Reserve Commissioner

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The reserve commissioner was a state official of the Landgraviate of Hessen-Kassel , who was initially entrusted with the exercise of Hesse-Kassel's sovereign rights and church power in its part of the former Lower County of Katzenelnbogen . After the entire remaining part of the Landgraviate of Hessen-Kassel, which belonged to the so-called Rotenburger Quart, was inherited in 1655 and 1658 by Landgrave Ernst I from the Hesse-Rotenburg branch who converted to the Roman Catholic faith in 1652 , reserve commissioners were also appointed there.

prehistory

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 late Landgrave Moritz von Hessen-Kassel (1572–1632) and his second wife Juliane von Nassau-Dillenburg (1587–1643), the Landgrave Ernst I. from the Hessen-Rotenburg branch line, who thus founded the so-called younger line Hessen-Rheinfels. Hessen-Kassel retained sovereignty under imperial law.

Regensburg Treaty 1654

When Landgrave Ernst converted to the Roman Catholic faith on Epiphany in 1652, complications arose with regard to the canonical sovereignty in his domain. With the between Wilhelm VI. of Hessen-Kassel, who under no circumstances wanted to be wrested from the Kassel sovereignty, and Ernst von Hessen-Rheinfels Treaty of Regensburg in 1654 became the Lutheran church system established in the Lower Counties and the Reformed church system in Hesse, which was observed and favored by the Kassel landgraves -Rheinfels placed under Kassel supervision. Landgrave Ernst was allowed to build Catholic churches in St. Goar , Nastätten and Langen-Schwalbach . The Archbishop of Trier exercised the Catholic diocesan rights to St. Goar and Nastätten, the one from Mainz to Langen-Schwalbach.

The reserve commissioner

To enforce and monitor the Kassel diocesan rights, the new office of the reformed reserve commissioner was created from January 1, 1655, with its seat in St. Goar, the owner of which was the 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. After all, his duties also included the obligation of the clergy, superintendents and inspectors on behalf of the consistory so that they did not have to travel to Kassel for this purpose.

As was to be expected, the reserve commissioner was neither popular with the Rheinfels regents nor with the population and clergy because of the religious differences. Since the consistory in the far away Kassel usually decided all church matters and personnel questions according to the recommendations of the reserve commissioners, the latter were the actual church rulers of the lower counties. Since they also sought to curtail the powers of the superintendent and also abolished this title, which had existed since the Reformation in 1681, they were at times downright hated. One of them, Wolrad Reinhard, was even forced to flee St. Goar in 1718 under threats from his opponents. The reserve commissioners had been officers, customs officers, lawyers or officials before their appointment and therefore had little or no experience with church and theological matters. They were therefore mostly and rightly viewed as bureaucratic overseers and police officers and not as carers and guardians of the Protestant church system. In fact, most of them saw their task more in the restriction of the evangelical than, as would have been their original mandate, that of the Roman Catholic church system.

From 1768, when the general land surveying and the tax cadastre were completed, the reserve commissioners were also the cadastral and update officers of the Lower County. After the left bank of the Rhine was ceded in 1795, their official residence was relocated from St. Goar to Langen-Schwalbach.

Official

The reserve commissioners in Hessen-Rheinfels were:

  1. Johann Konrad Nordeck, previously captain, 1655–1662
  2. Johann Gottfried von Steprode, previously Hessian councilor, 1662–1670
  3. Johann David Many, previously customs clerk at St. Goar, 1671–1679
  4. Valentin Kanler, previously tax procurator in Kassel and velvet customs clerk at St. Goar, 1679–1691
  5. Johann. Debel, previously High War and Land Commissioner in Kassel, 1691–1703 (also velvet customs clerk)
  6. Wolrad Reinhard, previously forest and hunting secretary in Kassel, 1703–1718
  7. Jost Heinrich Appold, previously customs clerk at St. Goar, 1718–1728
  8. Johann Georg Beza, 1728–1758
  9. Johann Konrad Gössel, previously auditor in Kassel, 1758–1770
  10. Johann Georg Resius, 1771–1778
  11. Peter Friedrich Vietor, previously government procurator in Kassel, 1778–1786
  12. Georg Schmerfeld , previously a judge and rheinzoll collectors in St. Goar, 1788–1792
  13. Karl Friedrich Zipf, previously a war councilor, 1792–1805 (from 1792 also cadastral officer; from 1795 in Langen-Schwalbach)
  14. Karl Arstenius, previously chief auditor with the Hessian Guard Regiment, 1805–1816
  15. Karl Friedrich Koch, previously a judicial officer in Spangenberg , 1816–1818

Reserve commissioners in other areas

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). There was also a reserve commissioner for the two exclaves Neuengleichen and Herrschaft Plesse near Göttingen , which had been added to the Rotenburger Quart in 1627 and which fell to Ernst von Hessen-Rheinfels in 1655.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ 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)