William of Hirsau

William of Hirsau (* 1030, † July 5, 1091 ) was an abbot of the monastery and monastic reformer Hirsau. He was the father of Hirsauer reform and stood in the Investiture Controversy on the side of the Pope. He also authored scholarly writings on music and astronomy. For the Hirsauer monasteries he created based on the on his initiative, recorded by Ulrich Zell habits Cluny the Constitutiones Hirsaugienses.

Life

William of Hirsau came from Bavaria, where he was probably born around the year 1030. About its origin nothing is known. Wilhelm got passed as puer oblatus the Benedictines, his spiritual training as a monk at the Monastery Emmeram, a private church of the bishop of Regensburg. Otloh of St. Emmeram ( * ca 1010; † after 1070) was the famous teacher of William.

Here Wilhelm wrote about from the mid-11th century scholarly treatises on astronomy and music, sub-disciplines of the quadrivium, the four-way within the seven liberal arts, the septem artes liberales. Even today you can famous in Regensburg Regensburg Wilhelms teaching device, a stone astrolabe admire. It is a two and a half meters tall monument, on its front an astrolabe Sphaera is engraved, while the reverse features a look into the sky man shows, probably the Greek astronomer and poet Aratus of Soli (3rd century BC, first half). It is particularly worth noting that William also took astronomical observations. For calculating the date of Easter ( Computus Ecclesiasticus ) the vernal equinox had to be known, which shifts by the precession. Since he found discrepancies in the literature, he determined the solstices over altitudes of the sun. As was customary, he sat the equinoxes during the year halfway between the solstices. The 1100 handed down from the time of the Benedictine calendar, such as those in the Lambach, are in good agreement with the astronomical data calculated according to present knowledge.

Appointment as abbot

In the year 1069 it came to William's appointment as Hirsauer Dept. In the early years as Abbot William 's aim was to make his monastery by the secular powers largely independent. This was done on the basis of the effective for quite some time gorzisch -Lorraine and Cluniac reform efforts, quite the church- revolutionary sense of time. William's policy therefore directed first against the Count of Calw.

A royal charter of Henry IV (1056-1106), well- formulated soon after 1070, after all, created the important relationship to the kingdom, but wrote essentially the state Hirsaus fixed as Gräfliches own monastery. A 1073/1075 by Pope Gregory VII issued privilege set Hirsau under papal protection. The integra libertas coenobii (whole freedom of the monastery ) of the so-called Hirsauer form, a document of King Henry of 9 October 1075, the free Abtswahl and the free election or dismissal of the bailiff declared ( of course, from the founding family of the monastery ).

Against the resistance of Count Adalbert II of Calw, Wilhelm had ultimately prevailed. The Count had previously renounced his laikale domination over the monastery, the king stood as it were in the place of the Count and assumed the monastic community 's protection without Hirsau a free, immediate royal monastery. The Count was in royal Bannleihe the hereditary office as Governor of Hirsau, the abbot was used in self- investiture.

The intensification of the fronts in the Investiture Controversy may have had an impact on the internal situation in Hirsauer monastery. In any case, handed down by Wilhelm that he introduced the recorded of his childhood friend Ulrich of Zell practices of the Burgundian monastery of Cluny in Hirsau. On them are based the Consuetudines Hirsaugienses ( Hirsauer habits ), who found widespread use in the context of Hirsauer reform. Discipline and obedience, harsh penalties for violators of the rules and permanent control of the monks recorded at the latest in the years after 1079 living in Hirsau from.

At the same time you have to get the onslaught of lay on Hirsau under control, created the Institute of converse, the lay brothers. Obviously Hirsau was attractive despite or perhaps because of monkish austerity and ascetic piety for many people. The upswing of the monastery under William of Hirsau corresponded to it then that the narrowness of the Aureliusklosters was abandoned and we settled on the opposite side of the Nagoldtalsperre. There arose after 1083, the then largest monastery in Germany with the mighty Romanesque church, which was dedicated to Saints Peter and Paul.

Hirsauer reform

The work of William was not only restricted to Hirsau. Many monasteries were to join the Hirsauer reform. Start-ups, which were colonized by Hirsauer monks were Zwiesel, Blaubeuren in the duchy of Swabia, Reinhardsbrunn in Thuringia and the monastery of St. Paul in the Lavant valley in Carinthia. After their transfer to the Black Forest St. Georgen ( 1084 ) and St. Peter ( 1093 ) were also equipped personnel with the help of Hirsau. Existing monasteries, who accepted the Hirsauer life form, were Peter near Constance, Monastery of All Saints in Schaffhausen, St. Peter in Erfurt and Comburg; Hirsauer priories were Reichenbach in the Murg Valley, Schönrain in Franconia, easel in Bavaria, Monastery Paulinzella in Thuringia.

The Hirsauer found so especially in Swabia and Franconia, then in central and eastern Germany its adherents. The widespread use of Hirsauer reform corresponded to the reputation of William in the ecclesiastical and political propaganda of the Investiture Controversy. The Hirsauer abbot was the mainstay of the Gregorians in Germany, in Swabia. He stood on the side of the anti-kings Rudolf of Swabia (1077-1080) and Hermann of Salm (1081-1088), among others, it was the unity of the Gregorian party to thank the German Southwest, from the reputation the Hirsauer monastery in the circles the Church reformers had, quite apart. When William died on July 5, 1091, the Reform Party had lost in Swabia and Germany with him an important representatives.

His successor as abbot of Hirsau was Gebhard von Urach, later Bishop of Speyer and brother of Cardinal Bishop Kuno von Urach († 1122), a zealous promoter of the Gregorian reforms and confidant of Pope Paschal II ( 1099-1118 ).

William the Blessed

Wilhelm is often referred to as " the blessed ", sometimes called " the saints." A beatification is not datable. According to tradition, he is said to have led a holy life and miracles, but no canonization process was requested. In the Acta Sanctorum, he appears under the 4th of July, in other Blesseds and Saints directories also on July 5, depending on the setting of his death.

Sources and Literature

Swell

  • Vita Wilhelmi Abbatis Hirsaugiensis. In: Georg Heinrich Pertz et al (eds): Scriptores ( in folio ) 12: Historiae aevi Salici. Hannover 1856, pp. 209-225 ( Monumenta Historica Germaniae, digitized )
  • William of Hirsau, Praefatio in sua astronomica, in: Jacques Paul Migne, Patrologia Latina, Volume 150: B. Lanfranci cantuariensis archiepiscopi opera omnia, Paris 1854, Patrologia Latina, Volume 150, column 1639 to 1642
  • William of Hirsau, Musica, in: Jacques Paul Migne, Patrologia Latina, Volume 150, column 1147 to 1178
  • Vitae ss. Wilhelmi Abbatis Hirsaugiensis et Wilhelmi Gellonensis / nunquam adhuc editae ex mss. codicibus erutae Commentario & notis illustratae auctore Carlo Stengelio. Dabertzhofer, Augustae Vindelicorum 1611. Digitized edition of the University and State Library Dusseldorf
  • Will Helmi Abbatis Constitutiones Hirsaugienses, edd. Candida Elvert / Pius Engelbert, part 2 volumes ( Corpus Consuetudinum Monasticarum 15), Siegburg 2010

Secondary literature

  • Christian Berktold: Wilhelm von Hirsau. In: Encyclopedia of the Middle Ages ( LexMA ). Volume 9, LexMA -Verlag, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-89659-909-7, 155-156 Sp.
  • Michael Buhlmann: Benedictine monasticism in the medieval Black Forest. A lexicon. Presentation at the Black Forest St. Georgen eV St. Georgen in the Black Forest, November 10, 2004 ( = vertex Alemanniae, H. 10 ), St. Georgen, 2004, 107ff.
  • Max Fischer: Studies on the origin of the Hirsauer Constitutions, Stuttgart 1910
  • Karl Greiner: Hirsau. Its history and its ruins, revised by S. Greiner, Pforzheim 14th edition 1993
  • Wolfgang Irtenkauf: Hirsau. History and Culture, 2nd Edition Constance 1966
  • Hermann Jacob: The Hirsauer. Its spread and legal status in the Age of the Investiture Contest ( = Bonner Historical Essays, vol 4 ), Cologne -Graz 1961
  • J. Köhler, Abbot William of Hirsau 1069-1091. Saint, reformer, politician, in: The district of Calw 1982/83, page 3-22
  • Friedrich Lauchert: William, Abbot of Hirsau. In: General German Biography (ADB ). Volume 43, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1898, pp. 221-224.
  • Klaus Schreiner: Hirsau, in: The Benedictine monasteries in Baden- Württemberg. Edited by Franz Quarthal ( = Germania Benedictina, vol 5), Ottobeuren 1976, ISBN 3-88096-605-2 281-303
  • Klaus Schreiner (Ed. ): Hirsau. St. Peter and Paul, 2 parts (= researches and reports of Archaeology in Baden- Württemberg, Vol 10), Stuttgart 1991 ISBN 3-8062-0902-2
  • J. Jürgen Seidel: WILHELM Hirsau. In: Biographic- bibliographic church encyclopedia ( BBKL ). Volume 13, Bautz, Herzberg 1998, ISBN 3-88309-072-7, Sp 1240-1241. (Articles / Articles beginning possibly in the Internet Archive )
  • G. Zimmermann: William of Hirsau, in: life images from Swabia and Franconia, Volume 9, edited by Max Miller and Robert Uhland, Stuttgart 1963, page 1-17
  • Ernst Zinner: emergence and spread of coppernicanischen Doctrine, 2nd ed Munich 1988, ISBN 3-406-32049- X
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