![Bursfelde Kirche von SW](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5c/Bursfelde_Kirche_von_SW.JPG)
The Bursfelde Congregation, also called Bursfelde Union, was a union of predominantly west and central
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
**Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ger ...
Benedictine
, image = Medalla San Benito.PNG
, caption = Design on the obverse side of the Saint Benedict Medal
, abbreviation = OSB
, formation =
, motto = (English: 'Pray and Work')
, foun ...
monasteries, of both men and women, working for the reform of Benedictine practice. It was named after
Bursfelde Abbey
Bursfelde Abbey (in German Kloster Bursfelde) is a former Benedictine monastery located in Bursfelde, a hamlet which for administrative purposes is included in the municipality of nearby Hannoversch Münden in Lower Saxony, Germany. Today the a ...
.
Background
During the 15th century there was a movement for monastic and other ecclesiastical reforms throughout Europe. One of the first Benedictine reformers was John Dederoth of Nordheim. After effecting notable reforms at
Clus Abbey, where he had been abbot since 1430, Dederoth was persuaded by Duke
Otto of Brunswick in 1433 to reform the extremely neglected and dilapidated
Bursfelde Abbey
Bursfelde Abbey (in German Kloster Bursfelde) is a former Benedictine monastery located in Bursfelde, a hamlet which for administrative purposes is included in the municipality of nearby Hannoversch Münden in Lower Saxony, Germany. Today the a ...
after the previous abbot had resigned in despair. Obtaining four exemplary monks from
St. Matthias' Abbey in
Trier
Trier ( , ; lb, Tréier ), formerly known in English as Trèves ( ;) and Triers (see also names in other languages), is a city on the banks of the Moselle in Germany. It lies in a valley between low vine-covered hills of red sandstone in the ...
, he assigned two of them to Clus to maintain his reformed discipline there, while the other two went with him to Bursfelde. As abbot of Clus, he was able to recruit from that community for Bursfelde. Dederoth succeeded beyond expectations in the restoration of Bursfelde and began the reform of Reinhausen Abbey near
Göttingen
Göttingen (, , ; nds, Chöttingen) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital (political), capital of Göttingen (district), the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. At the end of 2019, t ...
but died on 6 February 1439, before his efforts in that quarter had borne fruit.
[Ott, Michael. "The Abbey of Bursfeld." The Catholic Encyclopedia]
Vol. 3. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1908. 18 October 2022
The Bursfelde Congregation
Although the monasteries reformed by him never united into a congregation, Dederoth's reforms may be looked upon as the foundation of the Bursfelde Congregation. Dederoth had intended to unite the reformed Benedictine monasteries of Northern Germany under a stricter uniformity of discipline, but the execution of his plan was left to his successor,
Johannes de Indagine
Johannes de Indagine, also known as Johannes Indaginis, John of Hagen, otherwise Johannes Bremer von Hagen (c. 1415–1475) was a German Carthusian monk, Catholic theologian and theological author.
Life
Johannes de Indagine was born in around 14 ...
.
[
In 1445 Johannes de Indagine obtained permission from the ]Council of Basel
The Council of Florence is the seventeenth ecumenical council recognized by the Catholic Church, held between 1431 and 1449. It was convoked as the Council of Basel by Pope Martin V shortly before his death in February 1431 and took place in ...
to restore the Divine Office to the original form of the old Benedictine breviary
A breviary (Latin: ''breviarium'') is a liturgical book used in Christianity for praying the canonical hours, usually recited at seven fixed prayer times.
Historically, different breviaries were used in the various parts of Christendom, such a ...
and to introduce liturgical and disciplinary uniformity in the monasteries that followed the reform of Bursfelde. A year later, on 11 March 1446, Louis d'Allemand
Louis Aleman (16 September 1450) was a French Roman Catholic cardinal and a professed member of the now-suppressed Canons Regular of Saint John Baptist. He served as the Archbishop of Arles from 1423 until his resignation in 1440 when he had re ...
, as Cardinal Legate authorized by the Council of Basel, approved the Bursfelde Congregation, which then consisted of six abbeys: Bursfelde, Clus, Reinhausen, Cismar in Schleswig-Holstein
Schleswig-Holstein (; da, Slesvig-Holsten; nds, Sleswig-Holsteen; frr, Slaswik-Holstiinj) is the northernmost of the 16 states of Germany, comprising most of the historical duchy of Holstein and the southern part of the former Duchy of Sch ...
, St. Jacob's Abbey near Mainz
Mainz () is the capital and largest city of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.
Mainz is on the left bank of the Rhine, opposite to the place that the Main (river), Main joins the Rhine. Downstream of the confluence, the Rhine flows to the north-we ...
, and Huysburg
Huysburg (; german: Kloster Huysburg) is a Order of Saint Benedict, Benedictine monastery situated on the Huy (hills), Huy hill range near Halberstadt, in the Germany, German state of Saxony-Anhalt. The Romanesque architecture, Romanesque abbey has ...
near Magdeburg
Magdeburg (; nds, label=Low Saxon, Meideborg ) is the capital and second-largest city of the German state Saxony-Anhalt. The city is situated at the Elbe river.
Otto I, the first Holy Roman Emperor and founder of the Archdiocese of Magdebur ...
. The cardinal likewise decreed that the Abbot of Bursfelde should always ex officio be one of the three presidents of the congregation, and that he should have power to convoke annual chapters. The first annual chapter of the Bursfelde Congregation convened in the Abbey of Sts. Peter and Paul at Erfurt
Erfurt () is the capital and largest city in the Central German state of Thuringia. It is located in the wide valley of the Gera river (progression: ), in the southern part of the Thuringian Basin, north of the Thuringian Forest. It sits i ...
in 1446.[
In 1451, while on his journey of reform through Germany, the ]papal legate
300px, A woodcut showing Henry II of England greeting the pope's legate.
A papal legate or apostolic legate (from the ancient Roman title ''legatus'') is a personal representative of the pope to foreign nations, or to some part of the Catholic ...
, Cardinal
Cardinal or The Cardinal may refer to:
Animals
* Cardinal (bird) or Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds
**''Cardinalis'', genus of cardinal in the family Cardinalidae
**''Cardinalis cardinalis'', or northern cardinal, the ...
Nicholas of Cusa
Nicholas of Cusa (1401 – 11 August 1464), also referred to as Nicholas of Kues and Nicolaus Cusanus (), was a German Catholic cardinal, philosopher, theologian, jurist, mathematician, and astronomer. One of the first German proponents of Renai ...
, met Johannes de Indagine at Würzburg
Würzburg (; Main-Franconian: ) is a city in the region of Franconia in the north of the German state of Bavaria. Würzburg is the administrative seat of the ''Regierungsbezirk'' Lower Franconia. It spans the banks of the Main River.
Würzburg is ...
, where the Benedictine monasteries of the Mainz-Bamberg province held their triennial provincial chapter. The legate appointed the Abbot of Bursfelde visitor for this province, and in a bull
A bull is an intact (i.e., not castrated) adult male of the species ''Bos taurus'' (cattle). More muscular and aggressive than the females of the same species (i.e., cows), bulls have long been an important symbol in many religions,
includin ...
, dated 7 June 1451, the Bursfelde Congregation was approved, and favoured with new privileges. Finally, on 6 March 1458, Pope Pius II
Pope Pius II ( la, Pius PP. II, it, Pio II), born Enea Silvio Bartolomeo Piccolomini ( la, Aeneas Silvius Bartholomeus, links=no; 18 October 1405 – 14 August 1464), was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 19 August ...
approved the statutes of the congregation and gave it all the privileges which Pope Eugene IV
Pope Eugene IV ( la, Eugenius IV; it, Eugenio IV; 1383 – 23 February 1447), born Gabriele Condulmer, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 3 March 1431 to his death in February 1447. Condulmer was a Venetian, and ...
had given to the Italian Benedictine Congregation of St. Justina since the year 1431. In 1461 this approbation was reiterated, and various new privileges granted to the congregation.
Favoured by bishops, cardinals, and popes, as well as by temporal rulers, especially the Dukes of Brunswick
The Duchy of Brunswick (german: Herzogtum Braunschweig) was a historical German state. Its capital was the city of Brunswick ().
It was established as the successor state of the Principality of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel by the Congress of Vienna ...
, the Bursfelde Congregation was influential during the second half of the fifteenth century and first half of the sixteenth century to promote reform in the Benedictine monasteries of Germany. Its members included not only all the Benedictine monasteries in Lower Saxony
Lower Saxony (german: Niedersachsen ; nds, Neddersassen; stq, Läichsaksen) is a German state (') in northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ...
, but also many in Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Denmark. At the death of Abbot Johannes de Indagine, thirty-six monasteries had already joined the Bursfelde Congregation, and new ones were being added every year. At its peak, shortly before the Reformation
The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...
, at least 136 abbeys and 64 convents,[Alston, George Cyprian. "The Benedictine Order." The Catholic Encyclopedia]
Vol. 2. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1907. 19 October 2022 scattered through all parts of Germany, belonged to the Bursfelde Congregation.
/ref>
Reformation
The religious revolution, and especially the consequent risings of the peasants in Germany, greatly retarded the progress of the Bursfelde Reform. In 1579, Andrew Lüderitz, the last abbot of Bursfelde, was driven out by the Lutheran
Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic Church launched th ...
Duke Julius of Brunswick
The gens Julia (''gēns Iūlia'', ) was one of the most prominent patrician families in ancient Rome. Members of the gens attained the highest dignities of the state in the earliest times of the Republic. The first of the family to obtain the ...
, and, after an existence of almost five hundred years, Bursfeld ceased to be a Catholic monastery. The possessions of the abbey were confiscated, and the abbot was replaced by an adherent of Luther.
About forty other Benedictine abbeys belonging to the Bursfelde Congregation were also dissolved, their possessions confiscated by Lutheran princes, and their churches demolished or turned to Protestant uses. In 1630 the Bursfelde Congregation granted the English Benedictines
English usually refers to:
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Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
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in exile the derelict buildings at Lamspringe Abbey
Lamspringe Abbey (Stift Lamspringe, later Kloster Lamspringe) is a former religious house of the English Benedictines in exile, at Lamspringe near Hildesheim in Germany.
First foundation
The foundation by Count Ricdag of the first religious hous ...
, which continued as an abbey of English monks from 1644 to 1802.[ Though greatly impeded in its work of reform, the Bursfelde Congregation continued to exist until the compulsory secularization of all its monasteries at the end of the eighteenth, and the beginning of the nineteenth, century. Its last president was Bernard Bierbaum, abbot of ]Werden Abbey
Werden Abbey (german: Kloster Werden) was a Benedictine monastery in Essen-Werden (Germany), situated on the Ruhr.
The foundation of the abbey
Near Essen Saint Ludger founded a monastery in 799 and became its first abbot. The little church w ...
in the Rhine Province, who died in 1798. The Congregation was formally abolished in 1803.
References
*Heutger, Nicholas, 1975. ''Bursfelde und seine Reformklöster'' (2nd rev. ed.). Hildesheim: August Lax.
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Benedictine congregations
Religious organizations established in the 1440s
Christian organizations established in the 15th century
1803 disestablishments in the Holy Roman Empire
Religious organizations disestablished in 1803