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 REICHENAU

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REICHENSBEROER

profession. Those who have taken simple vows in the Society of Jesus are also regulars in the proper sense according to the Constitution "Ascendente" of Gregory XIII. Writers are not all agreed on the question whether the religious of other orders can properly be called regulars before solemn profession. The novices of religious orders are regulars only in the wider meaning of the word.

A. Vekmeersch.

Reicbenau, called AtJoiA dives in medieval Latin MSS. and possessing a once celebrated Benedictine monastery, is an island upon the Gnadensee (Untersee) of the Lake of Constance, about one mile in breadth and about three and three-quarter miles long. It belongs to Baden, and has 1600 Catholic inhabitants, princi- pally \antagers and fishermen, distributed among three villages, Oberzell, Mittelzell, and Unterzell (or Niederzell). Since 1838 the island has been connected with the mainland by a dam, one and a quarter miles in length, and with the railroad station of Reiche- nau (via Constance). There is a caUing station for steamers on the southern shore. The word "Zell" (cell) in the names of the three villages of Reichenau indicates the existence of a monastery on the island, which was the "reiche Aue" (the fertile islet) of medieval culture. Under the protection and at the suggestion of Charles Mantel, the Anglo-Saxon (?), Saint Pirmin founded, with the co-operation of Count Berthold and the Alemannian Duke Santfrid I (Nebi), the famous Benedictine monastery of Reichenau, which in earlier times, until the tenth century, bore the name of Sintleosesau (Sintlas Ow). Reichenau had attained its full glory when the Abbey of St. Gall was still comparatively unimportant. In spite of St. Pirmin's banishment from his monastery through the political machinations of the Alemannian prince, Reichenau soon recovered its importance. His im- mediate successor. Abbot Heddo (727-34), later Bishop of Strasburg, shared the fate of the founder. The growth of Reichenau was greatly fostered by its position on the highway to Italy, wtiich was fre- quented by Greek and Italian, and even Irish and Icelandic pilgrims and wayfarers. These became guests at the monastery and enriched it with gifts of precious relics, some of which are still preserved in the church treasury. Among other relics was one of special value, a cross with the blood of Christ, which was said to have been brought by an Arabian named Hassan to Charlemagne, and to have been confided to the custody of Reichenau in 925. The monastery also gloried in the possession of relics of St. Mark, brought to Reichenau from Venice in 830. On his homeWard journey from St. Maurice with the relics of St. Maurice and other saints. Bishop Ulrich of Augsburg stayed at Reichenau, and, at the petition of Abbot Alewich (934-58), gave a large portion of the relics of Saint Maurice to the monastery [cf. Schmid, "St. Ulrich, Bischof von Augsburg (890-973)", Augsburg, 1901, p. 28). Bishop Egino of Verona re- sided in Reichenau, and built (799) the parish church of St. Peter at Niederzell, a small Roman basilica with two towers, whither he retired to lead the life of a hermit, dying in 802. His monument still exists. The property of the monastery was composed prin- cipally of donations made by Charlemagne, Louis the Pious, Charles the Fat (who is interred at Reichenau in the monastery church of Mittelzell), and many other German kings and emperors, especially of the House of Otto. The consequence of these royal favours was the rapid growth of the monastery in importance, being granted successively immunity from secular authority, jurisdidio fori the status of a principality of the empire, and complete exemption from episcopal jurisdiction.

Reichenau displayed its greatest lustre in the first centuries after its foundation (especially between the

ninth and the middle of the thirteenth centuries), during which it discharged its great work of civiliza- tion The men most prominent for scholarship and ability during this period laboured at Reichenau — e. g. Walfrid Strabo (839^9); Hatto (891-913), from 891 Archbishop of Mainz; Berno (1008-48), appointed by Emperor Henry II successor of the uncultured Abbot Immo, who had been thrust upon the monas- tery by the same emperor; St. Meinrad (Meynrad), Count of ZoUern (d. 861), the hermit and founder of Maria-Einsiedeln, who came from the mona.stery of Reichenau; moreover, Hermann Contractus (d. 1054), the acute scholar and historiographer, author of the Salve Regina. The last was a relative of St. Ulrich. These and other scholars laboured at Reichenau and formed the famous Reichenau library and school of painters (Codex Egbert!) . The Reiche- nau school of painting is seen at its best even to- day in the single extant work of the tenth century — the eight pictures on the upper part of the walls of the little Roman basiUcan parish church (St. Georgs- kirche) at Oberzell — and in the paintings on the walls of the church of St. Peter at Niederzell, which belong to the first half of the eleventh century, and were dis- covered by Kilnstle and Begerle in 1901 (consult Kiinstle, "Die Kiinst des Klosters Reichenau im IX. und X. Jahrhundert," Freiburg, 1906). As a con- sequence of its prosperity, laxity and decay came upon the monastery, and caused its incorporation with the Diocese of Constance in 1541. The bishops of Con- stance thus became commendatory abbots, and the personnel of the monastery was reduced to twelve monks (inclusive of the prior) and a small number of novices. In 1757 the few remaining monks were forcibly removed to other monasteries, and the novitiate abolished. Members of neighbouring mon- asteries performed the religious services at Reichenau until the monastery was secularized in 1802.

Oesterley, Histor.-geograph. WUrterblich des deutschen Mittel- alters (Gotha. 1881), 554-55; Wattenbach. Deulschtands Ge- schichtsquellen im Mittelaller, I (7th ed., Berlin, 1904), 277 sqq., 439 sqq.; BoTTlcHER, Germania sacra (Leipzig, 1875), 1208 sqq. The entire literature dealing with Reichenau and its school of painters may be obtained in Bddische Bibliotkek. II. Landes- u, Volkskunde (Karlsruhe, 1901), 604-09.

Ulrich Schmid.

Reichensberger, August, politician and author, b. at Coblenz, 22 March, 1808; d. at Cologne, 16 July, 1895. He studied jurisprudence at Bonn, Heidelberg, and Berlin (1827-30), entered the Prus- sian civil service as auscultator (1830), travelled through France (1833) and Italy (1839-40), became counsel in the land court at Cologne (1841) and Trier (1844), visited England (1846), became chamber- president in the land court (1848) and counsel of appeal (1849) at Cologne until his retirement from civil service in 1875. Except for the interval 1863- 70, he was actively engaged as a parliamentarian from 1848 to 1885, in the Frankfort Parliament, Prussian National Assembly, and Erfurt Volkshaus. From 1851 to 1863 he was a member of the Prussian Second Chamber, being one of the founders and in- fluential leader of the Catholic party. Elected dele- gate to the Second Chamber for three districts, he chose Coblenz as his constituency (1870-3); he represented Cologne (1879-85) and was a member of the Reich- stag (1871-84). Co-founder of the Centre, tireless in his attention to parliamentary duties, and ex- ercising a beneficent influence over his party, though Windthorst was the actual leader, Reichensberger was highly esteemed as an orator even by his political opponents. Though a sceptic in his youth, he re- turned to the Faith, deeply impressed by the im- prisonment of Archbishop Clemens August (1837). He took an active share in the Catholic movement, was one of the founders of the Borromaeus Society (1848), keenly interested in the budding Catholic press, presided at the Catholic Congress of Cologne