Philipp Renner

The title of this article is ambiguous. For the Catholic priest, Benedictine and abbot of the Murrhardt Monastery, see Philipp Renner (Abbot) .

Prince-Bishop Philipp Renner (right) next to his Lavanter predecessor Leonhard Peurl

Philipp Renner († April 5, 1555 ) was Bishop of Lavant and administrator of the diocese of Seckau (today Graz) in Austria.

Education, studies and vicar

Philipp Renner came from Gamlitz in southern Styria . The first evidence of his life is the granting of the tonsure on March 15, 1511, which was then a prerequisite for a legal career. The tonsure was granted by his predecessor at the Lavanter bishopric, Leonhard Peurl . On October 13, 1513, "Philippus Renner ex Gamlitz" was matriculated at the University of Vienna . In 1518 he was admitted to the University of Bologna , in 1522 he left it as Dr. iuris utriusque is doing a doctorate in canon law and secular (at that time essentially: Roman ) law.

The ordination as subdeacon is assumed for the year 1523. After that he was - still without ordination - Episcopal Vicar in St. Florian . This parish had been an episcopal table good since 1373, its income was part of the income of the Lavant bishops, with the respective vicar receiving an annual income of 40 gold guilders. This vicar was deputy of the Lavanter Bishop for the Lavanter diocesan area east of the Koralpe (including the Soboth ). In turn, a priest was appointed as vicar for the spiritual duties. In 1528 two other priests (companion priests) were active in St. Florian in addition to this vicar.

Episcopal coadjutor and episcopal ordination

On February 24, 1524, Philipp Renner was appointed coadjutor of the over 70-year-old Bishop Leonhard Peurl in the diocese of Lavant by the Salzburg Archbishop Matthäus Lang von Wellenburg . He was ordained a deacon on March 4, 1531, and a priest on April 8, 1531. Bishop Leonhard Peurl initially refused to accept a coadjutor. Renner received the income from the provost of St. Bartholomew in Friesach as maintenance . At that time he was archdeacon for Lower Carinthia, which meant an important supervisory function over the priesthood of this area. In a contract dated September 15, 1533, an annual salary of 60 guilders from the archbishopric chamber until the complete takeover of the diocese Lavant is set. On the same day, the incumbent Bishop Leonhard Peurl was commissioned to consecrate Philipp Renner as Bishop of Lavant. This strong influence of the Archbishop of Salzburg was possible because the diocese of Lavant was one of the four Salzburg own dioceses (the other three were Gurk , Seckau and Chiemsee ), the directors of which were subordinate to the Salzburg bishop and therefore obliged to do so. It was the job of these bishops to support and represent the archbishop.

The ordination of Philipp Renner as bishop of the diocese of Lavant must have taken place between September 17, 1533 and May 29, 1534, more likely in the spring of 1534. After that he was actually able to take up his office as coadjutor. In May 1534, Bishop Renner began his episcopal activities such as ordinations, etc. In the spring of 1536, Philipp Renner was active as a representative of the Bishop of Chiemsee, Agidius Rehm, who died on September 9, 1535 in Bavaria and also carried out ordinations there, on April 20, 1536 in the Herrenchiemsee Cathedral .

Like his predecessor, Philipp Renner was also active in the Patriarchate of Aquileia . The authorizations were based on an appointment of Bishop Peurl as auxiliary bishop (suffragan) of the Patriarchate of Aquileia for the area "this side of the mountains". This appointment was made by Dominicus Grimani , Cardinal Bishop of Porto and Patriarch of Aquileia, on May 18, 1511 in Rome: Philipp Renner was also authorized to consecrate priests, churches and altars, to make visitations and to hold synods. As a result, the Lavant bishops had, because of these powers, more far-reaching authorizations in the areas belonging to the Archdiocese of Aquileia outside Friuli than in their own, comparatively much smaller diocese. These powers have their background in the dispute between Emperor Maximilian and the Republic of Venice in Northern Italy, in which, among other things, it was about rule in the County of Gorizia and which made it practically impossible for the Patriarchate of Aquileia to exercise its rights in Carinthia , Carniola and other possessions to perceive in the domain of the Habsburgs . Philipp Renner's episcopal acts outside his diocese in Carinthia (e.g. near Spittal an der Drau on July 22, 1535), in Carniola and in Lower Styria on or south of the are based on these powers and the position as suffragan of the Salzburg Archbishop Outside , e.g. B. in the area of Pettau .

Philipp Renner's predecessor, Bishop Peurl, resigned his office in 1536 and died on November 5, 1536. As a coadjutor who carried out consecrations for the frail Bishop Peurl , Renner got to know his diocese on numerous pastoral trips.

Political environment

During the time of Bishop Renner, Turkish invasions , peasant revolts and the spread of the Reformation in Carinthia and southern Styria occurred. On March 27, 1537 he was appointed court chaplain by the Roman-German king and later Emperor Ferdinand I. In 1549 he took part in the Salzburg Synod, which was supposed to catch the Reformation movement. Since their decrees could not be put into effect because of the emperor's opposition, Renner could not prevent the spread of Protestantism in his diocese.

After the death of the Seckau bishop Johann von Malentein , the administrator of Salzburg, Ernst von Bayern , proposed to the Pope on April 29, 1550 that the administration of Seckau be entrusted to Philipp Renner for five years. Papal approval took place on March 16, 1551. Two years later, Renner had a legal dispute with the Seckau cathedral chapter, whereupon King Ferdinand demanded the appointment of a new diocesan bishop . The diocese of Seckau was then given to Petrus Percic, but the secular affairs (temporal administration) were not transferred to him until the beginning of 1555.

The last documented consecration trip took Bishop Renner between October 18 and 23, 1551 to Edelschrott , Hirschegg , Stallhofen , Übelbach , Semriach and Passail . On August 10, 1552 he went to Arnoldstein to consecrate Abbot Petrus Römer. Renner died on April 5, 1555 and was buried in the cathedral (now collegiate church) of St. Andrä .

literature

• Erwin Gatz (ed.): The bishops of the Holy Roman Empire. 1448 to 1648. A biographical lexicon. Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1996, ISBN 3-428-08422-5 .
• Ferdinand Hutz: The ordination register of Lavant Bishop Dr. Philipp Renner 1534–1553 (= sources on the historical regional studies of Styria. Vol. 17). Historical Provincial Commission for Styria, Graz 1994, ISBN 3-901251-27-8 .
• Oskar Veselsky: The consecration reports from the ordination and consecration protocols of the bishops of Lavant in the 16th century (= sources on the historical regional studies of Styria. Vol. 11, ZDB -ID 559606-3 ). Historical Provincial Commission for Styria, Graz 1997, pp. 5-6 and 10-16.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Hutz: The Ordinary Register of Lavant Bishop Dr. Philipp Renner 1534–1553. 1994, p. 28, citing a publication by Ignaz Orožen .
2. ↑ Ferdinand Hutz: The ordination register of Lavant Bishop Leonhard Peurl 1509–1536 (= sources on the historical regional studies of Styria. Vol. 10). Historical Provincial Commission for Styria, Graz 1994, ISBN 3-901251-06-5 , p. 200.
3. ↑ Ferdinand Hutz: The ordination register of Lavant Bishop Leonhard Peurl 1509–1536 (= sources on the historical regional studies of Styria. Vol. 10). Historical Provincial Commission for Styria, Graz 1994, ISBN 3-901251-06-5 , p. 201.
4. ↑ Hutz: The Ordinary Register of Lavant Bishop Dr. Philipp Renner 1534–1553. 1994, p. 34.
5. ↑ Veselsky: The consecration reports from the ordination and consecration protocols of the bishops of Lavant in the 16th century. 1997, p. 127.
6. ↑ Veselsky: The Konsekrationsberichte from the ordination and Konsekrationsprotokollen the bishops of Lavant in the 16th century. 1997, p. 125.
7. ↑ Veselsky: The consecration reports from the ordination and consecration protocols of the bishops of Lavant in the 16th century. 1997, p. 126.
8. ↑ Hutz: The Ordinary Register of Lavant Bishop Dr. Philipp Renner 1534–1553. 1994, p. 43.