On the History of the Parish Priests of Tirol

Appendix.

History.

Some Parish Priests of Tirol. 1/3

The parish of Tirol, once also called the princely prelacy, encompasses in addition to the village and the ancient princely seat or main castle of Tirol, the town of Meran and the municipality of Riffian, totaling 4,156 souls. 1) It is also noteworthy because among its parish priests, besides many cathedral capitulars, it counts several bishops: namely five on the episcopal see of Chur, to which it originally belonged; two, almost three on that of Brixen, to which it was provisionally assigned in 1808, and one on that of Trent, to which it has belonged since 1818.

Ulrich Putsch, born in Donauwörth in Swabia, chancellor of Duke and territorial prince Frederick IV or of the Empty Pocket, canon of Trent and Brixen, was parish priest at St. John the Baptist in Tirol and archdeacon in the Vinschgau at least before the year 1419. In that year, on the 22nd day of the autumn month, the Passeier lake broke out and completely destroyed the hospital near Meran founded by Count of Tirol, Duke Meinhard II, in 1271. In the year 1427, around the feast of All Saints, Ulrich was elected Bishop of Brixen. On 19 January 1428 he received papal confirmation, and subsequently in the church of San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice the episcopal consecration. After various adverse fortunes, he died suddenly on 29 August 1437.

Leonhard Wiesmayr from the Archdiocese of Salzburg, Doctor of Canon Law, chancellor of Archduke Sigmund, canon of Chur and Brixen, was appointed parish priest in Tirol in the year 1446. On 8 June of the same year, the bishop-elect of Trent, Theobald von Wolkenstein, sent him with the abbot of St. Georgen, Johann Teyrl, to the council in Basel. There, on the 28th of the said month and year, he received his episcopal installation from the administrator of the diocese of Chur, Bishop Heinrich of Constance. As early as 14 March 1450, the canons of Brixen elected him their bishop. As Pope Nicholas V was not favorable to him, Leonhard had to make way for Cardinal Nicholas of Cusa, who was designated for this episcopal see. To compensate him in the interim at least to some extent, the territorial prince Archduke Sigmund made him Salzmaier in Hall. On 5 March 1453 he became bishop there through the unanimous election of the cathedral chapter in Chur. He held great sway with Emperor Frederick III, whose privy councillor he was. In 1457 he visited his beloved Vinschgau, and on this apostolic journey, on the first Sunday of Advent, consecrated the small church of the Holy Cross, commonly called St. Helena, on the Töll. 2) His further efforts for the welfare of his church were cut short by death on 12 June of the following year.

Christoph Baron von Madruz, born at the eponymous family castle not far from Trent, received the parish of Tirol through the resignation of his older brother Nikolaus in 1529, when he was only seventeen years old and still studying in Bologna. The episcopal installation was granted to him by the Prince-Bishop of Chur, Paulus Ziegler, during the latter's stay in the small town of Glurns on 4 March 1533. Already in 1531 he had become canon and four years later cathedral dean in Trent, although he was still only a subdeacon. His dignities were increased in 1536 with a canonicate in the Archdiocese of Salzburg and in 1537 with one at the cathedral church of Brixen. Around this time, when the Roman King Ferdinand I was territorial prince, and the famous Cardinal and Prince-Bishop of Trent, Bernard von Cles, was his court chancellor and governor in our homeland, between 1531 and 1539, a torrent rushing down from the high mountains during a violent storm opened that eerie chasm which even today separates the village from the Castle of Tirol. Madruz had probably never seen the parish of Tirol. He administered pastoral care there through the priest Anton Weinreich; the administration of temporalities was overseen by the noble knight Andreas von Knillenberg at Reichenbach in Mais. When Christoph was elevated to the see of St. Vigilius in 1539 as the successor to Bernard von Cles, he renounced the parish of Tirol. In 1542 he also succeeded Prince-Bishop Christoph von Fuchs on the episcopal see of Brixen. Two years later he received the cardinal's hat from Pope Paul III. Emperors Charles V and Ferdinand I also placed full trust in him, as they had in his predecessor, and honored him with important commissions. Under him the general ecumenical council began in Trent in 1545. In the year 1567, four years after the conclusion of the council, Cardinal Christoph placed both the bishoprics of Trent and Brixen into the hands of the Holy Father Pius V. In 1570 he took over the pastoral staff of Porto in the Papal States, usually held by one of the six senior cardinals. On 7 July 1578 he ended his distinguished career at Tibur. Since 1581 his ashes have rested in the Madruzzo Chapel in Rome.

Beat, from the noble family of von Porta from Davos in Graubünden, parish priest in Feldkirch, was elected Bishop of Chur in 1565 by the majority of the cathedral capitulars. Only after overcoming many obstacles was he able to take possession of his church. With ardent zeal he supported the efforts of St. Cardinal Charles Borromeo to halt the progress of Zwingli's errors in Raetia and to curb the sorrowful state of revolt and confusion. Yet finally he found himself forced to yield to the pressure. He fled to the valleys of Tirol that had remained faithful to their holy faith and territorial prince, to the ancient Chur-Raetian Fürstenburg. 3) There, in 1581, he resigned from the bishopric, reserving a pension of 400 fl. But he did not wish to spend his remaining days there in inactive idleness. He requested and received the parish of Tirol from the territorial prince Archduke Ferdinand II as patron. With his approval, on 12 February 1590, he entered into an agreement with the city magistrate of Meran to always maintain three priests, specifically Germans, at the parish church of St. Nicholas there, and through them to have early mass read daily, a service sung, and the word of God proclaimed on days of obligation. In that same year he was called across into the land of eternal peace – not in Fürstenburg, but in the village of Tirol. 4)

(To be continued.)

1) For these three communities, the service of Holy Mass is applied in the parish church in Tirol on every Sunday and holy day of obligation in accordance with the regulation of the Church for each parish.

2) Typus Hist. recens. Parochorum Tirolis et Merani. Ms.

3) Fürstenburg: a castle near Burgeis in the Upper Vinschgau formerly belonging to the prince-bishops of Chur.

4) A house and farm in Tirol is still called at the Biad. Bishop and parish priest Beat is said to have died in it and given it its name. Even today one finds in this house a room that is beautifully paneled, decorated with gilded roses in the ceiling, and in the middle has the von Mohr coat of arms in carved woodwork. A flight of stone stairs with an iron railing leads to it.