Werner I of Habsburg

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Coat of arms of the bishops of Strasbourg

Werner I von Habsburg (* 975/980 ?; † October 28, 1028 in Constantinople ) was Bishop of Strasbourg from 1001 to 1028.

Werner came from the Habsburg dynasty and is the son of Landolt (perhaps Lanzelin ; † 991) and brother of the castle founder Radbot († 1045).

Life

From Emperor Otto III. appointed Bishop of Strasbourg, he was only ordained after his death on May 4, 1002. The very beginnings of his episcopate were disturbed by extraordinary turmoil and military unrest. Werner, through friendly ties with the Bavarian Duke Heinrich from his youth , had campaigned energetically for his election as German king, but he was hit by the attack by the crown pretender, Duke Hermann of Swabia , who ravaged Alsace and the city of Strasbourg empowered. With varying degrees of luck, Werner tried to offer resistance; he hardly escaped personal capture until, in October 1002, Duke Hermann submitted to King Heinrich II. To compensate for his losses, Werner received from the king the old, wealthy Abbey of St. Stephen in Strasbourg.

Even later he had to enjoy many favors from Heinrich. In 1014 he was given the Schwarzach Abbey , which remained in the possession of the Strasbourg bishops for only a very short time, and in 1017 he gave him a very extensive ban on forest and wilderness, which encompassed all of central Alsace from the Rhine to the mountains. We find Werner many times around the emperor, for example at Pentecost 1007 at the synods in Mainz and Frankfurt when the diocese of Bamberg was founded , further probably as a participant in the Rome procession in 1014, further in 1016 at the great Reichstag in Frankfurt, 1018 in October at Basel at the inauguration of the cathedral, in April 1020 at Bamberg at the consecration of St. Stephen's Foundation by Pope Benedict VIII , at the end of 1022 in Westphalia. Most indicative of the close relationship between the two and, at the same time, of Heinrich's sentiments, is that legendary feature from the emperor's life, which is probably linked to the existence of the royal pledges at the Strasbourg cathedral monastery, according to which he wanted to renounce the crown and join the ranks of the Strasbourg canons and only up Werner's bid refused to do so. He also carried the arms for the emperor, so in 1020 he led a victorious attack on Burgundy with some of the great Alemanni.

Only in the spiritual field did he come into a certain contradiction to Heinrich, as he zealously joined the independent reform efforts of his metropolitan, Archbishop Aribo of Mainz , and took a stand against the Pope at the Supreme Synod in 1024 with the other suffragans of the same. After the emperor's death he worked with particular enthusiasm for the election of Salier Konrad the Elder (II) , with whom he very quickly gained the same firm position of trust as with Heinrich. In summer 1025 we see him in the entourage of Conrad II on the Upper Rhine, in 1027 he accompanied him on the trip to Rome. We find him still active in the decision of the Gandersheim dispute at the Synod of Frankfurt , until he receives Konrad's assignment to lead an imperial embassy to Byzantium and to woo a wife for Konrad's son, young Heinrich , in the Macedonian imperial house . Werner set out on the journey with a brilliant entourage and a large entourage, but rejected by King Stephan at Hungary's borders , he had to choose the route through Bavaria and over the Brenner Pass in order to reach Constantinople from Venice after a difficult crossing . In spite of the favorable first reception which the embassy found, it failed to achieve its goal, the negotiations dragged on; until Werner died shortly before Emperor Constantine's death after a brief illness on October 28, 1028. Without being able to fulfill his heart's desire to enter the Holy Land, he found his final resting place in the eastern Roman imperial city.

Werner's name was followed by the founding of the Muri monastery in Aargau, even if the foundation letter of 1027 had to be declared false, and it also played an important role in the history of the Strasbourg cathedral , which under him was extensively rebuilt and expanded. Even if only sparse remains of it are still preserved in the crypt and elsewhere, it is probably due to him that the floor plan dimensions of the huge building go back to him. His numerous book gifts to the Strasbourg Cathedral are evidence of his lively interest in science and the education of the clergy.

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