![Abt Rittler Portrait 1](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f2/Abt_Rittler_Portrait_1.jpg)
Princely abbeys (german: Fürstabtei, ''Fürststift'') and Imperial abbeys (german: Reichsabtei, ''Reichskloster'', ''Reichsstift'', ''Reichsgotthaus'') were religious establishments within the
Holy Roman Empire
The Holy Roman Empire was a political entity in Western, Central, and Southern Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its dissolution in 1806 during the Napoleonic Wars.
From the accession of Otto I in 962 ...
which enjoyed the status of
imperial immediacy
Imperial immediacy (german: Reichsfreiheit or ') was a privileged constitutional and political status rooted in German feudal law under which the Imperial estates of the Holy Roman Empire such as Imperial cities, prince-bishoprics and secular pri ...
(''Reichsunmittelbarkeit'') and therefore were answerable directly to the
Emperor
An emperor (from la, imperator, via fro, empereor) is a monarch, and usually the sovereignty, sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), ...
. The possession of imperial immediacy came with a unique form of territorial authority known as ''
Landeshoheit'', which carried with it nearly all the attributes of sovereignty.
Princely abbeys and imperial abbeys
The distinction between a princely abbey and an imperial abbey was related to the status of the abbot: while both prince-abbots and the more numerous imperial abbots sat on the ecclesiastical bench of the College of ruling princes of the
Imperial Diet, prince-abbots cast an individual vote while imperial abbots cast only a curial (collective) vote alongside his or her fellow imperial abbots and abbesses. Eight princely abbeys (including similar status priories) and roughly 40 imperial abbeys survived up to the
mass secularisation of 1802–03 when they were all secularized.
![Anselm Reichlin von Meldegg 18](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/13/Anselm_Reichlin_von_Meldegg_18._Jh.JPG)
The head of an Imperial abbey was generally an Imperial abbot (''Reichsabt'') or Imperial abbess (''Reichsäbtissin''). (The head of a ''Reichspropstei''—an Imperial provostry or priory—was generally a ''Reichspropst''). Collectively, Imperial abbots, provosts and priors were formally known as ''Reichsprälaten'' (Imperial Prelates). A small number of the larger and most prestigious establishments had the rank of princely abbeys (''Fürstsabtei''), and were headed by a prince-abbot or a prince-provost (''Fürstabt'', ''Fürstpropst''), with status comparable to that of
Prince-Bishops. Most however were imperial prelates and as such participated in a single collective vote in the
Imperial Diet as members of the Bench of Prelates, later (1575) divided into the Swabian College of Imperial Prelates and the Rhenish College of Imperial Prelates. Despite their difference of status within the Imperial Diet, both the Imperial Prelates and the Prince-Abbots exercised the same degree of authority over their principality.
Some abbeys, particularly in Switzerland, gained the status of princely abbeys (''Fürstsabtei'') during the Middle Ages or later but they either didn't have a territory over which they ruled or they lost that territory after a short while. This was the case with Kreuzlingen, Allerheiligen, Einsiedeln, Muri and Saint-Maurice abbeys. One major exception was the large and powerful
Abbey of St. Gall
The Abbey of Saint Gall (german: Abtei St. Gallen) is a dissolved abbey (747–1805) in a Catholic religious complex in the city of St. Gallen in Switzerland. The Carolingian-era monastery existed from 719, founded by Saint Othmar on the spot ...
which remained independent up to its dissolution during the Napoleonic period, despite the fact that, as a Swiss abbey, it had stopped taking part in the Imperial Diet and other institutions of the Holy Roman Empire once the independence of the Swiss Confederacy was recognized in 1648. Elsewhere, the Prince-Abbot of
St. Blaise's Abbey in the Black Forest held that title, not on account of the status of the abbey, which was not immediate, but because it was conferred on him by the abbey's ownership of the immediate
County of Bonndorf (later annexed to the Principality of Heitersheim of the Knights of Malta).
Lists of Imperial abbeys
List of Imperial abbeys with seat and voice at the Imperial Diet of 1792
The following list includes the Imperial abbeys which had seat and voice at the Imperial Diet of 1792. They, along with the two Teutonic Order commanderies whose commanders ranked as prelates, are listed according to their voting order on the two Benches of Prelates of the Diet.
[G. Benecke, ''Society and Politics in Germany, 1500-1750'', Routledge & Kegan Paul and University of Toronto Press, London, Toronto and Buffalo, 1974, Appendix III.] Not shown are the abbeys of Stablo, Kempten and Corvey, whose abbots had princely status and sat on the Ecclesiastical Bench of the College of Ruling Princes. For additional information on individual abbeys, see: ''List A: Imperial abbeys named in the Matrikel'' below this list.
Bench of Swabian Prelates
Bench of Rhineland Prelates
List A: Imperial abbeys named in the ''Matrikel''
The religious houses listed here as List A are those named in the ''Matrikel'', or lists of those eligible to vote in the
Imperial Diet, including those whose votes were collective rather than individual. Three of these lists survive and are accessible, from 1521, 1755 (or thereabouts) and 1792.
![Zwiefalten 1890](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1a/Zwiefalten_1890.jpg)
This list includes the Principalities, Imperial abbeys (''Reichsabteien'' and ''-klöster''), Imperial colleges (''Reichsstifte''), Imperial provostries or priories (''Reichspropsteien'') and the single Imperial
charterhouse
Charterhouse may refer to:
* Charterhouse (monastery), of the Carthusian religious order
Charterhouse may also refer to:
Places
* The Charterhouse, Coventry, a former monastery
* Charterhouse School, an English public school in Surrey
Londo ...
(''Reichskartause'').
The word "Stift", meaning a
collegiate foundation or canonry, possibly belonging to a variety of different orders or to none at all, and either with or without rules and vows, for either men ("Herrenstift") or for women (
Frauenstift), has been left untranslated, except when it specifically refers to the
chapter of a church.
![Germania benedictina](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a1/Germania_benedictina.jpg)
Some of the imperial abbeys were dissolved during 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 ...
; others were absorbed into other territories at various times in the general course of political life. Those in
Alsace
Alsace (, ; ; Low Alemannic German/ gsw-FR, Elsàss ; german: Elsass ; la, Alsatia) is a cultural region and a territorial collectivity in eastern France, on the west bank of the upper Rhine next to Germany and Switzerland. In 2020, it had ...
and
Switzerland passed out of the Empire in 1648, when Alsace was ceded to France and Switzerland became independent. The great majority of these religious bodies however were secularized during the brief period that included the
French Revolution
The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in coup of 18 Brumaire, November 1799. Many of its ...
, the
Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...
, and their aftermath, especially as a result of the
German mediatization (''Reichsdeputationshauptschluss'') of February 1803. Any that survived lost their Imperial status when the Holy Roman Empire was wound up in 1806.
Abbreviations
* Description and Imperial status column:
** RA stands for ''Reichsabtei'' (Imperial abbey)
** RF stands for "Reichsfürstentum" (Imperial Principality)
** RP stands for "Reichspropstei" (Imperial provostry)
* Lost imm. column:
** imm. Imperial immediacy
** Sec. secularised
** Med. mediatised
** Switz. Switzerland
** Hel. Helvetic Republic
* College column:
** RC stands for "Rhenish College"
** SC stands for "Swabian College"
** RF stands for "Reichsfürst", i.e., the head of the house in question had an individual seat and voice in the Imperial Diet; there were ten of these (Fulda, Kempten, Ellwangen, Murbach-Lüders, Berchtesgaden, Weissenburg, Prüm, Stablo-Malmedy, Corvey and St. Gall).
List B: ''Reichsmatrikel'' 1521
The ''Matrikel'' of 1521 included a number of religious houses which have not been identified:
Inclusion in the 1521 ''Reichsmatrikel'' is not by itself conclusive evidence that a particular religious house was in fact an Imperial abbey, and the status of the following abbey listed in the ''Matrikel'' is questionable in the absence of further confirmation from other sources:
List C: Imperial abbeys not named in the ''Matrikel''
For a variety of reasons a quantity of religious houses that possessed, or claimed, the status of Imperial immediacy either did not attend the Imperial Diet, or were not listed in the surviving Matrikel. The following list is very far from complete, and possibly some of those listed may not in fact have been immediate (''reichsunmittelbar'').
References and notes
Bibliography
In
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
**Ge ...
:
* Matthäi, George, 1877: ''Die Klosterpolitik Kaiser Heinrichs II. Ein Beitrag zur *Geschichte der Reichsabteien''. Grünberg i.Schl.
* Brennich, Max, 1908: ''Die Besetzung der Reichsabteien in den Jahren 1138–1209''. Greifswald.
* Polzin, Johannes: ''Die Abtswahlen in den Reichsabteien von 1024–1056''.
* Riese, Heinrich, 1911: ''Die Besetzung der Reichsabteien in den Jahren 1056–1137''.
* Feierabend, Hans, 1913, repr. 1971: ''Die politische Stellung der deutschen Reichsabteien während des Investiturstreites''. Breslau 1913; Aalen 1971
* Wehlt, Hans-Peter, 1970: ''Reichsabtei und König''
* Vogtherr, Thomas, 2000: ''Die Reichsabteien der Benediktiner und das Königtum im hohen Mittelalter'' (900–1125) (Mittelalter-Forschungen, vol. 5)
External links
Reichstag participants 1521, c. 1755 and 1792, on Heraldica website
1521 Reichsmatrikel
* Sarah Hadry: Reichsstifte
mperial Abbeys In: Historisches Lexikon Bayerns
Onlineversion* Sarah Hadry: Reichsprälatenkollegium
ouncil of Imperial Abbeys In: Historisches Lexikon Bayerns
Onlineversion
{{Authority control
Imperial abbeys
Princely abbeys (german: Fürstabtei, ''Fürststift'') and Imperial abbeys (german: Reichsabtei, ''Reichskloster'', ''Reichsstift'', ''Reichsgotthaus'') were religious establishments within the Holy Roman Empire which enjoyed the status of imp ...
Abbeys
An abbey is a type of monastery used by members of a religious order under the governance of an abbot or abbess. Abbeys provide a complex of buildings and land for religious activities, work, and housing of Christian monks and nuns.
The conc ...
History of Swabia
Former enclaves