Saints' Discussion Forums

                    The Abbey of Baindt was founded in 1240 in Baindt in Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany by Konrad of Winterstetten.     
                    Nuns from the Cistercian abbey of Boos moved in 1240.   
                    In 1241 King Conrad IV of Germany (reigned 1237-1254)) declared the abbey free of any vogt (lay advocate).   
                    In 1376 Baindt Abbey was granted imperial immediacy.

Imperial immediacy. I never knew about it till now!

              Kaufungen Abbey was a Benedictine nunnery founded in 12017 by Cunigunde, the Empress Consort       
              of Holy Roman Emperor Henry II in Kaufungen, Hesse, Germany. Henry II endowed the new foundation in 1019.   
              In 1089 the nunnery became an Imperial abbey.

            Burtscheid Abbey in Germany was founded in 997 under Emperor Otto III.   
            In 1018 the monastery was raised to the status of an abbey.     
            The dedication was changed from Saints Nicholas and Appolinaris to Saints John the Baptist and Nicholas.
            Burtscheid Abbey was granted Imperial immediacy by Holy Roman Emperor Conrad III in 1138.

                       The Imperial Abbey of Corvey was a Benedictine abbey on the River Weser in Germany.   
                        Imperial rights were granted by Holy Roman Emperor Otto I in 940.

My first reaction (after gratitude for the post raising my initial interest) is concern that the concept of "imperial immediacy" amounts to misleading historic revisionism fostered by atheistic secularism.  If you'll go back to a 1980s Encyclopedia Britannica, and check some of the first abbeys, they were referred to as ecclesiastical principalities, where towns and later cities developed frequently in the wilderness during the early middle ages around the abbeys (ruled by abbots and abbesses).  In the centuries before the European nation-states evolved, Popes and Bishops negotiated with regional kings and princes for control and authority of the abbeys.  Almost everywhere abbeys were subject to pagan attacks.  In the second millennium, efforts to restore the Holy Roman Empire met with only limited and temporary success.  Ecclesial (Papal) was authority generally honored until the emergence of Protestant governments (Henry VIII) and later Lutherans, Napoleon, etc.

How interesting!

FWLIW, it makes me think of how when I look at the historic lands back then, all the little kingdoms and duchies and principalities in it seem so ideal.. what a splendid variety of kingdoms.

I find myself muddling about the human search for Utopia.  I reread recently St Thomas More's book, and while reading history of the US and the Catholic Church I wonder how sincere some of the efforts were to found Utopian colonies.  Surely the monks and sisters and those who followed them have been most sincere. 
I am fearful of those who seek universal control, ever bigger government, and a single culture.  It seems clear God preferred  tribal judgment and the dispersal at Babel to universalism.  Let's credit ecclesial principalities to God, and the Church, not to the Empire, even if it claimed to be Holy and Roman.  It usually wasn't.

You think about it too? Though i have not read Utopia..

I have thought about something that I suppose is like it for many years... I am always thinking about what Christian society would look like if it were full of holy Christians.. its laws its customs its morals..

It is a beautiful thought for lasting meditation.

                 Elchingen Abbey was a Benedictine monastery in Oberelchingen (in Elchingen) in Bavaria, Germany.   
                   The monastery was founded by the Counts of Dillingen. The abbot sat in the Reichstag of the Holy Roman Empire.

                    The abbot Folcmar of Corvey Abbey was granted powers of enforcement over the population of peasants   
                    that were to seek refuge in the fortress built in the monastery's lands.

            Gengenbach Abbey was a Benedictine monastery in Gengenbach in Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany.   
            It was an Imperial abbey from the Carolingian period to 1803. It was founded by St. Pirmin.       
            It was granted to the Prince Bishopric of Bamberg, Eberhard I by Holy Roman Emperor Henry II in 1007.

              On November 13, 882, Emperor Charles III (the Fat) granted the Abbeys of Stavelot-Malmedy the lands of Blendef   
               and restored to them the chapel in Bra. Stavelot-Malmedy was an Imperial-Abbey in the Holy Roman Empire.

            Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV confirmed the status of Imperial immediacy on the Abbey of Kempten in 1062.

            Gandersheim Abbey was a house of secular canonesses in the town of Bad Gandersheim, Lower Saxony, Germany.   
             It was founded in 852 by Duke Luidolf of Saxony. In 877 King Louis the Younger placed the abbey under the protection   
              of the Holy Roman Empire. In 919 King Henry I of East Francia granted the abbey Imperial immediacy.

        Ellwangen Abbey was the earliest Benedictine monastery established in the Duchy of Swabia.   
        Emperor Louis the Pious placed the monastery under his royal protection in 814.   
        Ellwangen Abbey became an Imperial abbey with the privilege of Imperial immediacy granted in 1011 by       
        King Henry II and again confirmed by Emperor Charles IV of Luxembourg in 1347.

Quedlingburg Abbey was founded on the castle hill of Quedlingburg in the present Saxony-Anhalt in 936 by King Otto I at the request of his mother Queen Matilda, in honor of her late husband, King Henry the Fowler, Otto's father, and as his memorial.     
Quedlingburg Abbey was an Imperial Estate and became a self-ruling Imperial Abbey of the Holy Roman Empire.

Gandersheim Abbey is in Lower Saxony, Germany. It was founded by Duke Liudolf of Saxony and his wife Oda.   
In 877 King Louis the Younger placed the Abbey under the protection of the Empire, which gave it extensive independence.   
In 919 King Henry I granted it imperial immediacy.

                Gengenbach Abbey was a Benedictine monastery in Gengenbach in the district of Ortenau, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany. 
                 It was founded by Saint Pirmin.

                  Comburg was a Benedictine monastery in Baden-Wurttemberg in Germany.   
                   It was founded in the late 1070s by the Counts of Comburg-Rothenburg on the site of their castle.   
                    In 1587 Comburg was mediatised by Wurttemberg, which brought to an end its status as an imperial abbey.

                   The Abbey of Nivelles was founded about 650 by St. Itta of Metz. The Abbey is located in the town     
                     of Nivelles in Province of Walloon Brabant, Belgium.   
                        For most of the Middle Ages the Abbey remained an Imperial Abbey.

                   St. Ludger's Abbey was a former monastery of the Benedictine Order in Helmstedt in Lower Saxony.   
                     Until it was secularized in 1802 it was an Imperial Abbey.

                  Walkenreid Abbey was a Cistercian abbey located in the village of Walkenreid in Lower Saxony, Germany.   
                     It was founded in 1127. In view of the Protestant Reformation the abbey was declared an immediate   
                         Reichsstift (Imperial abbey) by Emperor Charles V in 1542.

Should be called the Protestant Deformation, Revolt, or Rebellion against God, and similar terms.

                Werden Abbey was a Benedictine monastery in Essen-Werden in Germany.   
                 On May 22, 877, under Hildigrim II, the monastery, which up to that time had been the property of the family of Saint Ludger,           
                   obtained imperial immediacy.

                  Weissenau Abbey was an Imperial abbey located near Ravensburg in the Swabian Circle.   
                   The abbey existed from 1145 until the secularisation of 1802-1803.

              In 1806 Werden Abbey was incorporated into the Grand Duchy of Berg.

               Berchtesgaden Provostry was an immediate principality of the Holy Roman Empire.     
               The Berchtesgaden monastery, dedicated to Saint Peter and Saint John the Baptist, was   
               founded in 1102 within the Bavarian stem duchy. It became an Imperial abbey in 1194.

                       Disentis Abbey is a Benedictine monastery in eastern Switzerland.   
                        It gained Imperial immediacy in the 8th century. Udalric I (1031-1055)   
                         was the first abbot to be made a prince of the empire.

                     Gernrode Abbey was founded in 959 in Gernrode in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany.   
                       In July 961, Emperor Otto I granted Gernrode immunity and placed the abbey   
                       under imperial protection.

                                    Zwiefalten Abbey was a Benedictine monastery in Baden-Wurttemberg in Germany.   
                                     It was founded in 1089. In 1750 the abbey was granted the status of Reichsabtei, which   
                                     meant that it had the status of an independent power subject only to the Imperial   
                                      Crown and was free of the rule of Wurttemberg.

                      Helmarshausen Abbey was founded in Hesse, Germany in 997 by the nobles Eckehard and Mathilde.   
                        It received great privileges from Emperor Otto III and was an Imperial abbey.