HANOVER
129
HANOVER
Benedictine rule and the confined views of the cloister,
to freedom of motion; but which, moreover, grad-
ually infused its spirit into bishops and secular clergy
and forced them to take a political attitude funda-
mentally different from that which they had hitherto
held. The literary and artistic activity of this time
was purely religious and was notably conspicuous
m monasteries and episcopal cities. Widukind, a
monk of the Abbey of Corvey, published, in 967,
an historical work on the fortunes and achievements
of the Saxon race from its origin down to the days
of Otto the Great. Hroswitha, the nun of Ganders-
heun (d. about 1002), wrote several dramatic and
other poems. Much more brilliant and many-sided
were the achievements of Christian art, especially of
architecture, calligraphy, and metal work, whose
grandest creations were inspired by Bernward of
Hildesheim, and bear the impress of royal magnifi-
cence and deep religious sentiment. They may be
looked upon as the finest products of the truly Chris-
tian spirit which in the tenth and eleventh centuries
pervaded Europe.
The steady growth of power and wealth in the Church, since the beginning of the twelfth century introduced an ever increasing spirit of worldliness. liven the austerity that emanated from Cluny did not suffice to check it, inasmuch as it was fostered by the Crusades. However, both spiritual and tem- poral powers sought to stop this decay. The mo- nastic orders themselves repeatedly attempted to reform the monastic and ecclesiastical abuses, and this was done especially by the newly founded Premon- stratensian and Cistercian Orders in the twelfth cen- tury. The former founded in Hanover two excellent centres for their activities at Pohlde and Ilfeld- but the latter established more than eighteen: at Walken- ried, Amelungsborn, Mariental near Helmstedt, Rid- dagshausen, Michaelstein near Halberstadt, Lokkum St. Mary s Convent at Osterode, Wibrechtshausen Bischofsrode, Mariensee or Isensee, Woltingerode Neuwerk zu Goslar, Heiligkreuz near Brunswick! Wienhausen and Isenhagen, Altenmedingen, and several other places. From these points of vantage monks and nuns most efficiently promoted educa- tion and culture Besides introducing rational meth- ods of husbandry, they fostered learning and the minor arts erected churches, and produced liturgical vessels and vestments that challenge our admiration to this day To the progress due to these causes the Church in Hanover owed the dominant position it held since the fourteenth centurv, which had its sure material foundations in the donations and gifts both of money and property of every kind, offered to the uu\u^ ^t^ "*y; ^^ pre-eminent examples of wealth thus bestowed, as well as of its wise adminis- tration, we may cite the cathedral of Hildesheim, the Abbey of Walkenried, St. Michael's Convent near Luneburg, and even such less prominent institutions as the Martinikirche m Brunswick, the hospital of ^^,^°'y Ghost at Hanover; and there were others Ihe Church now attained the summit of her power, mfluence^ and prestige. While the disinte- gration of the Empire was affecting all its ancient institutions while the administrative affairs of the State were bordering on anarchy, the Church was the sole immovable bulwark of the country, the onlv thing permanent amid the changes and revolution of lallev"^?'th TT^"" "^'"*' country, throughout the Ind hI ^ Ecker, near the Brocken, over Elend 7ol? w.f f ' ^T "^"T ^"^ ^'""g *he valley of the for fn!:, n found her chapels of succour, her hospices worsMn w'h ^^h^^P'tall' infirmaries, and houses of 7Zt^' .where the wretched could find shelter and
and nnrlf'" t\T^ """^ *^ '"^^d ^ere taken in and nursed To the persecuted she afforded protec-
Dotk^""? "" °^ > "i ^^^ powerful, against tL des- potism of princes and the aggressions oFthe nobility
by using the numerous and effective means of punish-
ment at her disposal. When the abuse of her tern-
poral power and wealth threatened to destroy her
the Church twice reformed herself before the Lutheran
revolt. Ihe first time was during the thirteenth
century through the instrumentality of the Domin-
icans and Franciscans; and again, during the fifteenth
century, by means of the reform movement led by the
Brethren of the Common Life under Johannes Busch
of Zwolle U437-79), which had its origin in the Dutch
Abbey of Windesheim. Busch, one of the chief cham-
pions of the internal reform movement, laboured with
most signal success in Hanover, first in Wittenburg
and Neuwerk and then in the Sultenkloster near
Hildesheim. With the help of friends sympathizing
with his aims he thoroughly reorganized, from this
place, most of the monasteries of Lower Saxony and
revived their discipline and religious zeal.
This revival, however, was confined almost entirely to the religious orders, while the secular clergv especially the high dignitaries, became more and more corrupt. This paved the way for the revolt against the Church, which convulsed Germany under the lead of Martin Luther in the sixteenth century, resulting in a last^mg schism and the division of the country into two hostile camps. Favoured by the interna'l dis- sensions called the Stifts/chde and supported by the burghers, Luther's innovations found ready en- trance at first among the lower classes, then spread through the larger cities amid more or less tumultu- ous noting, and finally gained the ascendancy even in the country, when the reigning house in all its branches embraced the new doctrines. Duke Ernest of Brunswick-Luneburg, in 1529, and Duke Julius of Brunswick-Wolfenbuttel, in 1545, reorganized eccle- siastical affairs along Lutheran lines. In this they were not actuated by religious motives but by a desire to extend their possessions. The establishment of the Protestant Church administration threw a great part of the possessions and the revenue of ecclesiastical property and of the abbeys into the princely ex- chequer. This, of course, increased their influence on the religious views of their Church. Hanover had become almost entirely Protestant by about the middle c *he sixteenth century. Only the episcopal chapter 1 ^noesheim and a few abbeys held out against the Reformation in that diocese, until Bishop Ernest II of Bavaria (1573-1612) improved the situation somewhat by mviting the Jesuits to Hildesheim. In Osnabruck the see was even occupied by Protestant sympathizers, until here also the Jesuits, who were summoned in 1624 by Eitel Frederick of Hohenzolleru, effected a tardy improvement.
The conversion, in 1651, of John Frederick, who was Duke of Calenberg-Grubenhagen from 1665 to 1679, and resided at Hanover, led to the establish- ment of several new mission parishes in the electorate. He organized the Catholic congregations in Hanover, Hameln, and Gottingen, from Catholic newcomers and numerous converts. Ernest Augustus I his successor (1679-169S), who annexed Celle, made a compact with the emperor, guaranteeing to Catholics the right to practise their religion in the aforesaid places and in Celle. But it was only when liberty of worship was accorded at the beginning of the eigh- tee.nth century, and freedom of settlement was per- mitted towards its middle, that numerous new Cath- olic parishes were established. Until the reorganiza- tion of church affairs after the secularization of 1803 the country belonged to the Vicariate Apostolic of Lower Saxony and the North. By the circumscrip- tion Bull of Pope Leo XII, " Impensa Romanorum " 26 August, 1824, the Kingdom of Hanover was di- vided between the Bishoprics of Hildesheim and Osnabriick, the revenues of the church regulated, the rules laid down for the election of bishops, and the limits of parishes and succursals fixed. The agree-
