Hochstift Freising

Germans Dec 2, 2023 0 Add to Reading List

The Freising Monastery was the secular domain of the Prince-Bishop of Freising for over 500 years, from 1294 to 1802 . It was an independent, imperial spiritual principality , which was assigned to the Bavarian Imperial District .

Geography

Strictly speaking, only the four immediate parts of the country belong to the bishopric , i.e. the parts of the country that are subordinate to the prince-bishop without the intervention of another authority. However, the prince-bishop owned a number of court brands in the old Bavarian area and free float in the area of Lower Austria , Styria , Carniola and Tyrol (including South Tyrol ).

Around 1800, the monastery comprised around 15,000 residents in the following parts of the country and dominion: ^[1]

Immediate parts of the country [ Edit | Edit source code ]

City and castle truce of Freising , on the Isar between Munich and Landshut , with around 4,000 inhabitants
County on the Yserrain , a narrow land corridor around Ismaning on the eastern bank of the Isar to Oberföhring
Burgrain rule with Isen monastery
County of Werdenfels with the towns of Garmisch , Partenkirchen and Mittenwald

Mediate reigns

In the old Bavarian area:

The court brands of Zolling , Marzling , Ottenburg , Hummel , Wippenhausen / Burghausen , Massenhausen , Eisenhofen , Kleinberghofen /Asbach, Eitting , Kopfsburg , Pastetten and Zeilhofen

In Lower Austria, Styria, Carniola and Tyrol:

Lordship of Waidhofen ,
Rule of Ulmerfeld ,
Lordship of Hollenburg ,
Enzersdorf reign ,
Reign of Rothenfels , (see Oberwölz )
Reign of Klingenfels (sold in 1622)
County of Cadober ( Cadore , lost in the early 16th century)
Reign Lack (= Bischoflack)
Dominion of San Candido (in South Tyrol) ^[2]

History

Around 720/30 the diocese of Freising was founded by St. Korbinian . The first major acquisitions of land were made by Bishop Atto the Kienberger , who bought San Candido in South Tyrol in 783 and the later Burgrain estate in 808. In 973, Emperor Otto II gave the town of Škofja Loka (Bischoflack) in Slovenia to Bishop Abraham of Freising . In 1007 , King Henry II gave the Wölzer and Katschtal in the county of Adalbero to the Freising Church under Bishop Egilbert . In two extensive purchases in 1249 and 1294, the Freising bishops acquired the county of Werdenfels .

Coat of arms of the diocese of Freising based on Siebmacher's coat of arms book from 1605

In 1294 , Emicho Wildgraf von Kyrburg was elevated to a bishopric and was considered the first prince-bishop . The crowned Moor's head in the coat of arms, typical of the Freising bishops, which indicates the immediacy of the empire, appeared for the first time in 1284 in Emicho's coat of arms as a crowned Ethiopian ("caput aethiopis").

In 1319, the then Duke of Bavaria and later German Emperor Ludwig the Bavarian sold the towns of Ismaning , Unterföhring , Englschalking and Daglfing to the Bishop of Freising in exchange for "one hundred March lotrings silver". This created the “County of Yserrain” as another closed domain of the Freising bishops.

As a neighbor of the much larger Duchy and later Electorate of Bavaria, the Bishopric was often involved in conflicts with it. The destruction of the bishop's Isar bridge near "Vöhring" around 1156 by Henry the Lion (and the associated founding of Munich ) is only mentioned as an example. This conflict also prevented the monastery from acquiring further land over the centuries. The Bavarian dukes and electors tried to bring the bishopric under their influence and, if possible, to place members of their own family on the Freising bishop's chair, which was often successful since the 15th century.

Bishop Veit Adam von Gepeckh (1618–1651) led Freising through the Thirty Years' War , in which in 1632 the Swedish King Gustav Adolf passed through Freising on his way to Munich, demanded 30,000 guilders and still pillaged the city. Hunger and plague raged when the Swedes invaded the city again in 1646. His successor, Bishop Albrecht Sigismund of Bavaria, donated the Marian Column in 1674 as a symbol of the conquered plague , which still gives its name to the central square in the old town today. On the Domberg - geographically the highest point - the prince-bishop's residence from the 14th century was rebuilt and expanded in the Renaissance and Baroque periods.

Freising experienced a heyday under Bishop Johann Franz Eckher of Kapfing and Liechteneck (1696–1727). In 1697 he founded Freising's first university, the Lyceum at Marienplatz . For the 1000th anniversary of the diocese (1724), he entrusted the Asam brothers with the most comprehensive renovation that his episcopal church, the Freising Cathedral , had ever undergone. He also commissioned the Benedictine Father Karl Meichelbeck to create a new chronicle. His two-volume historical work “Historia Frisingensis” is considered the first source-critical historical work in Germany; it continued the long tradition of Freising historiography. A dark chapter of this time is the child witch trials in Freising from 1715 to 1723, during which eight boys between the ages of 14 and 23 and three middle-aged beggar women were executed.

Even before the Imperial Deputation Main Conclusion , Freising was annexed by Electoral Palatinate Bavarian troops under Johann Adam von Aretin on November 27, 1802. Secularization meant the abolition of the rule of the last prince-bishop , Joseph Konrad Freiherr von Schroffenberg, and the expropriation of church property by the Kingdom of Bavaria . The former residential city became a small country town in the new kingdom . The Archdiocese of Munich and Freising, newly founded by the Bavarian Concordat in 1817 and established in 1821 , succeeded the Diocese of Freising, with the result that the episcopal see was moved to Munich. ^[3] The use of the title Prince-Archbishop as well as the use of the secular symbols of dignity associated with it (such as a prince's hat and mantle ) was banned in 1951 by Pope Pius XII. also formally abolished. ^[4]