A document from 1328 marks the beginning of the history of the Carthusians in Grünau: “We Elisabeth, born Countess von Wertheim and widow of Count von Hohenlohe ??” These are the first words on the certificate. The countess issued them independently and certified them with her seal. Elisabeth made history here. A few months later, the ruling counts, Elisabeth’s nephew, confirmed their donation. At that time it wasn’t possible without men.
The donation was substantial: The whole village of Schollbrunn with all the trimmings belonged to it, including all the residents of the place who were subjects of the County of Wertheim. The Charterhouse should have centuries of history and is still a center of attraction in the southern Spessart.
Why did Elisabeth give presents to the Carthusians of all people? In her deed of foundation she expresses her wish to bring brothers of this order, whose life is exemplary in following Jesus Christ and who are still unknown in Franconia, to Franconia. In fact, Grünau was the first Charterhouse in Lower Franconia. She hoped for herself and her relatives that the foundation would serve their souls for salvation. At the end of the certificate it is listed what it was about: In addition to the village of Schollbrunn, two mills on the Haselbach, all fish, pasture and timber rights, six Joch vineyards between Kreuzwertheim and Hasloch as well as a number of so-called Gülten, i.e. taxes in kind such as twenty Malter wheat, which the monks in Altfeld should get. The first Carthusians came to Grünau from Mainz.
Numerous Carthusian monasteries founded
The Carthusians were one of those reform orders that emerged from the efforts of medieval people to follow Jesus in this world and to save their souls after the end of earthly life. The life of the Carthusian monks is still shaped today by prayers and silence. The focus is on contemplation. In 1170 they were recognized as an order. The way of life was attractive: numerous Carthusian monasteries were founded in the 12th and 13th centuries. But why in Grünau of all places? There was already a pilgrimage chapel dedicated to Lorenz and Maria there. From 1297 a certificate of indulgence issued in Rome by various bishops in favor of this chapel has survived.
Apparently it took some time before a new monastery church was ready and could be consecrated. In the years 1335 and 1346, Würzburg obtained the episcopal permission to celebrate mass on a portable altar until the church consecration. In 1446 the auxiliary bishop of Würzburg blessed a new monastery church.
The connection between the Counts of Wertheim and the Charterhouse remained close, even after Elisabeth died in 1330. In 1354, the Grünau prior Werner drew a first “Carta participations”, a document that counted Rudolf as the patron of the monastery and made him and his descendants partakers of all the spiritual goods of his church. The count’s family thus benefited from the treasure of grace that the monks acquired for themselves through their godly lives.
Monks received the right to fish
Today the Charterhouse is not least known for its trout. Waters had already been mentioned in the deed of foundation. In 1370 the monks received the right to fish in the stream below their monastery from the Archbishop of Mainz. It can be proven by the 17th century at the latest that trout lived in the creeks of the monastery. The still fish in the murmuring water in the wilderness have a long tradition.
Further donations increased the assets of the Charterhouse. A property register shows no less than 24 places in which one had income. The places were sometimes quite far away, Gerlachsheim and Würzburg were also there. It was not easy to manage, and you have to imagine the Charterhouse as a prosperous business enterprise. The hermit life of the monks was only one aspect. In Würzburg, Zellingen and Wertheim town houses were used to sell the agricultural surpluses. It is possible that the Würzburgers were able to buy trout from the Spessart there.
Then came the changes associated with the name Martin Luther, referred to as the Reformation. The prior of the Charterhouse was also present at the great Wertheim Synod, in which Count Georg wanted to clarify the attitude of the churchmen in his county towards the new movement. Like most of the others, he evaded an unequivocal decision. The prior wanted to wait to see what decision a great council that had been planned for decades would come to.
Count Georg forbids the bishop to visit
The following year there was looting in Grünau during the Peasants’ War. In 1526 it is said that a Carthusian from Grünau took a wife and is now living in Schweinberg ?? the Reformation had arrived in Grünau. In 1528 Count Georg denied the Würzburg bishop the right to visit the Charterhouse, i.e. to see that everything was right there. That was a strong statement: the count withdrew the charterhouse from the bishop. It should continue in this direction, as is well known Count Georg was a supporter of Luther.
A few years later the consequences became apparent in a petition from the pastor of Hasloch: The pastor used to live alone, he wrote, and now he has a family and a wife and children to look after. And in the past the pastor always ate in the Charterhouse, now the Carthusians withheld income from him because he was not ?? irer secte ?? belong.
The clashes between supporters and opponents of the Reformation finally led to acts of war at the imperial level, which were suspended with the Passau Treaty of 1552 and the Peace of Augsburg in 1555. These treaties basically recognized the Protestants as a new denomination. For the Charterhouse Grünau they initially meant the end, because the Wertheim Counts advocated the dissolution of the monasteries with the Reformation. From 1545 the counts administered the monastery property, a few years later the last three monks left the charterhouse.
Decades of lawsuits before the Reich Chamber of Commerce
That was the end of monastic life in Grünau. But the Carthusians did not give up. The Würzburg Charterhouse brought an action. There followed decades of trials before the Reich Chamber of Commerce, the highest court in the Old Kingdom, for the restitution of the Charterhouse. The matter was legally involved. The Grünau Charterhouse is a very typical example of the processes that arose over secularized church property.
In 1630 an imperial commission came to Grünau. One hears now of construction work and in 1635 monastic life is said to have started again in the Kropfbachtal. But on a small scale. The Counts of Löwenstein-Wertheim were now divided into a Catholic line (today in Kleinheubach) and an Evangelical line (today in Kreuzwertheim), and only the Catholic line returned the rights and income that had landed with it to the Charterhouse. From then on, the monastery remained a modest institution, which ended in 1803. In that year, after the Napoleonic upheavals, the Grünau monastery was abolished, as was the case for many other monasteries.
Temporary workshop for counterfeiters
In the meantime, Grünau has been used in a very special way. Heavy hammer blows must have filled the quiet valley, because around 1570 a forgery workshop was set up in Grünau. A supraregional operating group was at work, the die had been made by a blacksmith from Nidda, other participants came from the Taunus and Marburg.
When the matter was exposed, people in Wertheim and Marburg were interrogated with hard bandages ?? counterfeiting was punishable by death. Even Emperor Maximilian intervened and sent a commissioner to keep himself up to date. The outcome of the event is not known because no judgments have been received. Such a use of the lonely Charterhouse is likely to have been the exception in its long history, which was otherwise about rather quiet things like praise to God and fish farming.
To the author: Dr. Robert Meier is a lecturer at the Archive School in Marburg and a lecturer at the University of Würzburg. He lives in Würzburg.
Literature: Michael Koller, Carthusian monastery in Franconia, Würzburg 1996.
Reading tip: Missed the entry into the series? The series parts published so far can be found at https://www.mainpost.de/dossier/geschichte-der-region-main-spessart
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