. B. expressed in the occupation of the cathedral chapter and later bishop appointments.

In 1390, Bishop Nikolaus allowed the Jews to settle in the cities of the Speyer monastery for a small fee and promised them protection against their persecutors. On February 4, 1395 he obtained city rights from King Wenzel for his market town Deidesheim . The prince-bishop had a castle built in Jockgrim ; other fortresses such as Udenheim , Deidesheim, Rietburg , Lauterburg , Grombach and Bruchsal , as well as the already mentioned Kestenburg, were renovated and partially enlarged by him.

Nikolaus von Wiesbaden died on June 7, 1396 in his castle in Bruchsal and was transferred to Speyer, where he was buried in the cathedral . He donated a memorial for himself in the cathedral, which is entered in the younger Seelbuch of the Speyer Cathedral and decreed in his will that the feast of his namesake St. Nicholas should be celebrated there every year with singing and organ playing.

coat of arms

The family coat of arms of the bishop was a black ox head in a gold shield.

literature

• Hans Ammerich : The diocese of Speyer and its history. Volume 2: From the Staufer period (1125) to the beginning of the 16th century. Kehl am Rhein 1999, ISBN 3-927095-44-3 , pp. 26-27.
• Franz Xaver Remling : History of the bishops of Speyer. Volume 1, Speyer 1852, p. 664 ff. ( Digitized version ).
• Konrad von Busch , Franz Xaver Glasschröder : choir rules and younger sea book of the old Speyer cathedral chapter. Speyer 1923, p. 292f.
• Ellen Widder: Chancellor and law firms in the late Middle Ages. A histoire croisée princely administration in the south-west of the empire , Stuttgart 2016 (publications of the commission for historical regional studies in Baden-Württemberg, series B: Research, 204), esp. Pp. 212-250.
• Konrad Fuchs :  Wiesbaden, Nikolaus von. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 25, Bautz, Nordhausen 2005, ISBN 3-88309-332-7 , Sp. 1513.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Website for the bishop's chronicle of Philipp Simonis
2. ^ Ministryialities in the Middle Rhine Area , Steiner Verlag, 1964, p. 24; (Detail scan)
3. ^ Hessisches Jahrbuch für Landesgeschichte , Hessisches Landesamt für Geschichtliche Landeskunde, 1956, p. 43; (Detail scan)
4. ^ Franz Xaver Remling : History of the Bishops of Speyer. Volume 1. Speyer 1852, p. 665, footnote 1798

predecessor	Office	successor
Adolf I of Nassau	Bishop of Speyer 1381–1396	Raban from Helmstatt