Philipp Christoph von Sötern

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Philipp Christoph von Sötern after an engraving by Matthäus Merian around 1650
Epitaph in Trier Cathedral, dated 1652.
Family coat of arms of Sötern . Ancestral coat of arms from the tombstone of Johanniter-Komtur Heinrich Nikolaus Faust von Stromberg († 1621), Stadtmuseum Worms

Philipp Christoph Imperial Knight von Sötern (born December 11, 1567 in Kastellaun , † February 7, 1652 in Trier ) was Bishop of Speyer from 1610 and Archbishop and Elector of Trier from 1623 . During the Thirty Years' War he operated a policy friendly to France and was therefore ordered by Emperors Ferdinand II and Ferdinand III. imprisoned from 1635 to 1645.

Life

Early years and advancement

Philipp Christoph was the son of the Imperial Knight Georg Wilhelm von Sötern († 1593) evangelical creed and his Catholic wife Barbara von Püttlingen († 1607). The son was baptized Lutheran . Under the influence of an uncle of the same name, who was a canon in Trier , and his mother, he oriented himself towards the Catholic Church. As an adolescent he attended the Jesuit school in Trier, later the University of Pont-à-Mousson and the universities of Padua and Siena . He earned a master's degree ; his legal knowledge was described as above average.

At the age of 17 he became canon in Trier, later also in Mainz and Speyer . As provost of the cathedral in Trier, an office that Sötern had held since 1604, he proved to be a skilful diplomat and negotiator in legal disputes affecting the diocese and the electoral state . He recommended himself for higher tasks and was first elected coadjutor in 1609 and bishop of Speyer in 1610 . He received the episcopal ordination on August 15, 1612, in the castle church Udenheim , together with the Worms bishop Wilhelm von Efferen . Consecrator was the Mainz auxiliary bishop Stephan Weber (1539–1622).

First years as a bishop

Sötern had the fortress Philippsburg built to provide military security for the Speyer Monastery against France . Here and later in the Archbishopric of Trier , to whose bishop he was also elected in 1623, he represented the policy of counter-reformation and recatholicization , just like his later opponent, Emperor Ferdinand .

In both dioceses, especially in Trier, he pursued a rigid tax policy in order to gain money for the establishment of a tight administration and to promote the construction of the new Electorate of Trier residence, Schloss Philippsburg in Ehrenbreitstein near Koblenz, which was completed in 1629 . He personally campaigned for the Capuchins to settle in Ehrenbreitstein in 1627 and establish a monastery . In addition, he openly promoted members of his own family in the allocation of office. Both of these soon brought him into conflict with parts of the cathedral chapter and the population of the Electorate of Trier . This began the entanglements that ultimately led the staunch Catholics into the camp of the anti-imperial forces and thus to the side of the Protestant Union during the Thirty Years' War .

In the Thirty Years War

In terms of foreign policy, Sötern continued the traditional Kurtrier course which, since the high Middle Ages, aimed at a good understanding with its large neighbor France. French policy, however, was determined from 1624 by the First Minister Cardinal Richelieu , who supported the war between Sweden and the Union against the strengthened central imperial power of the Habsburgs . The citizens of Trier saw this as an opportunity to shake off Sötern's rule. They asked Emperor Ferdinand II for help, whereupon Habsburg troops from the Spanish Netherlands occupied the capital of the electoral state in 1630.

The elector then turned to France, which recaptured Trier for him in 1632. Sötern concluded a neutrality treaty with the Swedes and the French in 1631 and granted the latter the right of occupation in the fortresses Ehrenbreitstein and Philippsburg . Ehrenbreitstein, opposite the mouth of the Moselle near Koblenz , occupied a strategically important position on the Rhine . In addition, Sötern supported the election of Richelieu as coadjutor of his archbishopric in 1634 , i.e. as the designated successor to the Trier bishopric. This would have given the cardinal a say in the next election of the emperor and once again enormously strengthened the French position on the Rhine. The connection between the possessions of the Spanish Habsburgs in the Netherlands and the southern German territories of the German branch of the dynasty would have been extremely jeopardized.

Therefore, Sötern was imprisoned for 10 years in March 1635 after Trier was re-conquered by Spanish-Habsburg troops. He was temporarily imprisoned in Linz, Austria . With the approval of the emperor, the cathedral chapter took over the government of the electorate. Von Sötern's capture and the refusal to give in to the French demand for the release of their ally led to France's declaration of war ( Swedish-French War (1635–1648) ).

Freed again since April 1645, Sötern planned to detach the Electoral State from the Reich Association . He therefore re-entered into secret negotiations with France, which, however, were unsuccessful. The reconciliation with the cathedral chapter that he sought after his return failed shortly before his death when he arbitrarily appointed a canon as provost and coadjutor. The cathedral chapter then elected Karl Kaspar von der Leyen as Sötern's successor.

coat of arms

Von Sötern's coat of arms on an engraving by Matthäus Merian

The prince-bishop's coat of arms is usually quartered . The fields of the coat of arms alternate with the family coat of arms of the von Sötern family, a silver “Z” -shaped double hook ( wolf angel ) on red and the coat of arms of the diocese of Speyer, a silver cross on a blue background. The reference to the Fürstpropstei Weißenburg is solved in the picture by a heart shield .

Another depiction of the coat of arms shows the coat of arms motifs of the family coat of arms with a red double hook on gold and the high crosses of the Archbishopric Trier and the Hochstift Speyer. The heart shield is divided with the motifs of the prince abbey of Prüm and the prince-provost of Weißenburg.

literature

Web links

Commons : Philipp Christoph von Sötern  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Fritz Weigle (ed.), Die Matrikel der deutschen Nation in Siena (1573-1738), Tübingen 1962, 108, no. 1933 (August 1590).
  2. Gatz, 471.
  3. Friedhelm Jürgensmeier : The Diocese of Worms from Roman times to its dissolution in 1801 . Echter Verlag, Würzburg 1997, page 191, ISBN 3-429-01876-5
  4. ^ Entry on Stephan Weber at catholic-hierarchy.org ; accessed on June 17, 2020.
  5. Erwin Gratz (Ed.): The coats of arms of the Hochstifte, dioceses and diocesan bishops in the Holy Roman Empire 1648-1803 . Regensburg 2007. p. 548.
predecessor Office successor
Lothar von Metternich Archbishop Elector of Trier
1623–1652
Karl Kaspar von der Leyen
Eberhard von Dienheim Prince-Bishop of Speyer and
Prince Provost of Weißenburg
1610–1652
Lothar Friedrich von Metternich-Burscheid