Rudolf of Rüdesheim

Rudolf of Rüdesheim ( * 1402 in Rudesheim am Rhein, † January 17, 1482 in Breslau) was from 1463 to 1468 Bishop of Lavant and afterwards Archbishop of Breslau.

Background and Career

Rudolf came from a middle class family from Rüdesheim. His parents were Heinrich Hecker and Katharina NN From 1422 to 1426 he studied at Heidelberg and then two years in Rome, where he earned the academic degree of Dr. decretorum. Soon he had canonries in Mainz, Worms and Freising. After the diocese of Worms at the Council of Basel, he represented since 1433, he became a canon 1434 and 1446 Worms Domdekan. In this capacity, he undertook several diplomatic missions: 1435 to Trier in 1437 to Avignon, in 1438 the Teutonic Order in 1439 and to Lausanne to Pope Felix V.

In the same year he became a council judge. As council president of the German Nation in 1444 he met Nicholas of Cusa and Eneo Silvio de Piccolomini, later Pope Pius II in 1454, he was the Archbishop of Mainz at the Diet of Regensburg. 1458 Pope Pius II appointed him to the clerk for German Affairs, 1461 to 1462 and papal legate to the papal nuncio at the Diet.

Because of its legal and diplomatic dexterity Rudolf was also advisor to the King Albert II and the Emperor Frederick III for which he was instrumental in the 1463 Treaty of Sopron. ,. In the same year the Pope appointed him as arbitrator in the dispute between the Duke of Tirol and the Bishop of Brixen.

Bishop of Lavant

After the death of Bishop Theobald Lavanter Schweinpeck Archbishop of Salzburg in 1463 Rudolf of Rüdesheim appointed as his successor.

Bishop of Breslau

In his capacity as papal legate for Germany and Bohemia Rudolf of Rüdesheim organized from the resistance of the antihussitischen forces against George of Podiebrad since 1465 from Wroclaw. This is probably why he was unanimously elected after the death of Bishop Breslauer Jodok of Rosenberg on January 20, 1468 by the chapter to the bishop and confirmed three months later by the Pope in this office.

In 1469 he supported the papal mandate the election of Matthias Corvinus King of Bohemia and endangered thereby in the following Hussitenkämpfen his position as bishop Breslau and ruler of the diocese country Neisse- Grottkau. With peace negotiations from Brno (1477-1478) and Olomouc ( 1479 ) ended the wars.

1473 and 1475 Rudolf held diocesan synods, whose statutes were the first to publish Breslauer pressure in the later Canon Elyan Caspar. In 1476 he decreed that all future Breslauer canons must have an academic degree. For his diocese land he acquired the cities Freiwaldau and Zuckmantel.

Rudolf of Rüdesheim was buried in the cathedral at Breslau.