Fratres clerici und beneficia ecclesiastica im mittelalterlichen Johanniterpriorat Alamania

Abstract

Fratres Clerici and Beneficia Ecclesiastica in the Medieval Hospitaller Priory  of Alamania

The Hospitallers acquired possessions in Latin Europe during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries first through donations, later on also by purchase, in order to support their activities in the Levant. These acquisitions included parishes, hospitals and castles, although their maintenance necessitated expenditures that reduced the surpluses the Hospitallers could use for the Levant. At the same time parishes and other ecclesiastical benefices were restructured according to the concepts of ius patronatus and incorporation. As a consequence, episcopal supervision was strengthened even for those parishes and benefices which were owned by the Hospitallers and other religious orders. In general, fratres clerici were of lesser importance in the Order than fratres milites. Nevertheless, they were eligible to become commanders or to administer commanderies for absentee commanders, and they were indispensable both for services in the Order’s parish churches and for prayers on behalf of the souls of the Order’s members and benefactors. During the later Middle Ages their role was strengthened especially in Cologne and in the two new Hospitaller foundations at Straßburg in 1371 and Biel in 1454/1455. After the Reformation the Order’s priests received an exclusive right roughly one third of the commanderies.