ADOLPH I, Archbishop of Mainz. - Count of Nassau, grandnephew of King Adolf of Nassau, b. ca. 1353, d. 6 February 1390.

By his uncle Gerlach, Archbishop of Mainz, he was proposed to that Chapter as coadjutor with the right of succession, which, however, he did not obtain. Instead, the bishopric of Speyer was conferred on him in 1371. Summoned two years later by the majority of the Chapter of Mainz to occupy the see, he could not obtain it except after a struggle against Louis of Thuringia, until then Bishop of Bamberg, whom Pope Gregory XI, at the request of Emperor Charles IV, had designated by a bull of 23 April 1374 as administrator of Mainz. In 1381 Pope Urban VI transferred Louis to Magdeburg and confirmed A. as Archbishop of Mainz. On 4 February of the same year he was also recognized by the assembly of the princes of Germany at Nuremberg as archbishop-elector and archchancellor. He took an active part in the general politics of the Reich. His contemporaries extol his prudence and valor. He was more a politician than a man of the Church. He showed himself a friend of the sciences by founding the University of Erfurt in 1389, which, with the privileges granted by Pope Urban VI, was inaugurated in 1392, when A. was already dead.

Bibliography6 works

BIBL.: P. Handloss, Adolf I. Erzbischof von Mainz, u. sein Gegner, Ludwig, Bischof von Bamberg, Breslau 1874; K.W. Friedensburg, Landgraf Ludwig II. der Gebiete u. Erzbischof A. I. v. Mainz, Marburg 1885; Fr. Vigne, Kaiser Karl IV. u. der Mainzer Bistumstreit, 1375-78, Trier 1908; on the discovery of his tomb with bust and cross in 1928, v. A. Stremel, Die Rettung des Mainzer Dom, 1928, p. 85 and plates 115-16; J. Schmidt, s. v. in LThK, I, col. 105 f.; G. Allmang, s. v. in DHG, I, col. 579 f.

Lucchesio Spätling

@incollection{ec1_adolfo_i_arcivescovo_di_magonz, author = {Spätling, Lucchesio}, title = {Adolfo I, arcivescovo di magonza}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {I}, pages = {316}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1948}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/adolfo-i-arcivescovo-di-magonza} }

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Adolph I, Archbishop of Mainz

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