Withego of Furra

Withego I. von Furra , also Withego de Wuor, Witigo (* before 1250; † March 6, 1293 ) was bishop of Meissen from 1266 to 1293 .

Name and origin

Withego came from a Thuringian ministerial family . The nickname de Wuor refers to Furra Castle between Nordhausen and Sondershausen . Until well into the 19th century, it was sometimes assumed that Bishop Withego, like his successor Bernhard von Kamenz, came from the family of the Lords of Kamenz , since the name Withego was often used by them. This could later be refuted.

A Canon Withego is first mentioned in the Marienstift in Erfurt in 1250 . On September 26th, 1274, Withego donated two vicarages in Erfurt's Marienkirche as a soul device . It was here that he was presumably instructed as domicellar before becoming a canon of the monastery.

In 1255 Withego is mentioned as cantor et prepositus in Northusen . In 1263 he entered the service of Margrave Henry the Illuminated as a pronotary , to whom he possibly owed the elevation to bishop in 1266.

Withego as bishop

With his election he resigned from the service of the margrave. During his almost three decades in office, he succeeded in securing and expanding the Meissen monastery property vis-à-vis the Margrave of Meissen and the Ascanian Margrave of Upper Lusatia , as well as smaller lords. He specifically used excommunication and interdict to put pressure on secular rulers.

He promoted the veneration of St. Benno .

In 1274 Withego took part in the Council of Lyon , but was excommunicated from it from 1277 to 1281 because he refused to pay the tithe decided there for a new crusade .

Funerary monument

The grave slab has been preserved as a worn sandstone slab with legible Latin inscription.

His grave was once found in front of the Holy Cross altar, as a graphic representation of the burial places in Meißner Dom from 1593 shows. The grave slab with an incised portrait of a bishop and an inscription was still found in the north aisle of the Meissen Cathedral in 1919.

literature

• Matthias Donath: The grave monuments in Meissen Cathedral. Leipziger Universitätsverlag, 2005, ISBN 978-3937209456 , p. 217 f. ( limited preview in Google Book search)
• "Cat. No. 575: Grave slab for Bishop Withego I. († 1293)", in: Helga Wäß: Form and Perception of Central German Memorial Sculpture in the 14th Century . Volume 2: Catalog of selected objects from the High Middle Ages to the beginning of the 15th century, Bristol a. a. 2006, ISBN 3-86504-159-0 , p. 407 f.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Hermann Knothe : History of the Lords of Kamenz . In: New Lusatian Magazine . Volume 43, 1866, pp. 81ff. ( Digitized version )
2. ↑ Wäß 2006, Fig. 575

Web links

• Marek Wejwoda: Withego von Furra . In: Institute for Saxon History and Folklore (Ed.): Saxon Biography .

predecessor	Office	successor
Albrecht II of Mutzschen	Bishop of Meissen 1266–1293	Bernhard von Kamenz