Lippe
Lippe
One of the Confederate States of the German Empire. The occasional use of the designation “Lippe Detmold” so called after the chief town, to distinguish it from Schaumberg Lippe, is legally inaccurate. It comprises 469 sq. miles and consists of a larger division lying between the Prussian Provinces of Westphalia and Hanover, including the ancient Countships of Lippe, Schwatonberg, and Sternberg and, in addition, of the three exclaves of Grevenhagen, Lipperode, and Cappel, lying in Prussian territory. The principality originated as an immediate suzerainty of the twelfth century, belonging to the lords of Lippe who, in 1529, were counts of the empire. In 1807, by taking part in the Rhenish Confederation the country achieved independence and at the same time became a principality. Since 1815 it had belonged to the German Confederation. In the German War of 1866 Lippe sided with Prussia and became a part of the North German Confederation, and in 1871 of the German Empire. A contest for the throne which had lasted for years was finally settled in 1905, since when Leopold IV (b. 1871) has been reigning prince. In the census of 1 December, 1905, the returns showed 145,577 inhabitants of whom 5,481 were Catholics; 139,127 Protestants; 229 other Christians; 735 Jews, and five members of other religions. The Catholics increased from 2.4% to 3.8% of the population between 1871 and 1905.
From the time of the Reformation the greater part of the country has belonged to the Diocese of Paderborn, smaller portions to Minden and Cologne. The Reformation obtained its first foothold in Lemgo, at that time the most important town in the principality. The ruler, Simon V, in vain endeavoured to suppress the new doctrines. His son and successor, Bernard VIII (1536-63), a minor, was educated a Lutheran. He forced a Lutheran ritual upon the country in 1538. Simon VI (1563-1613) confirmed the reformed doctrines (Calvinism) in 1605, which ever since then have prevailed in the country. Only the city of Lemgo remained Lutheran, in spite of a struggle carried on for ten years with great bitterness between the princes and the city. During the last decade of the nineteenth century, however, the number of Calvinists, even in Lemgo, has exceeded that of the Lutherans. After the Peace of Augsburg in 1555 by which religious matters were settled, the establishment of the Reformation in Lippe was substantially accomplished. In spite of the axiom “cujus regio, ejus religio”, and of much persecution and many struggles, there remained a small number of Catholics in Lippe all through the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, notably a convent at Falkenhagen established in 1228 and belonging first to the Cistercians, then to the Williamites, and since 1432 to the Knights of the Cross. It was confiscated in 1596, though its possessions fell to the Paderborn Jesuits and only after the Papal suppression of the order, to the reigning house. With the assistance of the Jesuits, particularly Father Tönnemann, the confessor of Charles IV, the reigning count in 1720 obtained the rank of prince, but he did not assume this title because the exchequer could not defray the dues, notwithstanding the fact that, through Father Tönnemann’s exertions, they were reduced from 20,000 to 5773 gulden. The letters patent granting the princely title were not redeemed until 1789.
A Catholic community grew up in Lemgo in the eighteenth century. Here in 1774 the Catholics were given the right to practise their religion privately, and in 1786 openly, though under many restrictions. After 1672, when the Catholics of the neighhouing Countship of Ravensburg, which had belonged since 1609 to Brandenburg-Prussia, received their right to public worship, the Franciscans from Bielefeld took charge of the Catholics in Lippe, though able to perform religious duties only in secret. Nominally the Catholics (as well as Lutherans) were allowed free practice of their religion and given full political and civil rights, through their country’s participation in the Rhenish (1807) and the German (1815) Confederations. As a matter of fact, the situation remained unchanged. The control of livings exercised by the Calvinists continued in force. In 1821 the Papal Bull “De salute animarum”, made over to the See of Paderborn the Lippian parishes of Cappel, Lipperode, and Lippstadt, which had previously belonged to Cologne without producing any ensuing ageement with the State. As a result of this Bull, the Bishop of Paderborn continued as he had formerly done, in spite of numerous protests from the Government, to interest himself in all the Catholics of the country, whose number had greatly increased through immigration.
In the sovereign edict of 9 March, 1854, owing in no small degree to the fairmindedness of the first cabinet minister, Laurenz Hannibal Fischer, the Catholic Church was placed on an equality with the state Calvinist religion. The Lutherans obtained the same status on 15 March, 1854. The diocesan rights of the bishops of Paderborn were recognized. The bishop presented the livings, though the sovereign could reject an unacceptable cand0idate. The parish priest was obloged to take the oath of allegiance to the prince and his dynasty. In mixed marriages the religion in which children were to be educated was settled by agreement between the parents. Should nothing be discussed or decided in the marriage settlements, the children without regard to sex must be brought up in the father’s faith. In order to elucidate this measure beyond doubt, the State passed the ordinance of 7 October, 1857, which decreed that ante-nuptial agreements or promises were, from a legal standpoint, null and void. The mixed marriages have resulted in a larger number of Protestant than of Catholic children. In other respects the legislation concerning marriage corresponds throughout to that in the civil code of German Empire. With regard to sepulture, Catholics are free to use the general cemeteries or open special ones for themselves. If Catholics have obtained right of sepulture in a non-Catholic cemetery, the use of the liturgy of their Church is permitted, but if they have not this right notice must be given to the evangelical ministers, and permission obtained. To the five parishes of Detmold, with the subordinate parishes of Horn, Cappel (founded in 784 by Charlemagne), Falkenhagen, Lemgo, and Schwalenberg, were added in 1888, the three parishes of Lage, Lipperode, and Salzuflen. The entire eight were united in 1892 to the deanery of Detmold, presided over by ten priests.
Over and above its obligations to the parish of Falkenhagen, which are based on civil claims, the State pays 300 marks additional salary from the treasury of the confiscated monasteries and institutions to the Catholic rector at Lemgo only. Catholic church property is regulated by the civil code of the German Empire, and the Lippian common law. The only religious community is that of St. Elizabeth’s Institute in Detmold, a combined sewing school and protectory conducted by the Sisters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul (from Paderborn). Concerning orders and congregations there is no provision made by the State. However, article 13 of the edict of 1854 provides that all cases of doubt concerning the application of the said edict or any conflicts over the bounds of episcopal authority, shall be determined by the definitions of the Prussian Constitution of 31 January, 1850. The Catholic schools are private, but the State furnishes half of the salaries and pensions of the teachers. The people of the eight Catholic school districts are exempt from payment of school assessments (Law of 30 Deccember, 1904). Two free Catholic schools (Falkenhagen and Grevenhagen) enjoy the privileges of public primary schools. That of Cappel is a public school, attended by members of different Churches, yet Catholic in character as long as the majority of the inhabitants of the school district are Catholics.
———————————–
FALKMANN, Beitriäge zur Geschichte des Fürstentums Lippe (Lemgo and Detmold, 1847-1902); SCHWANOLD, Das Fürstentum Lippe, das Land und seine Bewohner (Detmold, 1899); WOKER, Geschichte der norddeutschen Franziskaner-Mission (Freiburg, 1880), 614 sqq., 627 sqq.; GEMMEKE, Geschichte der katholischen Pfarreien in Lippe (Paderborn, 1895); FREISEN, Staat und katholische Kirche in den deutschen Bundesstaaten, I Stuttgart 1906), 1-282.
HERMANN SACHER Transcribed by Mario Anello
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume IXCopyright © 1910 by Robert Appleton CompanyOnline Edition Copyright © 2003 by K. KnightNihil Obstat, October 1, 1910. Remy Lafort, CensorImprimatur. +John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York
Fuente: Catholic Encyclopedia
Lippe
sometimes also (but less properly) LIPPEDETMOLD, a small principality of Northern Germany, surrounded on the W. and S. by Westphalia, and on the E. and N. by Hanover, Brunswick, Waldeck, and a detached portion of Hesse-Cassel, extends over an area of 438 square miles, and has a population (1885) of 123,250, mainly belonging to the Reformed Church. The earliest inhabitants were the Cherusci; subsequently it was a part of the country of the Saxons. The first establishment of Christianity in that province dates back to Charlemagne. In the very beginning of his war against the Saxons, in 772, he took the castrum AEresburgum (probably Radtberg, on the Diemel, near the southern frontier of the principality), and there destroyed the statue of the idol Irmansaul. In 776 he went to Lippspringe, and the following year to Padrabrun (Paderborn), both on the southern frontier of the province, obliging whole tribes of the conquered Saxons to receive baptism. In 783 Charlemagne again vanquished the Saxons in the great battle of Theotmelli (Detmold), in the very heart of the present principality. The Saxon army was entirely destroyed, and Charlemagne, in commemoration of this event, erected a church which is still in existence. The next Christmas he spent at Skidroburg-supra- Ambram, now Schieder, on the Emmer, where it is said he also erected a church. But his most important measure for Christianizing the country was his establishment of the bishopric of Paderborn, embracing the district of Lippe within its diocese, for which the house of the princes of Lippe furnished many a bishop.
The Reformation early found strong supporters in Lippe. The first city of the province to adopt it was Lemgo, moved to such a course by Luther’s theses against indulgences. By 1524 the Reformation was further advanced in this part of Germany by the adherents it had gained in the town of Herford, adjoining Lemgo, where the works of Luther and Melancthon had been circulated freely. Foremost among Luther’s supporters there were his colleagues the Augustine monks. One of them, Dr. John Drever, a native of Lemgo and a personal friend of Luther, distinguished for his learning and eloquence, was the first to preach the Gospel in Herford. In spite of the priests, the people introduced the singing of the German hymns of Luther into their churches, and all attempts to put an end to this by violence gave way before the unanimous will of the people. The first to take the decided step of separation was Moriz Piderit, a priest, and formerly one of the most determined adversaries of the evangelical doctrines, and by his influence the city was carried for Luther’s doctrines. Lippstadt embraced them nearly at the same time. The monks of the Augustine convent in that city, who had sent two of their number to Wittemberg to be instructed by Luther, on their return preached the Gospel with great success to the people of Lippe and of neighboring places; and they so quickly advanced the cause of the Reformers, that when an inquisitor was sent to Lippe from Cologne in 1526 to stay the heresy, he found the evangelical party so strong that he gave up all attempts to control it, and returned to his home. In 1533 the town was besieged by the dukes of Cleves and Juliers, and the count of Lippe forced to surrender. The evangelical ministers were of course driven away, but it was not long before permission was granted for the preaching by Lutheran ministers again. After the death of the zealous Roman Catholic count Simon V, in 1536, the Reformation made more rapid progress in the province. The landgrave Philip of Hessia and count Jobst von Hoya, two determined partisans of the Reformation, became guardians of the children of the deceased count, and caused them to be diligently instructed in the Protestant doctrines; and when, in 1538, both the nobility and the people loudly demanded a reform in the Church of the count de Hoya, John Timann, surnamed Amstelrodamus, and Adrian Buxschoten, both of Bremen, were called and sent to Lippe to frame a plan of evangelical church organization, which was submitted to the States and to Luther, and, upon approval (1538), it was promulgated throughout the principality, and Protestant ministers were everywhere appointed. Under John von Eyter, of Wittemberg, then general superintendent of Lippe, a new church organization was drawn up and printed in 1571, with the authorization of the authorities, and it is still in our day in force among the Lutheran communities of the country.
In 1600, during the reign of count Simon VI (ruled 1583-1613), who had imbibed Calvinistic views at the court of Cassel, Calvinism found an entrance in Lippe. It commenced by the appointment of a Calvinistic minister to preach at Horn in 1602. This preacher at once forbade the use of the Lutheran Catechism in the schools, administered the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper in strict Calvinistic form, and established the Reformed mode of worship in spite of the local authorities and of the pope. In 1605 the same step was taken at Detmold, and was supported by the government, notwithstanding the opposition of the people and city authorities. In this manner Calvinism was established throughout the country, the nobility alone and the city of Lemgo remaining Lutheran. It was not, however, until 1684 that Calvinism was sanctioned as the state religion. In that year count Simon Henrich promulgated the Reformed ecclesiastical organization, which recognizes as its formula of confession the Catechism of Heidelberg, and is in force in our day. The city of Lemgo resisted these measures, and succeeded in obtaining in 1717 an edict assuring its inhabitants the fullest religious liberty, the right of appointing their own ministers, etc. But as Rationalism had obtained full control of the Reformed Church of Lippe in the 18th century, upon reaction towards the middle of the 19th century the whole country, including Lemgo, was subjected to the Reformed consistory, which, however, by the admission of one Lutheran member, became a mixed consistory. As an outline of doctrine, the Heidelberg Catechism was introduced. In 1885 the principality numbered about 2700 Roman Catholics, 6500 Lutherans, 1150 Israelites; the remainder belonged to the Reformed Church. The latter is divided into three classes, at the head of each of which is a superintendent; at the head of the whole clergy is a superintendent general at Detmold. The supreme ecclesiastical board for both Reformed and Lutherans is the consistory at Detmold. The principality has 43 Reformed, 5 Lutheran, and 6 Catholic parishes; the Catholics belong to the diocese of Paderborn, in Westlphalia. See Herzog, Real-Encyklopdie, 8:423; Falkmann und Preuss, Lippesche Regesten (Lemgo, 1860-63, 2 volumes, 8vo); Falkmann, Beitrage zur Gesch. der Furstenth. (ibid. 1847-56); and his Graf Simon VI zur Lippe (Detm. 1869, volume 1). (A.J.S.)