Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 3.djvu/41

 BRUNSWICK

19

BRUNSWICK

sources of information and, in spite of occasional omissions, gives a vivid picture of the times from the

fwiiiit of view of an interested contemporary. The etters of the Saxon bishops and other original docu- ments wbiofa he includes in his history give an added value to the work. The text of the ''De Hello Saxonico" is given in the "Monum. Germ. Hist." (Pertz, Hanover, 1848), V. 327-384. A German translation, with an introduction, was published by W. Wattenbach (Berlin, 1853). For an extended, though not unbiased, history of the time, cf. Stenzel, "Geschichte Deutschlands unter den frankischen Kaisern" (Leipzig, 1827).

W \ i tf.nbach. Deutschlamls Gfsc/iichtsguellen (fith ed., Ber- lin, 1893), II, S6-88.

Hi \ky M. Brock.

Brunswick (Braunschweig), a duchy situated in the mountainous central part of Northern Ger- many, comprising the region of the Harz mountains. Territorially the duchy is not a unit, but parcelled into three large, and six smaller, sections. Moth in extent of territory and in population it ranks tenth among the confederated states of the ( Serman Empire. The inhabitants are of the Lower Saxon race. The census of 1900 enumerated 404.333 in- habitants. Of these 432,570 were Lutherans, 4400 Reformed, 24,175 Catholics, and 1S24 Jews. The Government is a constitutional monarchy, hereditary in the male line of the House of Brunswick-Luneburg. The elder line having become extinct in 1SS4 by the death of Duke Wilhelm, the younger line, repre- sented by the Duke of Cumberland, should have succeeded to the throne. For political reasons, how- ever, Prussia objected to his taking possession, and by decree of the Bundesrat he was excluded. The present regent, chosen by the legislature, is Duke Johann Aibrecht of Mecklenburg. Agriculture, industries, and commerce are highly developed in the duchy. It is stated that the first potatoes raised in Germany were planted in Brunswick from five of the tubers brought to Europe by Francis Drake. The town Brunswick (Brim/mix incus, Bruno's village), which has given its name to the duchy, was founded in the second half of the ninth century. The country was part of the allodial lands of Henry the Lion. After his defeat and exile in 1180, he lost all his possessions. Brunswick, however, was restored to his grandson Otto, who was made first Duke of Brunswick by Frederick II. In the fourteenth century the town became a centre of the Hanseatic League, as well as of the confederation of the Lower Saxon towns.

Christianity dates from Charlemagne's conquest of the Saxon country of which Brunswick is a part. Charlemagne found and destroyed an ancient Ger- man idol in the place where now Brunswick stands. At Kissenbriick many of the conquered Saxons were baptized. During the Middle Ages the country was partly under the jurisdiction of the Diocese of Ilal- berstadt, partly under that of Hiklesheim. At the end of the eighth and the beginning of the ninth century St. Ludger laboured in the neighbourhood of Helmstedt, ulnae he founded a monastery. The pious Duke of Eastphalia and his devout wife founded, in 852, the monastery of Brunshausen. near Gandersheim, for Benedictine nuns, where his daughter Hathumod was first abbess. It was her brother Bruno who some years later founded the town of Brunswick. When, in 881, the church and monastery of Gandersheim were completed, the community was transferred thither, under the abbe Gerberga, sister of Hathumod. This monastery reached its highest point of prosperity in the tenth century. as is shown by the life of llrotswitha, the celebrated "nun of Gandersheim", who s;m» the praises of Otto the Great and wrote Latin comedie after the manner of Terence. Other Benedictine

monasteries founded in the eleventh and twelfth centuries were Steterburg, Lutter, and Clus. The great Cistercian Order also flourished in Brunswick. The three monasteries of Amelungsborn, Marienthal, and Riddaghausen were founded in the twelfth century. The Augustinians also had a monastery for men and one for women at Helmstedt.

In the town of Brunswick religion flourished from an early period. Among tin' older monasteries should be mentioned St. Blasius and St. Cyriacus, also the Benedictine monastery built in honour of Si. Autor, whose relics were brought from Trier, and who became the patron saint of the town. In the twelfth century Henry the Lion did much for his town of Brunswick. He rebuilt some monas- teries and erected several churches. The Franciscans made a foundation in the town in the thirteenth, the Dominicans, early in the fourteenth, century. The town also possessed several hospitals and Beguinages. .Mention must here be made of the great reform of monasteries which was wrought in North Germany in the fifteenth century. The celebrated reformer of monasteries, Johannes Busch, canon regular of Windesheim, extended his benefi- cent labours to Brunswick. The Benedictine Con- gregation of Bursfeld, which at the end of the fif- teenth century counted 142 monasteries, may be said to have sprung from the monastery of Clus near Gan- dersheim. (See I'' 1 i.'sfeld.)

With regard to the religious revolution of the sixteenth century it will be necessary to consider the town of Brunswick separately. It was a proud and rich town and had long sought to make itself independent of the authority of its dukes. Hence the revolutionary doctrines of (he Reformers were readily accepted by the townsmen. Lutheranism was introduced as early as 1521, and firmly estab- lished by Bugenhagen in 1528, not without ruthless fanaticism. In the country, however, Duke Henry's authority prevailed, and the Reformers gained no foothold until 1542, when, owing to the victory of the Smalkaldic League, the duke fell into captivity, Bugenhagen was recalled, and the external observ- ance of the new religion was forced upon the people with much violence and cruelty. When Henry re- covered his duchy, in 1547. he re-established the Cath- olic religion. His son and successor made the whole district Lutheran, and it has since remained a Protes- tant stronghold. Duke Julius did not destroy all the monasteries, but allowed many of them to persist as so-called Protestant convents. Among these was

the once celebrated Gandersheim which was only sed during the general spoliation and seculari- zation of 1802. Prominent among the Dukes of Brunswick in post-Reformation limes is Anton I'lrich, said to have been the mosl learned prince of his time, a patron of the arts and sciences, himself a poet, and a student of the early lathers. He took a lively interest in the movemenf for the reconcilia- tion of the Protestant sects with the Church, the same movement with which Leibniz was identified. Early in 1710 the duke abjured Protestantism and

a few months later published his "fifty Re Why the Catholic Church is Preferable to Pi tantism". (See Pass, Convertiten, IX.) Two of In- daughters followed him into the Catholic Church. I In- only result of his conversion so far as the duchy

was concerned was his erection of two Catholic

churches, one in Brunswick, the other in Wolfen-

buttel. to which according to his desire Franciscan Fathers were appointed.

Pope Gregory N\ I placed (lie Catholics of the Duchy of Brunswick under the jurisdiction of the

Bishop of Bildesheim. They are merely tolerated

in the duchy. The Constitution of 1S32. it is true.

granted liberty of conscience and the right of public worship, but subjected all churches to the "super-