Wilhelm von Manderscheid-Kail

Wilhelm von Manderscheid-Kail († 1546 ) was abbot of the Imperial Abbey of Stablo-Malmedy from 1499 to 1546 and of the Prüm Abbey from 1513 to 1546 . Because of his reform activities, he is sometimes considered the "second founder" of Stablo and Malmedy.

Life

He was the son of the father of the same name, who was the founder of the Manderscheid-Kail line . The mother was Adelheid von Moers-Saar Werden .

His predecessor Abbot Jasper had proved too weak to effectively protect the abbey from its more powerful neighbors. Therefore, the monks of the two monasteries Stablo and Malmedy chose Wilhelm von Manderscheid as their successor because they hoped that his family connections would offer better protection. He was not a monk himself, but a lay abbot .

After a period of decline, a revival of monastic life began with Wilhelm von Manderscheid in Stablo and Malmedy. With regard to the services and statutes, it was based on the Bursfeld congregation . The abbey did not officially join the congregation until 1654.

With the support of Charles V and the governor Heinrich von Nassau , the von der Mark family managed to regain control of the County of Logne . For this, Heinrich von Nassau besieged Logne and shot at it with cannons. He was the first abbot who also held the title of Count of Logne.

Because the old castle of Stablo was now only in ruins, he had a new building built in 1525. The archives and the financial administration were also housed there. There he was able to entertain the visiting King Ferdinand in 1540 .

He had the west tower built at the abbey church in Stablo. In Malmedy he had the abbey quarter destroyed in 1482 and the church, which was destroyed by fire, rebuilt in 1500. In 1504 he had the St. Gereons spring directed to Malmedy.

Wilhelm took the same position as lay abbot from 1513 in the Abbey of Prüm. However, only some of the monks chose him. Others held on to Gregor von Homburg. When he died shortly afterwards, Wilhelm was recognized by the entire convent. He also had a tower of the abbey church built in Prüm.

He appointed his young nephew Christoph von Manderscheid-Kail as coadjutor , who actually became abbot of Stablo-Malmedy and Prüm after Wilhelm's death.

literature

• Claire Pascaud: Stablo-Malmedy p. 693f. Online version; PDF; 79 kB
• News about Malmedy and Stablo Abbeys. In: Annals for the Lower Rhine. Issue 8. Cologne, 1860, pp. 56–58

predecessor	Office	successor
Caspar Poncin	Abbot of Malmedy and Stablo 1499–1546	Christoph von Manderscheid-Kail