The
BenedictineBenedictine refers to the spirituality and consecrated life in accordance with the Rule of St Benedict, written by Benedict of Nursia in the sixth century for the cenobitic communities he founded in central Italy. The most notable of these is Monte Cassino, the first monastery founded by Benedict...
abbey of St James (
Jakobskirche) in
RegensburgRegensburg is a city in Bavaria, Germany, located at the confluence of the Danube and Regen rivers, at the northernmost bend in the Danube. To the east lies the Bavarian Forest. Regensburg is the capital of the Bavarian administrative region Upper Palatinate...
,
GermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
, was founded by
Hiberno-Scottish missionThe Hiberno-Scottish mission was a mission led by Irish and Scottish monks which spread Christianity and established monasteries in Great Britain and continental Europe during the Middle Ages. The mission began in 563 with the foundation of Iona by the Irish monk Saint Columba, and was initially...
aries and for most of its history was in the hands of first
IrishIreland is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island in the world. It lies to the north-west of continental Europe and is surrounded by hundreds of islands and islets. To the east of Ireland, separated by the Irish Sea, is the island of Great Britain...
, then
ScottishScotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
monks. Hence it is known as the
Scots Monastery, in
GermanGerman is a West Germanic language, thus related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. It is one of the world's major languages and the most widely spoken first language in the European Union. Around the world, German is spoken by approximately 105 million native speakers and also by...
Schottenkirche,
Schottenkloster or
Schottenstift. (In Middle Latin,
Scotti meant
GaelGaël is a commune in the Ille-et-Vilaine department in Bretagne in north-western France.It lies southwest of Rennes between Saint-Méen-le-Grand and Mauron...
s from Scotland or Ireland, so that the term
Schottenstift already dates from the Irish period.) The full official name of the actual church, the most prominent building within the abbey complex, is
Die irische Benediktinerklosterkirche St. Jakob und St. Gertrud (literally: "The Irish Benedictine Abbey Church of St. James and St. Gertrude").
Architecture
The abbey was originally to the south of the city walls around the year 1070, but this proved to be too small to accommodate the influx of Irish monks. A new site outside of the western city gate was purchased, and construction of a new abbey began around 1100. Around 1300 the city walls were extended and St. James became a part of the fortified city. The new western gate became known as the
Jakobstor.
The abbey complex consisted of a number of buildings. The two most significant structures, the church and the cloister, both survive. The cloister is however significantly altered, having been destroyed by fires in 1278 and 1546, and rebuilt between 1866 and 1872. The entire complex was originally surrounded by a wall, which separated a cemetery to the north of the church from the street that led westwards out of the city.
Church
The first abbey church was built at the beginning of the 11th century. It was a three-aisled basilica with three apses. The only portion of this building to survive in full is its eastern end (the apses and the two flanking towers). Traces of the western wall have also been discovered, which indicate that the building was much shorter than the present structure, although of the same width.
A new church, the structure which has substantially survived up to the present day, was constructed at some point between 1175 and 1180. It is a very fine example of
Romanesque architectureRomanesque architecture is an architectural style of Medieval Europe, characterised by semi-circular arches, and evolving into the Gothic style, characterised by pointed arches, beginning in the 12th century...
: a three-aisled basilica with three apses, towers at the east, and a transept at the west. A gallery, in which an organ has since been installed, extends over all three aisles in the transept.
The nave is separated from the aisles by cylindrical masonry pillars (not monolithic columns), whose capitals are fine works of high Romanesque sculpture. Their arrangement indicates forethought, as capitals with botanical decoration alternate with those with figural decoration. The figures include wild men, lions, eagles, and crocodiles, and may have Christological significance. The corners of the pillar bases are decorated with the heads of less noble beasts, including pigs, dogs, donkeys, and vultures.
Under the triumphal arch at the entrance to the central apse stand three wooden sculptures of the late twelfth century, which together form a crucifixion scene. They originally stood on the altar, but were repainted in 1874 and set in their present position in 1893. The apse itself was decorated between 1866 and 1872 by Bavarian and Austrian artists in a Romanesque revival style.
Schottenportal
The most famous architectural element of the church is its north portal (the
Schottenportal), which occupies a full third of the north wall, and is richly decorated with both ornamental and figural sculptures. The proper interpretation of this sculptural program has been debated since the beginning of the 19th century. In the 1990s it was suggested that only the
tympanumIn architecture, a tympanum is the semi-circular or triangular decorative wall surface over an entrance bounded by a lintel and arch. It often contains sculptures or other ornaments...
,
archivoltAn archivolt is an ornamental molding or band following the curve of the underside of an arch. It is composed of bands of ornamental moldings surrounding an arched opening, corresponding to the architrave in the case of a rectangular opening...
, and jambs formed an original composition of the 12th century, while the remaining portions of the
Schottenportal were assembled from
spoliaSpolia is a modern art-historical term used to describe the re-use of earlier building material or decorative sculpture on new monuments...
during the Renaissance. While this theory would have absolved art historians of the duty of interpreting the program as a unified whole, it has not met with wide acceptance. Indeed, a thorough examination of the structure seems to have demonstrated conclusively that the entire portal was assembled in the late 12th century, simultaneously with the construction of the second church.
The portal is divided into thirds both horizontally and vertically. At the lowest level, the door is framed at the center by richly decorated jambs, at each side of which stands a flat field interspersed with various relief sculptures. The second level is occupied by the tympanum and archivolt at the center and by blind arcades with caryatids at right and left. At the top, a frieze showing Christ with the twelve apostles stands at the middle, while figureless blind arcades stand at either side.
The interpretation of the tympanum is relatively uncontroversial: it portrays Christ, at the center, flanked by Sts. James and John. Numerous explanations for the remaining figures have been proposed; here only that of Richard Strobel has been presented.
There are various indications that the left side, as one faces the portal, is more highly regarded than the right. Its entablature carries a rich
interlaceIn the visual arts, interlace is a decorative element found in medieval art. In interlace, bands or portions of other motifs are looped, braided, and knotted in complex geometric patterns, often to fill a space. Islamic interlace patterns and Celtic knotwork share similar patterns, suggesting a...
, while that at right is undecorated; the arcade in the middle zone is filled by a row of human heads, while that at right is filled with those of animals. The central sculpture in the lowest zone at left, which is set on a throne and projects significantly from the ground, clearly represents Mary with the Christ child; the former, as the "new Eve," holds an apple, while the latter holds the book of life. The reliefs at either side show human figures caressing each other, that is, in attitudes of harmony. The corresponding central figure on the lowest zone at right, on the other hand, is bracketed by aggressive, hostile beasts; this may represent the
AntichristThe Antichrist, according to Christianity, is one who fulfills Biblical prophecies concerning an adversary of Christ while resembling him in a deceptive manner. "Antichrist" is the English translation of the original Koine Greek ἀντίχριστος, pronounced än-tē'-khrē-stos. It is made up of two root...
.
However, if the central figures at left and right are understood to stand for good and evil, respectively, the reliefs beneath them seem to represent a reversal of the situation. At left, a dragon is shown swallowing a lion, while at the lowermost level a siren appears, a symbol of temptation. At right, a crocodile is shown swalling a hydrus, wrapped in a ball of clay. According to a medieval legend, the hydrus, once inside, would destroy the crocodile from within; the story was understood to represent the
Harrowing of HellThe Harrowing of Hell is a doctrine in Christian theology referenced in the Apostles' Creed and the Athanasian Creed , which states that Jesus "descended into Hell"...
. At the lowermost level monks are depicted with gospel books in hand, thus pilgrims and missionaries. Therefore, if the central figures at left are auspicious, while those at right carry negative connotations, the exact opposite situation prevails at the lowest levels.
The general preference for the left side, however, is resumed at the middle level. Here the figures at right appear to represent vices. For example, the second caryatid from the right is a woman holding snakes to her breast; she may represent Luxuria (unchastity). The caryatids at left, on the other hand, appear to represent virtues. For example, the second figure from the left is a man wearing a plaited belt; he may represent Fortitudo (bravery).
The uppermost register, in which Christ appears flanked by the twelve apostles, is most likely a representation of the
Last JudgmentThe concept of a Last Judgment is found in all Abrahamic religions and elsewhere like Zoroastrianism and Duat.In Islam, the Last Judgment is referred to as "the Day of Standing" and God Almighty, will judge all Creation....
.
It remains only to describe the jambs, which are decorated with a striking array of ornament, and at top and bottom with a variety of kneeling figures. The identities of some of these figures may be ascertained through their attributes. For example, the foremost figure at the lower right holds a t-shaped staff, which accessory was commonly associated with hermits and monks. The central figure at the upper right plays a bowed instrument, while the innermost figure at the upper left holds a vessel on which animal pelts are draped. These figures may refer to the history of the monastery itself: the monk with his staff to its origin among the hermits of Ireland; the musician to their position within the courtly society of Regensburg; and the fur-trader to their involvement with mercantile expeditions to
KievKiev or Kyiv , is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300...
.
As the portal reliefs have suffered from exposure to the elements, it was decided to enclose them within a glass vestibule. The work began in 1999, and was completed in 2000.
Irish period
The monastery was founded in the 12th century by
Scotti, that is,
GaelGaël is a commune in the Ille-et-Vilaine department in Bretagne in north-western France.It lies southwest of Rennes between Saint-Méen-le-Grand and Mauron...
s. (See
Hiberno-Scottish missionThe Hiberno-Scottish mission was a mission led by Irish and Scottish monks which spread Christianity and established monasteries in Great Britain and continental Europe during the Middle Ages. The mission began in 563 with the foundation of Iona by the Irish monk Saint Columba, and was initially...
.) Since at this period the term
Scotti did not distinguish between the two parts of Gaeldom, it is possible that some of the "Scots" monks did come from what is now Scotland, but the bulk of them were certainly Irish. Regensburg was an important centre for the Irish mission to central Europe, and the
Scots monastery in ViennaThe Schottenstift or Scottish Abbey is a Roman Catholic monastery founded in Vienna in 1155 when Henry II brought Irish monks to Vienna...
was a daughter establishment of St. Jakob. (See
Celtic ChristianityCeltic Christianity or Insular Christianity is a term referring broadly to the Early Medieval Christian practice that developed in Britain and Ireland before and during the sub-Roman period. During this period, the Roman withdrawal and the Anglo-Saxon invasion sharply reduced contact between the...
). The monks had a strong relationship with the famous school in
CashelCashel is a town in County Tipperary, in the southern midlands of Ireland, which is also the episcopal see of a Roman Catholic archbishopric and of an Anglican bishop...
.
Honorius AugustodunensisHonorius Augustodunensis , commonly known as Honorius of Autun, was a very popular 12th-century Christian theologian who wrote prolifically on many subjects. He wrote in a non-scholastic manner, with a lively style, and his works were approachable for the lay community in general...
(died c. 1151), a highly influential medieval theologian, spent the last years of his life in the monastery. It is also possible that the 12th-century Middle High German
KaiserchronikThe Kaiserchronik is a 12th century German epic poem. It is at once a kind of "Legend of all the Saints" and a confused but remarkable account of the Roman emperors and also of the German emperors and kings up to the crusade of King Conrad III . The language is comparatively good and often quite...
was written here, though this is disputed.
The foundation of the monastery is described, for example, by Konrad von Megenberg in chapter six of his
De limitibus parochiarum civitatis Ratisbonensis.
Scottish period
A
papal bullA Papal bull is a particular type of letters patent or charter issued by a pope. It is named after the bulla that was appended to the end to authenticate it....
of 1577 transferred the monastery from Irish hands to abbots from Scotland. The Scottish monks were predominantly from lowland Scotland, and thus were not Gaels. The effect of the bull was therefore a complete break in the continuity of the abbey's tradition. In part it may have been motivated by the fact that the word
Scotti had by this time come to mean 'Scots' in the modern sense, allowing the new abbots to claim that the Irish possession had always been illegitimate. It was also partly because the Irish community in Regensburg was in any case in terminal decline: the last Irish abbot had just died leaving a single monk and one novice. But the main reason was probably that the
Scottish ReformationThe Scottish Reformation was Scotland's formal break with the Papacy in 1560, and the events surrounding this. It was part of the wider European Protestant Reformation; and in Scotland's case culminated ecclesiastically in the re-establishment of the church along Reformed lines, and politically in...
of 1560 had made a Scottish Catholic haven in continental Europe appear strategically desirable.
The first Scottish abbot was
Ninian WinzetNinian Winzet , Scottish polemical writer, was born in Renfrew, and was probably educated at the university of Glasgow. His surname is "win-yet": see yogh....
(: see
yoghThe letter yogh , was used in Middle English and Middle Scots, representing y and various velar phonemes. It was derived from the Old English form of the letter g....
), the controversial critic of
John KnoxJohn Knox was a Scottish clergyman and leader of the Protestant Reformation who is considered the founder of the Presbyterian denomination. He was educated at the University of St Andrews and worked as a notary-priest. Influenced by early church reformers such as George Wishart, he joined the...
, who had been charged by
Mary, Queen of ScotsMary I was Queen of Scots from 14 December 1542 to 24 July 1567. She was the only surviving legitimate child of King James V. She was six days old when her father died and made her Queen of Scots...
with the task of providing priests for Scotland. However it was not until the early 17th century that the abbey was able to send missionaries to Scotland. From 1623 this was done in co-operation with
EnglishEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
Benedictines at
DouaiDouai is a commune in the Nord department in northern France.It is a sub-prefecture of the department. Located on the river Scarpe some 40 km from Lille and 25 km from Arras, Douai is home to one of the region's most impressive belfries.The population of the metropolitan area, including...
, in
FranceFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
.
Under the leadership of abbot
Charles ArbuthnotCharles Arbuthnot was a renowned Scottish abbot of the Scots Monastery, Regensburg, and a leading Bavarian mathematician of his time....
(1775-1820) the Scots Monastery was uniquely successful in avoiding the
secularisationThe German Mediatisation was the series of mediatisations and secularisations that occurred in Germany in 1795–1814, during the latter part of the era of the French Revolution and then the Napoleonic Era....
of religious houses of the Napoleonic period, although after the death of Arbuthnot it was demoted to a priory. The Scots presence ended in 1862, when the government of Bavaria bought the monastery for use as a seminary.
Scottish abbots 1560-1820
(incomplete list)
- c.1560-1592 Ninian Winzet
Ninian Winzet , Scottish polemical writer, was born in Renfrew, and was probably educated at the university of Glasgow. His surname is "win-yet": see yogh....
- 1608 John VII
- 1692 Placidus Flemming
- 1742 Bernard Stuart
- 1775-1820 Charles Arbuthnot
Charles Arbuthnot was a renowned Scottish abbot of the Scots Monastery, Regensburg, and a leading Bavarian mathematician of his time....
Current use
In 1862 the abbey was reopened as a seminary (training college) for priests, belonging to the local German diocese of the Catholic Church.
Library
The medieval library built up by the Irish monks included many manuscript treasures. It is possible that it also contained parts of the library of the
VienneseVienna is the capital of the Republic of Austria and also one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.7 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre. It is the 10th largest city by...
abbey. When the two last Scots monks finally left Regensburg in 1862, Anselm Robertson of
FochabersFochabers is a village in the Parish of Bellie, in Moray, Scotland, not far from the cathedral city of Elgin and located on the east bank of the River Spey. Around 2,000 people live in the village, which enjoys a rich musical and cultural history...
, the last prior, transported many of the greatest treasures to the Benedictine Abbey at
Fort AugustusFort Augustus Abbey, properly St. Benedict's Abbey, at Fort Augustus, Inverness-shire, Scotland, was a Benedictine monastery, from late in the nineteenth century to 1998.-History:...
, which closed in 1998, when the Regensburg books and manuscripts were transferred to the
National Library of ScotlandThe National Library of Scotland is the legal deposit library of Scotland. It is based in a collection of buildings in Edinburgh city centre. The headquarters is on George IV Bridge, between the Old Town and the university quarter. There is also a more modern building in a residential area on the...
and the
Scottish Catholic Archives in Edinburgh.
Pride of place goes to a volume of texts written in 1080 by the Irish Benedictine monk
MarianusBlessed Marianus Scotus, abbot of St. Peter's at Ratisbon, was born in Ireland before the middle of the eleventh century; he died at Ratisbon towards the end of the eleventh century, around 1088.In 1067 he left Ireland, intending to make a pilgrimage to Rome...
, the founder of the community at Regensburg. This contains, in Marianus's hand, the earliest written
GaelicThe Goidelic languages form one of the two branches of the Insular Celtic languages, the other consisting of the Brythonic languages. They historically formed a dialect continuum stretching from the south of Ireland, through the Isle of Man, to the north of Scotland. There are three modern Goidelic...
words to be found in any work in Scotland. There is also a translation of a
LatinLatin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Roman conquest, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe...
text into Scots, made in 1596 by Fr
James DalrympleJames Dalrymple may refer to:*James Dalrymple, 1st Viscount of Stair *Sir James Dalrymple, 1st Baronet , second son of the above*James Dalrymple, 3rd Earl of Stair*Jamie Dalrymple , English cricketer...
and seen as of great importance as a
Scots languageScots or Lowland Scots is the variety of Germanic language traditionally spoken in lowland Scotland and parts of Ulster. It is not to be confused with Scottish Gaelic, the Celtic language varieties traditionally spoken in the Highlands and Hebrides....
text.
Sources
- Lore Conrad: Die Bildsymbolsprache der romanischen Schottenkirche in Regensburg. 6th edition. Regensburg 1993, ISBN 3-9800355-5-7
- Helmut Flachenecker: Schottenklöster. Irische Benediktinerkonvente im hochmittelalterlichen Deutschland. Paderborn, 1995, ISBN 3-506-73268-4
- Elgin von Gaisberg: Das Schottenportal in Regensburg. Bauforschung und Baugeschichte. Regensburg 2005, ISBN 3-937527-07-9
- Paul Mai, ed.: Scoti peregrini in St. Jakob. Regensburg, 2005, ISBN 3-7954-1775-9
- Helmut-Eberhard Paulus et al., eds.: Romanik in Regensburg. Kunst, Geschichte, Denkmalpflege. Regensburg 1996, ISBN 3-7954-1095-9
- Alasdair Roberts: Regensburg and the Scots, Aberdeen 2005.
- Mona Stocker: Die Schottenkirche St. Jakob in Regensburg: Skulptur und stilistisches Umfeld. Regensburg 2001, ISBN 3-930480-56-5
- Richard Strobel: Schottenkirche St. Jakob, Regensburg (=Schnell Kunstführer Nr. 691). 18th edition, Regensburg 2006, ISBN 3-7954-4437-3
- Richard Strobel and Markus Weis: Romanik in Altbayern. Zodiaque-Echter, Würzburg 1994, ISBN 3-429-01616-9
See also