St Aurelius A
Christian chapel at Hirsau dedicated to Saint
Nazarius had already been erected in the late 8th century. The monastery itself was founded in about 830 by the
Rhenish Franconian count Erlafried of Calw at the instigation of his son, Bishop Notting of
Vercelli, who gave it the relics of Saint Aurelius of Riditio, an
Armenian bishop who had died about 475, brought from
Milan among other treasures. They were first placed in the oratory of St. Nazarius' Chapel, while the monastery at Hirsau was being built on the count's estates. It was settled by a colony of fifteen monks descending from
Fulda Abbey, disciples of
Rabanus Maurus and
Walafrid Strabo, under an abbot Liudebert or Lutpert. Count Erlafried endowed the new foundation with extended lands and other gifts, and made a solemn donation of the whole into the hands of Lutpert, on condition that the
Rule of Saint Benedict should be observed. A first
aisleless church, dedicated to Saint Aurelius, was not completed until 838, when it was consecrated by Archbishop
Odgar of Mainz, who at the same time translated the relics from their temporary resting place to the new church. He renovated the premises, but so slowly that they were not refurbished until 1065, when the monastery was resettled by a dozen monks from the renowned
Einsiedeln Abbey in
Swabia, with Abbot Frederick at their head. Image:Dehio I 56 Hirsau Section.jpg|Dehio: section Image:Dehio_I_56_Hirsau_Section_2.jpg|Dehio: section Image:Dehio_230_Hirsau_St_Aurelius1.jpg|Dehio: elevation
Sts Peter and Paul Abbot Frederick was deposed and the Counts of
Calw dismissed his elected successor, Abbot Friedrich. They had a distant connection to Otto,
Bishop of Regensburg. In May 1069,
William, a monk of
Saint Emmeram's Abbey was psent as successor. He immediately took over the management of the monastery, but refused to accept the abbatial benediction until after the death of his unjustly deposed predecessor in 1071. He was solemnly inaugurated by the Bishop of Speyer on Ascension Day in 1071. When William came the condition of the monastery was far from satisfactory. The monks were living in cramped conditions, as the buildings were still incomplete and furthermore repeatedly affected by floods of the
Nagold river. Count Adalbert still retained possession of some of the monastic property, together with a certain amount of unhelpful influence over the community, and regular discipline was very much relaxed. Abbot William's zeal and prudence by degrees remedied this unsatisfactory state of affairs and inaugurated a period of great prosperity, both spiritual and temporal. During the
Investiture Controversy that shook the
Holy Roman Empire, he secured the independence of the abbey from the Counts of Calw and placed its finances on a sound footing. In 1089, monks from Hirsau founded
Zwiefalten Abbey. William completed the buildings already begun and from 1082 afterwards greatly added to them, as the needs of the increasing community required, a new monastery complex on a high plateau on the opposite side of the Nagold river. The Sts
Peter and
Paul's abbey church, which was modelled on
Cluny II finished about 981 under Abbot
Majolus, was consecrated in 1091. The
convent followed the next year, when it moved into the adjacent new monastic compound designed according to the
Plan of Saint Gall, while old St Aurelius was converted into a
priory. William also refounded the monastic school for which the abbey had formerly been famous throughout Germany. But the abbot's greatest work, perhaps, and that for which his name is best remembered, was the reformation that he effected within the community itself.
Cluny was then at the height of its fame and William sent some of his monks there to learn the Cluniac customs and rule, after which the Cluniac discipline was introduced at Hirsau. By his
Constitutiones Hirsaugienses, the
Ordo Hirsaugiensis, was formed. Known as the
Hirsau Reforms, the adoption of this rule revitalised Benedictine monasteries throughout Germany, such as those of
Zwiefalten,
Blaubeuren Petershausen,
Saint Peter and
Saint George in the Black Forest in Swabia, as well as the Thuringian monastery of
Reinhardsbrunn, Franconian
Comburg and
St. Paul's Abbey in the Lavanttal in
Carinthia. Hirsau priories were located at
Reichenbach and
Schönrain, in Bavarian
Fischbachau and Thuringian
Paulinzella. A friend and correspondent of
Pope Gregory VII and Archbishop
Anselm of Canterbury, William took active part in the politico-ecclesiastical controversies of his time. He was also author of
inter alia the treatise
De musica et tonis, as well as the
Philosophicarum et astronomicarum institutionum libri iii. which for several centuries remained the standard of monastic observance. Under William monks were sent out from Hirsau to reform other German monasteries on the same lines, and from it seven new monasteries were founded. The numbers of the community increased to 150 under his rule, manual labour and the copying of manuscripts forming an important part of their occupations. Numerous exemptions and other privileges were obtained from time to time from emperors and popes. In the twelfth century the autocratic rule of Abbot Manegold caused for a time some internal dissensions and a consequent decline of strict discipline, but the vigorous efforts of several abbots checked the decadence, and temporarily re-established the stricter observance. About the end of the 12th century Hirsau Abbey was again very perceptibly on the decline both materially and morally. It never afterwards again rose into importance. In the fifteenth century, however, the famous "Customs" gradually became little more than a dead letter. Wolfram, the thirty-eighth abbot (1428–1460), introduced the contemporary
Melk Reform. A few years later Hirsau adopted the Constitutions of
Bursfelde Abbey and became part of the
Bursfelde Congregation. Wolfram's successor, Bernhard, carried on the work of revival, freed the abbey from its debts, restored the monastic buildings, and also reformed several other monasteries. In the days of Abbot John III (1514–1556) Hirsau fell on hard times: the
Protestant Reformation began to make its influence felt, and after a brief period of struggle, the abbey, through the involvement of Duke
Ulrich of Württemberg, passed into Lutheran hands, though still maintaining its monastic character. In consequence of the Reformation it was secularized in 1558. In 1630 it became Catholic again for a short time, but after the
Peace of Westphalia (1648) it once more came under the control of the Dukes of Württemberg and another series of Lutheran abbots presided over it. The community eventually came to an end and
Christoph, Duke of Württemberg established a Protestant boarding school at the former monastery. His son,
Louis III, Duke of Württemberg built a hunting lodge on the site of the abbot's house. Hirsau Abbey was finally destroyed during the
Nine Years' War by
French troops under General Lieutenant
Mélac in 1692. ==Present day==