Wilhelm von Hohnstein or Honstein (1466 - 29 June 1541) was prince bishop of Strasbourg from 1506 to 1541 under Maximilian I and Charles V and the papacies of Julius II, Leo X, Adrian VI, Clement VII and Paul III. He was assisted by a titular bishop, initially Johann Ortwin bishop of Mathones, then Konrad Wickgram bishop of Dunes.
His episcopate, like that of his successor, was very representative of the medieval and modern history of Alsace and Strasbourg, in illustrating the complex mechanisms of Holy Roman Empire's geopolitics in a troubled era marked by the arrival of the Protestant Reformation, the Alsace anchorage's place in a then largely German-speaking Rhine basin, and tensions between Strasbourg (a multiconfessional and multicultural free imperial city) and the prince bishopric deep in Lower Alsace with a diocese which formerly extended beyond the modern-day frontiers of Alsace and France.
Wilhelm and his brother Francis originated in Thuringia, showing how the influence of the chapters, collegiate churches and cathedrals of Strasbourg extended beyond its region, with the city's nobles proud of being prebendary canons like the chapters in Cologne, Speyer, Worms, Mainz and Bamberg. Very many major clerics, reformers and politicians in Strasbourg under Wilhelm did not come from Strasbourg or Alsace but a larger interconnected territory between Lorraine and Swabia and between the Rhineland and Switzerland. Despite their diverse origins, several major figures in 16th century Strasbourg's political and theological life totally identified themselves with that city's future, meaning their lives are more often linked to the history of Strasbourg than of the city where they were born - Wilhelm himself is one example, as are the Erasmus of Strasbourg from Franconia, Jean Sturm from Westphalia, Nikolaus Gerbel and Christophe Welsinger from Baden and Johannes Sleidanus from Luxembourg.
Contents
Family
He came from a noble family in Thuringia. His parents were Ernest IV, count of Hohnstein (1440 - 1508) and his wife Anna-Margaretha von Gera. This made his paternal grandparents Heinrich XI ('the Rash'; 1402-1454) and countess Margareta von Waldeck. Ernest IV also had a son by his 1498 second marriage to Félicité de Beichlingen, Francis von Hohenstein, who became a canon in the chapter of Strasbourg Cathedral and provost at Saverne in 1512. Due to a lack of male issue, the county of Hohnstein passed to other dynastic houses such as the kings of Prussia.
Wilhelm is buried to the right of the altar in the choir of the collegiate church in Saverne, now known as Notre-Dame-de-la-Nativité. His tomb inscription translates as:
Here lies Wilhelm III, count of Hohnstein, elected bishop of Strasbourg on 9 October 1506, generous towards the chapter of Saverne. Died 29 June in the year 1541.
Francis is also buried there, with his inscription translated as "Count von Hohnstein, lord of Lohra and Klettenberg, canon of the insignia church of Strasbourg".
Pre-episcopate
Wilhelm studied at the universities of Freiburg and Pavia before serving as vicar general to his uncle Berthold von Henneberg, Archbishop of Mainz. That role was the head of government of an episcopal principality on behalf of the dicoesan curia, alongside the judicial vicar administering justice and the chancellor the archives and general administration. Wilhelm was a canon of Cologne and Mainz (1482-1488) and of Strasbourg (1488 - 1506) and 'custode' of the collegiate church of St. John's Church, Mainz (1499-1507), and provost of St. Petri Church, Jechaburg (now a Protestant church in a suburb of Sondershausen).
Episcopate
Election and consecration
On 9 October 1505 he was unanimously elected by the capitulary canons after the preaching of Jean Geiler. The election was confirmed by Pope Julius II on 4 December 1506, despite his only being a subdeacon at the time. By then he was Lord of Lohra and Klettenburg.
He was ordained a priest in Saverne on 28 February 1507 and consecrated bishop on the fourth Sunday of Lent in the choir of Strasbourg Cathedral by Ernest, archbishop of Magdeburg, Duke of Saxony and primate of Germany, assisted by Konrad Wickram, titular bishop of Speyer, and Johann Ortwin, titular bishop of Strasbourg. Maximilian I's twentieth stay in Strasbourg lasted from 1492 to 1511 and so he also assisted at the consecration ceremony, since he was then in residence at the Knights Hospitaller convent in the city. Two days later Maximilian invested Wilhelm as a Prince of the Empire in Haguenau.
Entry into Strasbourg
He made his solemn entry into Strasbourg on Monday 4 October 1507. It is described in Bischoff Wilhelms von Hoehnsteins waal und einrit, attributed to the humanist scholar Sébastien Brant. Brant was then acting as chancellor of the city of Strasbourg and wrote one of Europe's first best-sellers, The Ship of Fools. His coronation in Strasbourg was an exception, since these traditionally new Bishops of Strasbourg were consecrated at Mainz Cathedral by the metropolitan bishop in Mainz, to whom the bishop of Strasbourg was a suffragan. There was a coronation and a solemn entry each time a new bishop was elected and for all but two bishops before Wilhelm (Henry II of Veringen in 1207 and Frederick of Lichtenberg, elected on 1 October 1299) these also occurred at Mainz Cathedral - it is still doubtful whether Gauthier of Geroldseck was crowned in Strasbourg.
Four of Strasbourg's magistrates led by Othon Sturm met the bishop at the Saverne gate with forty knights. Frédéric Bock made a speech. The regular and secular clergy left the cathedral in procession and stopped at the Steinstraße bridge. The Place aux chevaux (now Place Broglie) was filled with 140 people. At 11 am cannon fire signalled Wilhelm's arrival.
648 knights followed Philippe of Hanau, grand marshal of the bishopric, who carried the bishop's flag. He was flanked by Reinhart, Count of Zweibrücken, lord of Bitche and the bishop's provost, who carried the landgrave's standards, and by count Wilhelm von Fürstenberg, representing his father Loup of Fürstenberg, who carried the standard of Hohnstein. Behind their horses was Philippe, margrave of Baden, and his son Christophe, then after them emissaries and diplomats:
The bishop then arrived in his black cloak, the habit of choir canons, and his biretta. Around him were:
Burckhardt Beger, Lord of Geispolsheim, vidame to the bishop;
Antoine of Wilsberg;
Jean Sigirist, chancellor to the bishopric;
Louis, Lord of Rhinach, knight, provost of Rouffach;
Troubles
For twenty years the situation deteriorated both for the Catholic middle classes in Strasbourg and for the canons and secular clergy of the bishopric. Many intellectuals (particularly the cathedral's and the collegiate churches' preaching priests) favoured the reformers. This was still not an open confessional schism, but a strong expectation that the Holy See would carry out deep reform to root out what most saw as abuse of the Catholic hierarchy.
On 20 January 1524 the episcopal curia summoned married priests to appear at Saverne, but - as they refused to comply by acknowledging their marriages as illegal and agreeing to their annulment - the bishop asked the city magistrate to expel them for breaking their priestly vows and provoking the people's anger. The magistrate refused to do so and kept these heretical priests in their roles - he could afford to do so because some of the city's high clergy (such as Sigismond von Hohenlohe, dean of the chapter, and Wolfgang Capiton, provost of the collegiate church of St Thomas) were protecting and favouring the new religion based on their reading of the gospels and the bishop seemed to be unaware that the inhabitants of Strasbourg was rather welcoming to the evolution of religious practices in their city.
On 14 March 1524 the bishop declared the excommunication of married priests, thus turning them out of the Catholic faith. In response they gathered in the home of Matthieu Zell, cathedral preacher, who had married gardener's daughter Catherine Schütz. There they drafted a request for an appeal to be considered at the next church council, entitled "request for an appeal from the married priests of the city of Strasbourg against their infamous and calumnious excommunication by the bishop". They displayed this appeal on the cathedral door on 5 April 1524. Rather than stopping the phenomenon of married priests, Wilhelm accelerated it - the Augustinian monk Wolfgang Schultheiss married and left for Schiltigheim to introduce reform there. Conrad Spatzinger, vicar of the cathedral chapter, also married, as did Alexandre de Villingen, a templar of the Knights Hospitaller, Johannes Riebling, a priest of the Saint-Erhard chapel, Lucas Hackfurt, chaplain of Obernai, Symphorien Pollio, cathedral preacher and priest at the collegiate church of Saint-Étienne, and Caspar Hedio, famous cathedral preacher and friend of Erasmus.
Faced with a major revolt by protesting clergy who felt entirely within their rights to oppose what Wilhelm saw as the church's fundamental principles, his only available solution was to register his opposition and make an official complaint to the imperial diet in Nuremberg via an emissary, the Alsatian Franciscan monk and theologian Dr Thomas Murner. cardinal Alessandro Campeggio took up the case and summoned the free city's two representatives, Daniel Mueg and Bernard Wurmser, to the diet. There he asked for an explanation but they both seem to have defended themselves well, since their summoning marked a failure for the Catholic faction. Mueg and Wurmser only had to pass on the papal legate's remonstrances.
