Читать книгу The Great Hollenberg Saga - Heinz Niederste-Hollenberg - Страница 45

Charlemagne Establishes the Tithe in the Area

When Charlemagne assembled his Court at Lippspringe (around 782 A.D.), he issued harsh statutes against the Saxons: the “Capitulatio de partibus Saxonae”. Only two from 14 laws are quoted here:

---“Everyone is to be doomed (beheaded) who clings to his old believe, and who conspires against Christians, and who persecutes or scoffs at ecclesiastical establishments”. ---

--- “The order is, that every parish is to receive 2 “Hufe” (= approx. 50 acres) of land, the services of farm hands and maids, and the tenth (tithe) of any income”. ---

Every one of these laws ended with: “morte moriatur” (be doomed).

Now, the foundation had been laid, the way was open for the German people to move into the Middle-Ages, a very Christian, but also a very bloody period.

On the topic of tithing, even Alconius Alkuin, a prominent friend of and advisor to Charlemagne in all matters of religion, lamented in a letter:

“Did the Apostles, when Christ sent them to teach Christianity to the whole world, ask for the tithe? Possibly, the tithe is necessary, how-ever, its forfeiture is insignificant compared to the loss in Faith”.

It was Charlemagne policy to divide his conquests into counties, each governed by a bishop or archbishop. The bishopric of Osnabrück with bishop Wiho was the first in the land of the Saxons.

It can be assumed that the erection of local chapels outside of Osnabrück was started shortly thereafter: one in the west, the West-Chapel (= Westerkappeln), and one in the east, the East-Chapel (= Osterkappeln). Charlema-gne also issued the Franconian-Land-Order and installed regional administrators, named Gaugrafen = district-counts). He named the place“Ossenbrügge”, where – as the saying goes - the Franconian-Christian army, while struggling with the Saxons, managed to cross the river Hase with the help of an ox which showed them a ford (Furt) to cross the waters.

The place was secured with a wall and a ditch and given the Franconian law. That’s how “Ossenbrügge” became modern day “Osnabrück”.

He installed a bishop and gave him the tithe on fields, forests and all pastures around.

The annual contribution enforced and delivered by all the farms in our territory to the clergy and/or secular ruler