Regensburg Treaty (1654)
The Regensburg Treaty of 1654 was a house contract in the Landgrave's House of Hesse , which was concluded between the ruling Landgrave Wilhelm VI. by Hessen-Kassel and his uncle Ernst I. von Hessen-Rheinfels from the Hessen-Rotenburg branch line . Ernst had converted to the Roman Catholic faith in 1652 , and the contract was intended to ensure the Hesse-Kassel sovereignty and church power in Ernst's Mediat-Landgraviate, the former Lower County of Katzenelnbogen .
prehistory
The County of Katzenelnbogen fell to the Landgraves of Hesse in 1479 and its two geographically separated parts became the heartlands of the Landgraves of Hessen-Darmstadt (around which the former Upper County of Katzenelnbogen ) and Hessen-Rheinfels (the former Lower County). The latter ended in 1583 and was divided between Hessen-Kassel, which received the main part, and Hessen-Darmstadt and Hessen-Marburg .
The areas of the former Niedergrafschaft Katzenelnbogen, which were returned to Hessen-Kassel after the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, were given to the youngest son of the deceased Landgrave Moritz von Hessen-Kassel (1572–1632) and his second wife Juliane von Nassau-Dillenburg (1587–1643). , Ernst I. transferred from the branch line Hessen-Rotenburg, who founded the so-called younger line Hessen-Rheinfels. Hessen-Kassel retained sovereignty under imperial law.
Regensburg Treaty 1654
When Landgrave Ernst converted to the Catholic faith on January 6, 1652, complications arose with regard to the canonical sovereignty in his domain. The ruling Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel, Wilhelm VI., The son of Ernst's half-brother Wilhelm V , was not ready to let the Kassel sovereignty erode and forced Ernst to observe the Lutheran dynasty established in the Lower Counties and that of the Kassel Princely House by means of a house contract and to put favored Reformed church systems in Hessen-Rheinfels under Kassel supervision. Ernst was only allowed to build Catholic churches in St. Goar , Nastätten and Langen-Schwalbach . The Catholic diocesan rights in St. Goar and Nastätten were with the Archbishop of Trier, those in Langen-Schwalbach with the Archbishop of Mainz.
In order to monitor and enforce the Kassel diocesan rights over the Lutheran and Reformed Church in Ernst's sub-county, the office of the “Reformed Reservation Commissioner ” based in St. Goar was created on January 1, 1655 . The reserve commissioner acted as permanent commissioner of the reformed consistory of Kassel. His task was not to allow any expansion of Catholicism beyond what was agreed in the Regensburg Treaty; possible attempts in this direction should be averted in cooperation with the Lutheran superintendent and the reformed pastor of St. Goar. He was also supposed to report improper behavior by the Lutheran pastors and school servants to the superintendent and, if the latter did not intervene, to the consistory and supervise the reformed pastors and school servants in St. Goar.
Hessen-Kassel later also appointed reserve commissioners for the other areas of the Rotenburger Quart , after these had fallen to Ernst through the death of Ernst's brothers Friedrich (1655) and Hermann (1658).
Individual evidence
- ^ Rheinfels Castle and Office with St. Goar , St. Goarshausen , Neukatzenelnbogen Castle and Hohenstein Office with Langen-Schwalbach .
literature
- A. Heldmann, "The Hessian Diocese of the Niedergrafschaft Katzenellenbogen", in Nassau Annals: Yearbook of the Association for Nassau Antiquity and Historical Research , Volume 31, Association for Nassau Antiquity and Historical Research. Wiesbaden, 1900, pp. 115–171 (125–126) (online)