Order of the Brothers in Arms

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The Order of the Brothers in Arms was a brotherhood and an order of knights . Other older names were orders of the Wesserabrüder , also Christophelsbrüder , but also the Knightly Brotherhood of St. Christoph in the Wessera Monastery . In recent literature there is also talk of the Christopher Brotherhood in the Veßra monastery . The name was given after the monastery near the village of Schleusingen .

history

This order was donated in 1465 by Count Wilhelm III. from Henneberg . The Veßra monastery was the home monastery of his family. The order combines features of a knightly order with those of a prayer brotherhood. He was also a court order of the House of Henneberg. In 1480 he was confirmed by the Pope .

According to older research, the order of knights turned into a religious community under the influence of the abbot of the Premonstratensian monastery. After that, the foundation's intention was to achieve good neighborly relations between the noble houses of Thuringia . Religious belief and neighborly help should also be improved.

Members of the order were only allowed to be nobles with at least four verifiable innocent nobles as well as themselves. The popularity of the order was based on the possibility of accepting the knights' wives .

The participants didn't just come from the local area. Evidence of nobility from a Count von Hanau is documented. The majority of the members came from the Henneberg family, from related princes and count families and above all from the lower nobility. 60 people are known by name. After 1500 the order disappeared because the heir of the founder preferred other forms of piety and did not appoint any new members.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Johannes Mötsch : The pilgrimage St. Wolfgang in Hermannsfeld . In: Enno Bünz u. a. (Ed.): Religious Movements in the Middle Ages . Cologne et al., 2007 p. 676
  2. ^ Gustav Adolph Ackermann : Order book of all in Europe flourishing and extinct orders and decorations . Rudolph and Dieterici, Annaberg 1855, p. 193
  3. ^ Theodor Geßner: History of the city of Schleusingen up to the death of the last Count of Henneberg . Schleusingen, p. 24

literature

  • Gustav Adolph Ackermann: Order book of all in Europe flourishing and extinct orders and decorations . Rudolph and Dieterici, Annaberg 1855, p. 193 ( excerpt in the Google book search)
  • Johannes Andreas Romberg : The sciences in the nineteenth century, their point of view and the results of their research . Volume 2, Romberg's Verlag, Leipzig 1856, p. 217
  • Johannes Mötsch: The Christopher Brotherhood in Veßra Monastery. In: Archives and regional history. 75 years of the Thuringian State Archive in Meiningen. (Writings of the Thuringian State Archives Meiningen 3/1998) pp. 21–60

Web links