Bursfelde Abbey

The abbey was founded in 1093 by Count Heinrich the Fat of Northeim and his wife Gertrude so that the members of noble families from the area might be buried in a place with monks permanently in attendance. Archbishop Ruthard of Mainz participated in the foundation. The first monks came from Corvey Abbey: a close association between the two foundations would endure. In 1102 the founder, who had been killed by invading Frisians, was himself buried in the abbey church. The late eleventh century was a period of monastic and ecclesiastical reform, and from the outset Bursfelde was influenced by the new ideas coming out of Cluny and Hirsau. Although one motive for the abbey's foundation was clearly that the souls of the faithful departed kinsfolk of the founder might be properly prayed for, the founder's dynastic ambitions and the pressures of the church reform movement also played their part. Emperor Henry IV granted Bursfelde numerous privileges and immunities. Following the Benedictine tradition, Almeric, the first abbot, opened a school, which soon became famous. Under the next four abbots its fame continued to increase. The abbey complex was created on the Miminde estate, which the founder had inherited from Albert von Gieselwerder. The site lay at the confluence of the Rivers Nieme and Weser. Henry's father, Otto of Nordheim, had previously erected the a couple of kilometers upriver, which provided a measure of protection. During the 15th century a strong current of monastic and ecclesiastical reform made itself felt throughout the Roman Catholic world. One of the first Benedictine reformers was John Dederoth of Northeim. After carrying out notable reforms at Clus Abbey, where he had been abbot since 1430, Dederoth was persuaded by Duke Otto of Brunswick in 1433 to undertake the reform of Bursfelde. Obtaining four exemplary religious from the monastery of St. Matthias' Abbey, Trier, he assigned two of them to the monastery at Clus, to maintain his reformed discipline there, while the other two accompanied him to Bursfelde. As abbot of Clus, he was able to recruit from that community for Bursfelde. Dederoth succeeded beyond expectations in the restoration of Bursfelde and began the reform of Reinhausen Abbey, near Göttingen, but died on 6 February 1439, before his efforts in that quarter had borne fruit. ==Bursfelde Congregation==

:See main article Bursfelde Congregation Dederoth's successor, John of Hagen, obtained permission in 1445 from the Council of Basle to restore the Divine Office to the original form of the old Benedictine breviary and to introduce liturgical and disciplinary uniformity in the monasteries that followed the reform of Bursfelde. On 11 March 1446 the Cardinal Legate Louis d'Allemand approved the Bursfelde Union or Congregation, which then consisted of six abbeys: Bursfelde itself, Clus, Reinhausen, Cismar in Schleswig-Holstein, St. Jacob near Mainz, and Huysburg near Magdeburg. On 6 March 1458, Pope Pius II approved the statutes of the congregation. The Bursfelde Congregation was a highly beneficial reforming influence on the spiritual life of the time in the Benedictine monasteries of Germany during the second half of the fifteenth, and the first half of the sixteenth, century. At the death of Abbot John of Hagen thirty-six monasteries had already joined the Bursfelde Congregation, and just before the Reformation, at least 136 abbeys, scattered through all parts of Germany, belonged to it. The efficacy of the Congregation was severely curtailed by the Reformation, during which many of its member houses were dissolved, but continued in a restricted form until the secularisations of the late 18th and early 19th centuries dissolved the surviving religious houses. ==Reformation and dissolution==

In 1579, Andrew Lüderitz, the last abbot of Bursfelde, was driven out by the Lutheran Duke Julius of Brunswick, and Bursfelde ceased to be a Catholic monastery. The possessions of the abbey were confiscated, and the abbot was replaced by a Lutheran. A Protestant convent was accommodated here until well into the 17th century, when the estates were leased out to tenants. A few Catholic monks returned for a time during the Thirty Years' War. The title of (Protestant) abbot has been bestowed since 1828 on the Senior Fellow of the Theological Faculty at the University of Göttingen. The surviving abbey buildings are still used for theological training and conferences. The legal basis for the meeting house is the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Hanover. The spiritual center is incorporated into the House of Church Offices of the Church of Hanover. It is owned by the Hanover Chamber monaste. ==References==