User:Giljuna/Haderslev Priory

New article name is Haderslev Priory Haderslev Priory was a Dominican Monastery located in Haderslev, Denmark.

Haderslev was an important trade city and occasional capital of the Duchy of Schleswig-Holstein in the Middle Ages. Legend has it that Denmark's King Hatha had a residence there, hence 'Hathaslev' later Haderslev (Hadersleben in German). The town grew on the site of a seasonal trading site at the end of Haderslev Fjord and the road to Ribe, Denmark's most important town in the period before 1200. Our Lady's church and the priory were built on the shores of the fjord outside the old town. As the years passed, the town grew down to the coast just west of the priory.

Haderslev Priory was established by the Dominican order between 1249 and 1253 with a gift from Duke Abel of Schleswig or perhaps his son, Duke Erich in his father's memory. The founding documents have been lost either in the expulsion of the monks from the priory or in the great fire of 1627. The first existing reference to Haderslev Priory is in a letter of gift from 1254. The Dominicans were a mendicant order which solicited donations of food, work, and alms for the day to day operations of the monastery.

One of the few refernces to individuals at Haderslev Priory were a list of brothers moving to or from Haderslev in the late 1200's. Two of the brothers who moved to Haderslev in 1254 were Brother Johannes Holebase and Brother Bondo. In the period 1275-1280 Brother Bo moved to the priory at Schleswig and Brother Thidricus and Brother Petrus, brother visitor at Aarhus, moved to Haderslev.

Denmark's oldest copy of the bible was hand-copied at Haderslev soon after the founding of the monastery. It is often referred to as "Brother Knud's Bible' because in the manuscript there is a note indicating Brother Knud, the provincial prior bought the book in 1310 from Haderslev Priory with funds supplied by the King of Norway.

By 1486 Haderslev Priory consisted of a church with a tower topped by an onion dome, quarters for the monks, housing for secular workers, and a cemetery, which was in continuous use until 1926. The priory was located adjacent to Our Lady's Church, later Haderslev Cathedral, and Haderslevhus Castle. It was a small monastery as evidenced by the city scape painted in 1585 showing the remnant buildings of the monastery. The priory church dimensions were dictated by the order. Originally it was not be be more than thirty feet tall and with a single nave without an apse. The walled enclosure was separated from the town by a water-filled ditch.

After the civil wars of the 1200's, Haderslev was not part of the Kingdom of Denmark. It was part of the independent Duchy of Schleswig-Holstein ruled by the Duke of Schleswig-Holstein and part of the Holy Roman Empire. In the 1520's Luther's teachings spread north creating religious unrest among the people and nobility of Denmark. Duke Christian, later Christian III of Denmark was and ardent Lutheran and in 1526 made Luther's Teachings the religion of state. Haderslev has the nickname of 'Denmark's Wittenburg' for this remarkable change. Just a year later, in 1527, with the tacit approval of Duke Christian, the monks at Haderslev Priory were driven from the monastery as they returned to their quarters from mass in the priory church. Many Danes were unhappy with the additonal money, food, and labor donated to mendicant orders on top of rents, fees and tithes required by local churches.

After the Count's Feud, Denmark's religious civil war, Christian, now the King of Denmark and the State Council adopted the Lutheran Ordinances, patterned after Christian's own Haderslev Ordinances from 1528 which outlined proper Lutheran doctrine, practice and governance. in October 1536 all religious houses and any income properties belonging to them reverted to the crown.

The buildings were occupied for various purposes and eventually used as outbuldings for the new Haderslevhus Castle of 1544. The church was used as a local parish church. In 1627 after Christian IV's defeat at the Battle of Lutter am Bamberg, his German mercenary troops sacked Hadeslev, and set the town ablaze. Much of the town including Haderslev Kloster burned to the ground. The lack of documents about the priory may in part be due to the complete destruction of the town archives in the fire.

The only remnant of the priory is the origianl cemetery which was expanded in the 1800's and remained in use until 1926. During the restoration of Haderslev Cathedral several stone sarcophagi in poor condition were moved from under the floor of the nave and reinterred in the old cemetery. An investigation in 1992 found 135 stone grave markers going back to 1700. Only street names in old town Haderslev recall the 225 years the Dominican brothers lived, worked, and prayed at teh priory.