Pure Biewer

Reiner Biewer OSB (* before 1560 in Trier ; † after 1613) was the abbot of the Imperial Abbey of St. Maximin in Trier and one of the most famous witch hunters of the late 16th century.

Life

Origin and early years

From the time before he took office as Abbot of St. Maximin, all that is known about Reiner Biewer is that he came from Trier and entered the Benedictine order, probably already in St. Maximin, since Benedictines are obliged to the stabilitas loci . In 1581 he was elected Abbot of St. Maximin.

Role in witch hunt

The persecution of witches reached their peak in the years between 1586 and 1596. In the literature, several causes are mentioned, the interaction of which led to a flood of witch trials.

reasons

First of all, a general fear of witches is mentioned, which had attacked Reiner Biewer as well as the Archbishop of Trier and Elector Johann VII. Von Schönenberg . Even more than peasants or townspeople, the clergy suspected a “witch sect” behind it, which was supposed to plan assassinations against them. Reiner Biewer attributed the death of his predecessor Matthias von Saarburg to such an attack . “In a witch trial from 1594, the abbot even testified that the suspected woman had blown magic ointment into his ear at close range.” Biewer forced the Dutch theologian and persecution critic Cornelius Loos in 1593 in the presence of the Trier official Bartholomäus Bodegemius, the Trier auxiliary bishop Peter Binsfeld and the papal nuncio Ottavio Frangipani to revoke his theses.

But it was not just personal fear of death that led Biewer to organize systematic witch hunts in his territory. Another reason was the bad harvests in the Trier region between 1581 and 1592, which were interrupted by only two fruitful years. Today this is attributed to the worsening climatic conditions - the " little ice age " with hail, frost and snail plagues. Between 1586 and 1589, Trier was also hit by several epidemics .

Furthermore, the abbot, who sees himself as sovereign and imperial prince, seems to have politically instrumentalized the witch hunt in the struggle for the imperial immediacy of his abbey. The proof of sovereign possession of blood and high jurisdiction as the supreme state sovereign right could be easily and irrefutably provided by mass witch trials. The St. Maximiner Oberhof, set up in a house near the abbey, acted as the higher legal authority. The latter gave the necessary advice in witchcraft proceedings according to the Carolina , the Trier Oberhof was thereby circumvented and the elector could not derive any sovereignty claim on St. Maximin from the proceedings. The Maximiner witch trials , which were based on the Carolina, were also not open to legal challenge.

method

However, very few of the witch trials brought by Biewer led to a conviction of those accused.

The question of whether Biewer's urge to pursue witches was also based on financial considerations is not entirely clear. There were no confiscations in St. Maximin , so this source of money was denied him. On the other hand, it can be shown that Meier and courtiers who objected to Biewer's increases in rent and taxes in his manors were noticeably often accused of witchcraft and executed.

Biewer strove to expand his territory and establish it as a sovereign rulership. So in 1589 he bought the Hereditary County of Freudenburg and incorporated it into his dominion. He also relied on stately representation. He added a few valuable pieces to the abbey treasury and in 1604 had a list of the treasures made. Reiner Biewer supported - like his predecessor Matthias von Saarburg  - the reconstruction of the St. Maximin buildings, which were destroyed in 1552 by the troops of Elector Albrecht Alkibiades of Brandenburg-Kulmbach . However, due to the high construction costs, he plunged the St. Maximin Abbey into such debts that he was forced to resign from his post as abbot in 1613. After that his track is lost.

Remarks

1. ↑ When he took office as abbot , he must have reached at least the canonical age for perpetual profession of 21 years

literature

• Rita Voltmer: Introduction. In: Rita Voltmer, Karl Weisenstein: The witch register of Claudius Musiel. A directory of executed and said persons from the Trier region (1586–1594) (= Trier witch trials - sources and illustration 2). Trier 1996, pp. 9-106.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d} Rita Voltmer: Biewer, Reiner. St. Maximin near Trier (imperial abbey). In: witch research. historicum.net, March 11, 2002, accessed April 8, 2017 . 
2. ^ Gunther Franz: Witch trials in the city of Trier and its surroundings: jurisdiction of St. Maximin, St. Paulin and St. Mathias. In: Gunther Franz, Franz Irsigler (Hrsg.): Witches' belief and witch trials in the Rhine-Mosel-Saar area. Trier witch trials, volume 1. Spee-Verlag, Trier 1996, p. 348 f.
3. ^ ^{A b} Robin Briggs: Witchcraft and the Local Communities: The Rhine-Moselle Region. In: Brian P. Levack: The Oxford Handbook of Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe and Colonial America. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2013, ISBN 978-0-19-164884-7 , Chapter 11.3: Witchcraft Committees, Local Action and Patterns of Accusation. Quote: “ Even under the witch-hunting Abbot Reiner Biewer (finally removed in 1613) the great majority of these denunciations did not lead to an actual trial. ”