Otto II von Wolfskeel

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Tomb of Bishop Otto II von Wolfskeel, Wolfskeel master
Coat of arms of the von Wolffskeel family based on Siebmacher's coat of arms book of 1605

Otto II von Wolfskeel (* in Würzburg ; † August 23, 1345 at Marienberg Fortress in Würzburg) was Prince-Bishop of Würzburg from 1333 to 1345.

origin

Otto came from the Frankish ministerial family von Wolffskeel . His parents were Otto von Wolfskeel and Anna, née von Scherenberg . The father Otto von Wolfskeel was like his grandfather and great-grandfather Burgmann at the Marienberg Fortress . The two ancestors had distinguished themselves during the liberation of Hermann I of Lobdeburg . Otto II von Wolfskeel is mainly referred to in older sources as the nephew of Prince-Bishop Wolfram Wolfskeel von Grumbach (1322-1333).

Double election - opposing Bishop Hermann II.

Otto's term of office fell in the middle of the disputes between Pope John XXII. and Emperor Ludwig from the house of the Wittelsbach family .

One became a bishop for life through the election of the cathedral chapter. The Pope and Emperor tried to intervene in the autonomy of this body, including the election of Otto von Wolfskeel. Emperor Ludwig threatened the cathedral chapter to make his devoted secretary Hermann von Lichtenberg bishop. 17 of the 23 cathedral capitulars bowed to the pressure of the present emperor and elected Lichtenberg as bishop, but not six capitulars whose votes fell on Otto. Since majority voting was not decisive, the diocese now had two bishops.

While Lichtenberg was immediately confirmed by the Mainz administrator and Trier Archbishop Balduin of Luxembourg , von Wolfskeel asked the Pope, who was in dispute with Emperor Ludwig, for help. The Pope now ordered von Lichtenberg to resign when threatened with excommunication and placed an interdict on the Diocese of Würzburg , which means that church acts could no longer be carried out. However, Bishop Hermann II. Hummel von Lichtenberg did not adhere to this and forbade all clergymen to accept letters from the Pope and to acknowledge their content. The consequence of this neglected interdict was a loss of reputation for the Pope and Otto II von Wolfskeel. Bishop Otto could no longer dare to enter the Würzburg area and retired to the free city of Metz for a few months .

In 1335 von Lichtenberg died unexpectedly, Otto II von Wolfskeel returned to Würzburg and was unanimously re-elected bishop in 1335. Otto, a staunch supporter of the Pope, now sought a compromise with the emperor and promised him to support him with 2,500 guilders. In return, he received the ban on blood from the emperor . However , he did not want to accept the other regalia from an excommunicated person and even had the Dominicans publicly proclaim the ban on Emperor Ludwig. Now Otto was threatened again by the emperor.

Even if he had already exercised their rights without receiving the imperial regalia, he accepted the regalia when the emperor's pressure increased . The relationship with the emperor, however, remained extremely ambiguous. Otto consequently did not support the electors who wanted to separate the election of emperor from the coronation act by the Pope.

Otto II as bishop

As a supporter of Emperor Ludwig IV , Otto entered into alliances with the Archbishop of Mainz, Heinrich III, in 1337 . von Virneburg and the Nuremberg Burgrave Johann II , who was joined by Count Heinrich VIII von Henneberg-Schleusingen in 1341 . A conflict that began in 1344 between Konrad II von Schlüsselberg and the allied cities of Würzburg , Nuremberg , Rothenburg ob der Tauber and Windsheim on the one hand and Otto's allies on the other was settled through the intervention of the emperor. After joining the imperial Franconian state peace in 1340, Otto succeeded in enlarging the diocese: he brought Kitzingen and Heidingsfeld , an important Mainzoll to the Hallburg , the cities of Rothenfels and Gemünden , the markets of Iphofen and Frickenhausen to the bishopric, but above all in the south the town of Röttingen , and still on his deathbed in 1345 the castles of Reichenberg and Ingolstadt . The acquisition of Ingolstadt and Reichenberg was supposed to better protect the bishopric, the clerical area of ​​the diocese was now considerably larger and more closed. The ring wall around the Marienberg Fortress in Würzburg , which was built under Otto's rule and still exists today, also formed an inner circle of power .

He brought the cathedral chapter behind him by promising to pay off the high debts of his predecessors. For this purpose, von Wolfskeel used an uprising against the Jews, which raged particularly hard in the Ochsenfurt Gau . He succeeded in taming the people, but he also ensured that all episcopal debts to the Jews were canceled without replacement. He also taxed the clergy in Würzburg, which earned him a lucrative relationship with the citizenry. The friction with the citizenry was bearable under the rule of the two Wolfskeel bishops, which was rather the exception between 1230 and 1525.

His term of office was also successful in a spiritual sense: He was able to establish 13 new parishes, reformed some monasteries and introduced the office of vicar general. He also tried to improve the administration of justice and the police.

Otto II von Wolfskeel occupies a prominent position among the bishops of the Middle Ages. He succeeded in keeping wars away from the bishopric, he consolidated and expanded the bishopric and created a balance inside. His pronotary Michael de Leone certainly rightly described him as "pius, prudens, mansuetus, quietus et sobrius" (pious, wise, meek, controlled and sober).

Tomb

The grave of Otto II von Wolfskeel can be viewed in the Würzburg Cathedral . Along with the Bamberg Rider and the Uta von Naumburg, it is one of the most important high Gothic sculptures in Germany. Since the name of the artist of this tomb has not been passed down, he is called Wolfskeelmeister because of this work .

literature

Web links


predecessor Office successor
Hermann II. Hummel von Lichtenberg Bishop of Würzburg
1333–1345 		Albrecht I of Hohenberg
personal data
SURNAME Otto II von Wolfskeel
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Prince-Bishop of Würzburg (1333-1345)
DATE OF BIRTH 13th century or 14th century
PLACE OF BIRTH Wurzburg
DATE OF DEATH August 23, 1345
Place of death Wurzburg