To systematize the work of evangelizing
Germany, St. Boniface organized a hierarchy on the usual ecclesiastical
basis; in Bavaria the Dioceses of Salzburg, Freising, Ratisbon, and
Passau; in Franconia and Thuringia, Würzburg, Eichstätt, Buraburg near
Fritzlar, and Erfurt. To facilitate missionary work farther north,
especially among the Saxons, he sought a suitable spot for the location
of a monastery. He chose for this mission St. Sturmius, who, after
journeying far and wide, found an appropriate place in the great forest
of Buchonia, in the district of Grabfeld on the Fulda. Boniface
sanctioned this choice of a location, and petitioned Carloman, to whom
the country round about belonged, to grant him the site for a monastery.
Carloman yielded to the saint's request, and also induced the Frankish
nobles who had estates in the vicinity to bestow a part of them on the
Church. On 12 March, 744, St. Sturmius took solemn possession of the
land, and raised the cross. The wilderness was soon cleared, and the
erection of the monastery and church, the latter dedicated to the Most
Holy Redeemer, begun under the personnel direction of St. Boniface. He
appointed St. Sturmius first abbot of the new foundation, which he
intended to surpass in greatness all existing monasteries of Germany,
and to be a nursery for priests. The rule was modelled on that of the
Abbey of Monte Cassino, as Sturmius himself had gone to Italy (748) for
the express purpose of becoming familiar with it. To secure absolute
autonomy for the new abbey, Boniface obtained from Pope Zachary a
privilege, dated 4 November, 751, placing it immediately under the Holy
See, and removing it from all episcopal jurisdiction. The authenticity
of this document has frequently been called into question, but on the
whole it is considered as well established. (For further details see
Tangl in "Mitteilungen des Instituts für österreichische
Geschichtsforschung", 1899; and B. Sepp, "Die Fuldaer Privilegien
Frage", Ratisbon, 1908.) In 753 Pepin gave the royal sanction to this
exemption from episcopal jurisdiction. Boniface showed his love for
Fulda when he charged that his remains should be laid to rest there.
Under the prudent administration of St. Sturmius (d. 779), the
monastery soon rose to greater splendour; from an early period the tomb
of St. Boniface made it a national sanctuary for Christian Germany.
Great success crowned the agricultural work of the monks, and small
colonies which were established in different places gradually became the
centres of villages and civil communities. Soon Fulda was the
mother-house of a number of smaller monasteries, which were later
administered by provosts under the superiorship of the abbot. The gifts
of German princes, nobles, and private individuals increased the landed
possessions of the abbey so rapidly that they soon extended over distant
parts of Germany; there were estates in Thuringia, Saxony, Hesse,
Bavaria, Lorraine, Swabia: possessions along the Rhine, in East Frisia,
and even at Rome (the church of Sant' Andrea). Even in artistic and
literary lines Fulda rose to great importance. On the site of the first
church, which had been artistically decorated by Sturmius, there rose
under Abbots Baugulf (779-802), Ratgar (802-17), Eigil (818-22), and
Rabanus Maurus (822-42) a magnificent edifice which roused the
admiration of contemporaries, and even of posterity, and exerted a
lasting influence on architectural and artistic activity in distant
places. In addition to architecture, sculpture and painting were
zealously cultivated. The monastic school established by Sturmius began
to flourish during the time of Charlemagne and Alcuin, and, under
Rabanus Maurus, particularly, was the chief nursery of civilization and
learning in Germany, and became celebrated throughout Europe. It was
open not only to theological students, but also to young men desiring to
embrace secular careers. The curriculum embraced the subjects usually
taught during the Middle Ages: the seven liberal arts (grammar,
rhetoric, dialectics, arithmetic, geometry, physics, and astronomy), the
different branches of theology, and the German language. Among the most
renowned pupils of this school were: Rabanus Maurus, Walafried Strabo,
Servatus Lupus, Otfried of Weissenburg, Rudolfus Fuldensis, Williram,
Probus, and Meginhard; among the laity: Einhard, Bernhard, King of
Italy, and Ulrich von Hutten. Rabanus also founded a library to
familiarize the Germans with religious and classical literature, and the
zeal of the monks soon produced rich treasures of valuable manuscripts.
Unfortunately the greater part of this library disappeared during the
looting of the abbey by the Hessians in 1631, and has not since been
discovered.
Gradually the monastery rose to a commanding position in the
German Empire. From 968 the abbot was primate of all the Benedictine
monasteries of Germany and Gaul; from the time of Otto I,
arch-chancellor of the empress, whom he crowned jointly with the Elector
of Mainz; from the twelfth century he was a prince of the empire; from
1184 had the privilege of sitting at the left of the emperor; and from
1360 the imperial banner was borne before him by a knight. This glory,
however, was not wholly without shadows. The monastic discipline was
relaxed to such a degree that Abbot Marquard (1150-65) undertook to
carry out a reform by introducing the regulations in force at Hirsau
(Consuetudines Hirsaugienses). The importance of the school as a centre
of learning also declined. The great wealth of the abbey in landed
possessions, tithes, revenues, and regalia drew an increasing number of
nobles to the monastery. By the twelfth century the monks of noble birth
had monopolized the seats of the chapter and, in the course of time,
practically all the important offices of the abbey itself, as well as
the provostships of the dependent houses, were held by members of the
German nobility. The difficulty of administering the vast landed
possessions caused the abbots to grant certain sections in fief, which
eventually resulted in great losses to the abbey; for the feudatories
frequently turned their positions to their own personal interests, and
sought to convert the fiefs into private property. One of the most
notable illustrations of the greed of these monastic stewards is shown
by the action of Count Johann von Ziegenhain in the fourteenth century,
who, in an insurrection of the burgers of the city of Fulda against
Abbot Heinrich VI von Hohenberg (1315-53), headed an attack on the
monastery. Not infrequently, too, the obligations of the abbots as
princes of the empire, and the demands made upon them by the state
proved most detrimental to the interests of the monastery and its
inmates. In 1294, on application of the convent, the pope enjoined a
separation of the abbatial and the conventual tables, which was put into
effect in 1300 under Abbot Heinrich V von Weilnau (1288-1313) (cf.
Rübsam, "Heinrich V. von Weilnau, Fürstabt von Fulda", Fulda, 1879).
Imperial capitulations, of which there are records as early as the time
of Heinrich VII von Kranlucken (1353-72), especially those of Johann I
von Merlau (1395-1440), the "Old Statutes of 1395", restricted to a
considerable degree the authority of the abbot over the convent, and
raised correspondingly the independent status of that institution. In
the mother-house the dean eventually replaced the abbot for all
practical purposes. For centuries the chapter preserved this
independence, which involved the almost complete exclusion of the abbot
from the ecclesiastical organization of his monastery.
At a comparatively early date the teachings of the Reformers
found access to the chapter of Fulda, with which, in 1513, the Abbey of
Hersfeld had been united; and Abbot Johannes III von Henneberg (1521-41)
was forced to consent to a decree of reform favouring the spread of the
new doctrines. The zealous Abbot Balthasar von Dermbach (1570-1606)
proved an earnest restorer of discipline in the chapter, vigorously
inaugurating the work of the Counter-Reformation. Banished by the
members of the chapter and their colleagues in 1576, he was unable to
return to his abbey until 1602, great progress having been made
meanwhile by the imperial administrators in restoring the Catholic
Faith. The foundation of a Jesuit college in 1571 was the signal for the
reflorescence of the school, which had sunk to comparative
insignificance. In addition to the Jesuit gymnasium, Gregory XIII
founded (1584) a papal seminary, which he placed under the direction of
the Jesuits. Both of these institutions have contributed largely to the
maintenance and spread of the Catholic Faith in Germany. A similar zeal
for reform was displayed by Balthasar's second successor, Johann
Bernhard Schenk von Schweinsberg (1623-32), whose exertions, together
with the decrees of several papal visitors, particularly Pietro Luigi
Caraffa (1627), restored to the abbot a certain measure of his proper
authority, over against that of the chapter and the professors of noble
birth. The decrees of reform issued by Caraffa, against which the
provosts rebelled after the nuncio's departure, were repeatedly
confirmed by the Holy See. The capitulars and provosts of noble birth
still retained the privilege of admitting into the chapter only such as
could show a certain number of noble ancestors, and this prerogative
received papal confirmation in 1731. During the Thirty Years War the
chapter was again menaced; in 1631, Landgrave Wilhelm V of Hesse, by
virtue of a treaty with Gustavus Adolphus, received the abbey in fief to
Sweden, and sought gradually to make Protestantism predominant. After
the battle of Nördlingen, however, he no longer had power over Fulda.
When the turmoil of the war had ceased, the abbey experienced a period
of peace and prosperity. In 1732 the Jesuit and Benedictine schools were
united, enlarged, and converted into a university. Benedict XIV raised
the abbey to the rank of a bishopric (5 Oct., 1752), with the retention
of its monastic organization. The first prince-bishop was Amand von
Buseck (1737-56), the collegiate chapter of one dean and fourteen
capitulars being now the cathedral chapter.
By the Imperial Delegates' Enactment (Reichsdeputationshauptschluss)
of 1802 the abbey was secularized, and bestowed on the Prince of Orania
as a secular principality; it embraced at this time forty sq. miles,
with a population of 100,000. Under Napoleon, in 1809, it was ceded to
the Grand Duchy of Frankfort; in 1815, to Hesse-Kassel, with which, in
1866, it passed to Prussia. The university was closed under the law of
secularization, and the papal seminary was converted into an episcopal
seminary. The last prince-bishop, Adalbert III von Harstall (1788-1802),
died in 1814.
In accordance with the Bulls "Provida solersque" of 1821 and "Ad
dominici gregis custodiam" of 1827, the Diocese of Fulda was
re-established in 1829, and made suffragan to the ecclesiastical
province of the Upper Rhine, the first bishop being Johann Adam Rieger
(1829-31).
In 1857 and 1871 the boundaries of the new diocese were so
altered as to define the territory now embraced within it. It was
seriously affected by the Kulturkampf, the see being vacant from 1873 to
1881, and the seminary closed between 1873 and 1886; some of the
religious communities suppressed at that time have never been
re-established.
The most
important church of the diocese is the cathedral at Fulda, in the style
of the Renaissance, erected by Prince-Abbot Adalbert von Schleifras
(1704-12) on the site of the church built by Abbot Baugulf and his
successors. It contains precious altars, a rich treasury, and, as its
most important shrine, the tomb of St. Boniface, at which the bishops of
Prussia, Baden, and Würtemberg gather once a year (cf. Pfaff, "Der Dom
zu Fulda", 2nd ed., Fulda, 1855). Mention should also be made of the
church of St. Michael at Fulda, dating from Carlovingian times; the
church on the Petersberg near Fulda; the church of St. Peter at
Fritzlar, erected early in the thirteenth century; and the Protestant
church of St. Elizabeth at Marburg, a noble specimen of the thirteenth
century Gothic. The most popular place of pilgrimage in the diocese is
the tomb of St. Boniface.
BROUWER, Fuldensium antiquitates libri IV (Antwerp, 1612);
SCHANNAT, Corpus traditionum Fuldensium (Leipzig, 1724); IDEM,
Fuldischer Lehn-hof (Frankfort-on-the-Main, 1726); IDEM, Vindiciæ
quorundam archivi Fuldensis diplomatum (Frankfort-on-the-Main, 1728);
DRONKE, Traditiones et antiquitates Fuldenses (Kassel, 1844); IDEM,
Codex diplomaticus Fuldensis (Kassel, 1850; index, 1862); ARND,
Geschichte des Hochstifts Fulda (Frankfort, 1862); GEGENBAUER, Das
Kloster Fulda im Karolingerzeitalter (2 vols., 1871, 1873); KOMP, Die
zweite Schule Fuldas und das päpstliches Seminar (Fulda, 1877); IDEM in
Kirchenlex., s. v.; LOTZ, Die Hochschule zu Fulda, in Hessenland, XII
(1898); HEYDENREICH, Das älteste Fuldaer Cartular (Leipzig, 1899);
RICHTER, Die ersten Anfänge der Bau- und Kunsttätigkeit des Klosters
Fulda (Fulda, 1900); IDEM, Quellen und Abhandlungen zur Geschichte der
Abtei und der Diözese Fulda, I-III (Fulda, 1904-07); Schematismus der
Diözese Fulda (Fulda, 1904; new ed., 1909); Festgabe zum
Bonifatiusjubilæum, 1905 (Fulda, 1905); a collection of original
documents relating to Fulda is in the course of preparation.
JOSEPH LINS (Catholic Encyclopedia)
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