Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 5.djvu/421

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EICHSTATT


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EICHSTATT


1057) he was friendly to reforms, an extremely ener- getic man, and saintly in his life. Had he lived longer he would have taken rank among the greatest of the popes; he died in 1057 at the age of thirty-nine. Bishops Eberhard I (1099-1112), Ulrich II (1112- 1125), Gebhard II (1125-1149), and Otto (11S2-1195) vigorously inaugurated reforms that were perfected and confirmed in the diocesan synod of 11S6. A sim- ilar activity was displayed Ijy Bishops Henry IV (1246-1259), Reimboto (1279-1297), and Philipp von Rathsamshausen ( 1306-1322) . The last-named was a prolific writer, patron of the cathedral school, and by synods tried to raise clergy and people to a higher level. Berthold (1354-1365), a HohenzoUer by birth, built the Willibaldsburg, provided for the material welfare of the clergy, and protected them against the attacks of laity, nobility, and princes (Constitutio Ber- tholdiana). On all sides we meet with evidence of his regulating and stimulating zeal (Synodal statutes of 1354).

The Western Scliism left its traces on the diocese. Bishop Johann III von Eich (1446-1464), a saintly man, tlid all in his power to efface them. He reformed the monasteries, organized the instruction of the clergy, issued pastoral directions, protected vigor- ously the property of the Church, and attracted to Eichstatt a number of scholars (among them the Humanist .'Ubert of Eyb). Having been, before his election, chancellor of the emperor and his representa- tive at the Council of Basle, he continued as bishop to serve the State on diplomatic missions of great impor- tance. Thus, he represented the emperor in the con- gress of princes which Pius II called at Mantua. His friend and successor, Wilhelm von Reichenau (1464- 1496), the tutor of Maximilian I, was a statesman, dip- lomat, and patron of the fine arts, but also a bishop who walked in the footsteps of his predecessor and left after him the memory of a brilliant administration. In 14S0 he made a visitation of the whole diocese. The original records of this visitation, the oldest thus far known, are still extant, and give us an interesting picture of religious life in the Middle Ages, in which, however, there are not lacking deep shadows. His successors, the cultured Gabriel von Eyb (1496-1535) and tlie noble Moritz von Hutten (1539-1552), were men who fully understood the critical situation and set themselves against the perilous innovations of their time, but they could not prevent the imperial cities of Nuremberg and Weissenburg, the margraves of Ans- bach and the palgraves of the Rhine, from annexing a large part of the territory of the diocese in order to re- store their finances by means of church property, and from forcing the people to apostatize. Bishop Moritz gathered about him men of ability (Vitus von Amraer- bach, Cochlaeus), and convoked (1548) a diocesan sy- nod whose records exhibit the spreading spiritual desolation.

Bishop Martin von Schaumberg (1560-1590) founded the first Tridentine seminary (1564) one year after the close of the council, and secured for it excellent teachers (Robert Turner, Peter Stewart, Frederick Staphylus). Bishop Konrad von Gemmin- gen (1593-1612) rebuilt the Williljaldsburg, founded the " Hortus Eystettensis", a garden well known to all European botanists, ordered frequent visitations of the diocese, and embellished the cathedral with pre- cious j ewels. Bishop Christoph Johann von Westerstet- ten (1612-1636) invited the Jesuits to Eichstatt, built a magnificent (Renaissance) church for them, and committed the episcopal seminary to their care. In 1634 the Swedes reduced almost the whole episcopal city to ashes, but it soon rose to new splendovir under the long and prosperous reign of Bishop Marquard II (1636-1685), a scion of the family of Schenk von Cas- tell. He reorganizerl the ecclesiastical and secular administration of the diocese, won part of its territory (in the Upper Palatinate) back to Catholicism, and


was for years imperial plenipotentiary at the diets and eminent as a diplomat.

The eighteenth century brought peace and pros- perity, and many a magnificent structure in city and diocese rose under the gifted prince-bishops of those days (residence and garden, the fountains called Marienbrunnen and Willibaldsbrunnen, castle of Hirschberg, monastery of Notre-Dame). Bishop Raymund Anton, Count of Strassoldo (1757-1781), prepared for his clergy the well-known " Instructio Pastoralis", a book of pastoral direction, which in its latest (fifth) edition (Freiburg im Breisgau, 1902) is even yet much admired. The "secularization" (1803) robbed the Bishop of Eichstatt of his ancient secular authority, but the diocese remained and was reorganized by the Bull of circumscription of 1821. Cardinal Karl August von Reisach (Bishop of Eich- statt, 1835-1846) renewed its ecclesiastical and relig- ious life, opened the seminary for boys (1838) and the lyceum (1844), with a philosophical and a theological faculty, and in union with Joseph Ernst (d. 1869), presi- dent (Regens) of the latter institution, breathed into it the true spirit of the Church, a spirit which since then has never failed. Bishop Georg von Oettl (1847- 1866) and his successor, Franz Leopold von Leonrod (1867-1905), faithfully continued and completed the work begun by Reisach. The conditions of the dio- cese are as well regulated as is possible; its people are solidly grounded in the Faith, while the learning, life, and labours of the clergy are considered exemplary throughout Germany.

The diocese is rich in monuments of ecclesiastical architecture and art. The Gothic cathedral exhibits many excellent works of art from the fourteenth to the eighteenth century; especially noteworthy is its ?nor- tuarium. The Gothic church of Our Lady in Ingol- stadt and the conventual chm-ches of Kaste (Roman- esque) and Freystadt (Renaissance) are important monuments. Among ecclesiastical artists may be mentioned: Hans Paur (fifteenth century), Hans Pild- schnitzer (fifteenth century), Loy Hering (sixteenth century), Gabriel de Gabrielis (seventeenth-eighteenth century), Ignaz Breitenauer (eighteenth century). In the Middle Ages Eichstatt possessed a flourishingcathe- dral school dating from the time of St. Willibald. Mostly with ecclesiastical funds and through the zeal of Wilhelm von Reichenau, the University of Ingol- stadt was founded in 1472. Many of its professors became famous. Among its theologians are Johann Eck, P. Canisius, Gregory of Valencia, Salmeron, Jacob Gretser; among its canonists: Reiffenstuel, Pir- hing, Schmalzgrueber; among its jurists, Wiguleus Kreittmayr, Ad. Ickstatt; among its philosophers, scientists, and mathematicians: Johann Reuchlin, Conrad Celtes, Christoph Scheiner, Caspar Scioppius, Philipp and Petrus Apian, Fuchs Leonhard, and others. Early in the nineteenth century the univer- sity was transferred to Landshut, thence to Munich.

The most important monastery of the diocese in olden times was the Benedictine abbey founded by St. Willibald in 740 and out of which grew the diocese. At the end of the tenth century it became the cathe- dral chapter with secular canons. Heidenheim was at first a double monastery, founded by St. Willibald; it was changed (800) to a chapter of canons; later it be- came again a Benedictine monastery. Before the change the monks moved to Herrieden and erected there, under Abljot Dietker and through the benevo- lence of Charlemagne, a new monastery, which was changed to a chapter of canons in 888 and secularized in 1804. The nuns moved from Heidenheim to Mon- heim, taking with them some of the relics of St. Wal- burga, which were lost in the "secularization" of the sixteenth century. St. Walburg (Benedictine nuns) in Eichstatt (founded 870) was endowed in 1035 by Count Leodegar and reorganized by Bisliop Ileribert. It is yet flourishing despite its temporary seculariza-