Otto of Freising
Otto of Freising Otto I of Austria (* 1112 probably in Klosterneuburg near Vienna, † September 22, 1158 at the Cistercian monastery Mori Moon in France), was Bishop of Freising since 1138 and one of the foremost historians of the Middle Ages.
Life
Otto of Freising was born in 1112 as the fifth son of the Holy Babenberg Leopold III. , Margrave of Austria, and the daughter of Emperor Henry IV, Agnes of Waiblingen. Among his brothers were Leopold IV, Duke of Bavaria, Henry II, Duke of Austria, and Conrad II, Archbishop of Salzburg. His half-brother was King Konrad III .. Otto was also an uncle of Emperor Frederick Barbarossa.
He received his first training in the Abbey of Klosterneuburg, which his father had founded in 1114. In 1126 he was appointed by the latter to the provost of the pen. In the same year or next year, Otto went to study in France, especially to Paris, which had established itself as the center of the then new scholasticism (as opposed to the established Monastic ). Otto spent six years and heard while Peter Abelard, Hugh of Saint- Victor and Gilbert de la Porrée.
In 1132, he joined together with 15 partly high-born German fellow students the Order of Cistercians, and came as a novice in the monastery Mori Moon in Champagne. Six years later, in 1138, he was elected as a 26- year-old monk to his abbot. But the next day he received by King Konrad III. the appointment as Bishop of Freising and tried from there on to the renewal of ecclesial life in his diocese and their monasteries, of which he gave Schaeftlarn ( Premonstratensian ), Schlehdorf ( Augustinian Canons ) and Innichen a new order. The Freising Cathedral he freed from oppressive secular bailiwick, the Cathedral School he transferred to a considerable height. The monasteries Schliersee ( collegiate ) and Neustift ( Premonstratensian ) in Freising, he founded new. Oddly enough, these were, however, no Cistercian monasteries.
In the time of the investiture controversy he got almost necessarily in conflict with the Wittelsbach family, but switched because of its imperial relationship successful in the dispute between Staufen, Welf and Babenberg. He participated on the reputation of Bernard of Clairvaux out as a spiritual prince of the empire also active in the Second Crusade, but escaped towards its end only with difficulty with a small band of loyal followers. On behalf of Conrad III. He was also active diplomatically: he undertook, inter alia, three trips to Rome under Emperor Friedrich Barbarossa, he was in the resolution of the dispute with Pope Hadrian IV involved. His ideal, even in piety, was moderation. Bernard of Clairvaux was him throughout his life deeply alien.
In 1157 Otto was officially commissioned by the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa to record the deeds of the emperor ( Gesta Friderici Imperatoris ). Otto could not complete his work. He died on the way to a general chapter in Citeaux in his former monastery Mori Moon on 22 September 1158. Otto was initially buried in the monastery church of Mori Moon. Until the 17th century the grave of Otto of Freising was raised above the ground and clearly visible in front of the local high altar.
Today, a reliquary with bones that are held for the Blessed, under the high altar in the collegiate church of Heiligenkreuz in the Vienna Woods.
Work
In the history of philosophy Otto of Freising was one of the first to bring the new Aristotle to Germany. From his literary work only fragments have been preserved. Lost his philosophical writings and his correspondence. As a Cistercian Otto was the religious ideals and the spiritual world of his time closely connected, as a historian, he created the towering works of the early Hohenstaufen historiography. Him a special insight into the history and politics was given by his relationship with the imperial house, as she was given only a few of his contemporaries. Thus Otto is considered one of the greatest historians of the Middle Ages.
His first work, the Chronica sive Historia de duabus civitatibus, ie the history of the two states, the work De Civitate Dei of St. Augustine of Hippo is modeled. It is a world history in seven books, in the 8th book unfolds Otto his vision of the Last Judgment. Otto wrote in this work 1132-1146 and revised again in 1157 the work was culmination of history in the Middle Ages. It is dedicated to the transformation of Augustinian and Platonic ideas, especially the two-state theory. It focuses on the world empires that migrate like all culture from the East to the West and in the Roman Empire found their final form until the end of the world. It is crucial that the Ecclesia Christi joins the Roman with the Empire and so the City of God, is the perfect harmony of spiritual and secular power. In order for the Civitas Dei experiences in contrast to that of St. Augustine, a realization on earth. The significance of the work thus lies in its history, theological dimension that significantly expands Augustine's doctrine of the two Civitates. A Must Have in the 12th century cycle of pictures is preserved in two early copies of the text.
To 1156, Otto began the Gesta Friderici Imperatoris, ie, the actions of his nephew Emperor Frederick Barbarossa. Under the impression of hopeful reign of the Emperor he wrote the first two books: Book 1 deals with the time of Henry IV to Konrad III, in contrast to intuition in the Chronicon interpreted as a time of preparation for the coming imperial power fullness under Frederick Barbarossa. . Book 2 describes Barbarossa's history from 1152 to 1158. Otto used here partly literally, auszüglich partly many imperial documents in the file. Otto could only finish the first two volumes. Even before his death ( 1158 ) he had his students Rahewin commissioned wisely idea to complete his work. Rahewin wrote the third and fourth band. Another continuator was Otto of St. Blaise.
The Gesta philosophy of history are less deep thoughts, but provide most vivid characteristics church historically important personalities including of Abelard and Arnold of Brescia. In terms of Barbarossa, the text is not free from subjective formulations. It is the representation of the Staufer is clearly associated with an objective that one - in modern terms - could be called propaganda. Otto concern was to represent the house Staufen in a light that is predestined to fulfiller of God's will.
Worship
In the Cistercian Order Otto has long been revered as Seliger. His feast day in the Archdiocese of Vienna and the Archdiocese of Munich - Freising with the permission of the Roman Congregation of Rites in 1973 September 7. The Habsburg dynasty worshiped him as a holy ancestors of their ruling dynasty. A statue of the Blessed is located in Freising Cathedral. Under the sacrament of the altar of the abbey church of the Cistercian monastery of Heiligenkreuz is a reliquary, the bones of Blessed should include. 1995 was erected to him on the grounds of the former convent Mori Moon a memorial stele. On the bridge Korbinian Freising remembers a bridge figure to him. He is often depicted in stained glass windows, mostly as writing bishop, such as in the parish church Liesing and Otto von Freising chapel in Gaaden.
Unusually, enjoys this blessed a greater reverence for historians and German literature at the Catholic people of his homeland. In this context, dedicated to the Blessed Otto plaque in the Walhalla near Regensburg arose.