Wigbold von Holte (died 26 March 1304) was

Archbishop of Cologne The Archbishop of Cologne is an archbishop governing the Archdiocese of Cologne of the Catholic Church in western North Rhine-Westphalia and is also a historical state in the Rhine holding the birthplace of Beethoven and northern Rhineland-Palati ...

from 1297 to 1304 .

Election

After the death of Archbishop Siegfried II von Westerburg in

Bonn The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr r ...

on 7 April 1297 the nobility and clergy gathered to select a new archbishop of Cologne in

Neuss Neuss (; spelled ''Neuß'' until 1968; li, Nüss ; la, Novaesium) is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located on the west bank of the Rhine opposite Düsseldorf. Neuss is the largest city within the Rhein-Kreis Neuss district. It ...

, as Cologne was still under an

interdict In Catholic canon law, an interdict () is an ecclesiastical censure, or ban that prohibits persons, certain active Church individuals or groups from participating in certain rites, or that the rites and services of the church are banished from ...

.Keussen 1897, p. 459 King Adolf of Nassau was also present. Count Eberhard von der Mark urged the election of Wigbold, because Eberhard's son, Engelbert, was married to Wigbold's niece, Mechtilde von Aremberg. When he was duly elected as archbishop of Cologne in May 1297 by the chapter of

Cologne Cathedral Cologne Cathedral (german: Kölner Dom, officially ', English: Cathedral Church of Saint Peter) is a Catholic cathedral in Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia. It is the seat of the Archbishop of Cologne and of the administration of the Archdiocese of ...

, of which he was already a member as

dean Dean may refer to: People * Dean (given name) * Dean (surname), a surname of Anglo-Saxon English origin * Dean (South Korean singer), a stage name for singer Kwon Hyuk * Dean Delannoit, a Belgian singer most known by the mononym Dean Titles * ...

, he was already described as an old man ("senis confracti"). Adolf of Nassau however valued his diplomatic skill, and therefore supported his election. In 1298 Wigbold received the

pallium The pallium (derived from the Roman ''pallium'' or ''palla'', a woolen cloak; : ''pallia'') is an ecclesiastical vestment in the Catholic Church, originally peculiar to the pope, but for many centuries bestowed by the Holy See upon metropolit ...

from

Pope Boniface VIII Pope Boniface VIII ( la, Bonifatius PP. VIII; born Benedetto Caetani, c. 1230 – 11 October 1303) was the head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 24 December 1294 to his death in 1303. The Caetani, Caetani family was of b ...

Career as archbishop

Well-schooled in worldly and intellectual studies, Wigbold was mostly occupied in minimising the political damage resulting from the defeat at the

Battle of Worringen The Battle of Worringen was fought on 5 June 1288 near the town of Worringen (also spelled Woeringen), which is now the northernmost borough of Cologne. It was the decisive battle of the War of the Limburg Succession, fought for the possession o ...

of his predecessor by the

Counts of the Mark The County of Mark (german: Grafschaft Mark, links=no, french: Comté de La Marck, links=no colloquially known as ) was a county and state of the Holy Roman Empire in the Lower Rhenish–Westphalian Circle. It lay on both sides of the Ruhr River ...

. He had the reputation of loving money above all else, and was suspected of

simony Simony () is the act of selling church offices and roles or sacred things. It is named after Simon Magus, who is described in the Acts of the Apostles as having offered two disciples of Jesus payment in exchange for their empowering him to imp ...

. He died on 26 March 1304 in Soest, where he is buried.

Family

Wigbold's sister

Beatrix von Holte Beatrix von Holte (1250 – 4 December 1327 in Essen) was the Abbess of Essen Abbey Essen Abbey (''Stift Essen'') was a community of secular canonesses for women of high nobility that formed the nucleus of modern-day Essen, Germany. It ...

was abbess of

Essen Abbey Essen Abbey (''Stift Essen'') was a community of secular canonesses for women of high nobility that formed the nucleus of modern-day Essen, Germany. It was founded about 845 by the Saxon Altfrid (died 874), later Bishop of Hildesheim and saint, ...

References

Sources and external links

* 13th-century births 1304 deaths Year of birth unknown Wigbold 01 Wigbold 01 14th-century Roman Catholic archbishops in the Holy Roman Empire Cathedral deans of Cologne {{RC-archbishop-stub