Custody: threat instead of protection
In 1314 the land of Thorn was startled by several incidents that created great unrest among the population. Gerard I, lord of Horne, his charge d'affaires Godfried Slaterbeck and their retinue, committed violence on persons and property of the abbey of Thorn. This included the murder of lord Gerlach of Ubach, former canon at Geertruidenberg (a daughter church of Thorn). Arnold of Thorn, servant at the court of the abbess, was seriously wounded. During this period, Gerard was said to illegally enforce fines on the inhabitants of the Land of Thorn and, in violation of land law, appropriate municipal land. In short: instead of being a protector, this "lord" posed a threat.
What preceded and what followed?
Reason
In the charter of 12 December 1282, Reinoud I, count of Gelre and duke of Limburg, announces that Willem II, lord of Horne and Altena and his eldest son Willem renounce all the bribes they could levy as guardians of Thorn, for the benefit of the abbey of Thorn (charter no. 47). The abbey under Abbess Guda of Rennenberg pays money for this.
Since there was apparently an early dispute between the parties about the legal nature of this agreement, none other than Roman King Adolf confirmed this agreement on 17 September 1292, at the request of the abbess and the convent (charter no. 63).
The abbey's desire to buy back these rights may have had to do with the problems those rights had previously caused. For example, a dispute between the abbess and Willem II ran so high that in 1273 arbitrators had to be appointed to rule on the validity of those rights (charter no. 39). In Theme 7 we pay separate attention to the role that arbitrators often played as mediators in such disputes.
After the death of Willem II of Horne in 1304, the youngest son, Gerard I lord of Horne, comes into possession of the Land of Horne. Willem III had previously died childless in 1301, shortly after succeeding his father. Gerard is dissatisfied with the sale of the rights by his father and his brother to the abbey of Thorn. By all possible means he tries to recover the rights, not shying away from the use of violence with the killing of the canon and the wounding of the monastery's clerk. The abbey resists with legal means and seeks compensation and punishment from the perpetrator of violence. This leads to years of disputes in which the help of the higher ecclesiastical authority is sought.
Measures
At the request of the abbess, Margaret of Petersheim, the officiate (=ecclesiastical judge) of Liege pronounces the ecclesiastical ban on Gerard I of Horne and his supporters on 11 July 1314. Since Gerard takes little notice of it, the officiate decides to proclaim and tighten the ban for a second time, on 16 August. Henceforth, the entire land where those involved eat, drink or stay overnight is placed under "interdict". This means that church services there are suspended for three days, during which time no masses are to be read and no baptisms or church funerals are to take place. These are measures that greatly affected the population at the time. In Gerard's appeal against those decisions to the ecclesiastical court of the archdiocese of Cologne, the Liege rulings are confirmed on 14 October 1315, and the ban is extended to the entire archdiocese.
When that still did not help, more stringent measures by the bishop of the diocese of Liege followed on 19 December of that year. These applied not only in Liege, but also in the area of the Church of Our Lady of bishopric Maastricht, to which Gerard and his retinue had fled. To reinforce the measures, the excommunication on 30 January 1316 was now announced again by the Cologne officiating officer. In doing so, it called for the help of the dukes and counts of Gelre, Cleve, Berg and Brabant. When then Pope John XXII was called to Avignon and issued a papal bull of excommunication on 27 June 1318, and then in March 1319 the ban was proclaimed in the diocese of Cambrai, Gerard bowed his head after six years of flight.
Here we see the role of the ecclesiastical court in disputes with the abbey, with secular lords then being called in to carry out the ecclesiastical punishments.
Peace
On 30 July 1320, peace was made by the parties in the cemetery of Elen. Gerard promised to provide all necessary compensation because of the murder of Canon Gerlach of Ubach and the mutilation of Arnold of Thorn. He would return all fines that he had illegally extorted from the inhabitants of the Land of Thorn and also returned the lands which he had unlawfully acquired. On the same day arbitrators were appointed and peace terms were drafted. Shortly thereafter peace was officially concluded. On 5 August 1320, Adolf van der Mark, bishop of Liege, approved the peace treaty.
A wry detail in this history is evident from an earlier deed of 25 June 1299 (charter no. 72). In it some knights stated that Geertrui, widow of the murdered Gerlach of Ubach, acknowledged with her sons that she had received full reparation for the damages resulting from the imprisonment of Gerlach of Ubach. From this it can be concluded that Gerlach had been imprisoned, very unjustly according to the document, by a certain person nicknamed "Wraedsche," on behalf of abbess Guda of Rennenberg and the convent. Was this person possibly related to the later murder of Canon Gerlach? What then was the role of Gerard I of Horne in this?
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