Aachen
(In French, Aix-la-Chapelle, the name
by which the city is generally known; in Latin Aquae Grani, later Aquisgranum)
The city of Aachen lies in a Prussian valley,
surrounded by wooded heights, on the Wurm, a tributary of the
Roer, on its way to the Meuse.
Population, 1 December, 1905, 151,922 (including the Parish of Forst);
Catholics, 139,485;
Protestants, 10,552; Israelites, 1,658; other
denominations, 227. [1990 Population: about 250,000 — Ed.]
The city owes its
origin to its salubrious springs which were already
known in the time of the Romans. There appears to
have been a royal court in Aachen under the
Merovingians, but it rose to greater importance under
Charlemagne
who chose it as his favourite place of
residence, adorned it with a noble-imperial palace and
chapel, and gave orders that he should be buried there.
The precious
relics
obtained by Charlemagne and
Otho III for the imperial chapel were the objects of
great pilgrimages in the Middle Ages (the so-called
"Shrine Pilgrimages") which drew countless swarms of
pilgrims from Germany, Austria, Hungary, England,
Sweden, and other countries. From the middle of the
fourteenth century onwards, however it became
customary to expose the four great relics only once in
every seven years, a custom which still holds. These
pilgrimages, the coronations of the German emperors
(thirty-seven of whom were crowned there between 813
and 1531), the flourishing industries and the privileges
conferred by the various emperors combined to make
Aachen one of the first cities of the Empire.
The decay of Aachen dates from the religious strife
of the
German Reformation.
Albrecht von Muenster
first preached
Protestantism
there in the year 1524 but
was afterwards forbidden to preach the new views and
executed on account of two murders committed during
his stay in the cities of Maastricht and Wesel. A new
Protestant community was soon, however formed in
Aachen, which gradually attained such strength as to
provoke a rising in 1581, force the election of a
Protestant burgomaster, and defy the Emperor for
several years. The Ban of the empire was, therefore,
pronounced against the city in 1597 and put in force by
the Duke of Julich, the Catholic overlord of the city.
The Catholics were restored to their rights, and the
Jesuits invited to Aachen, in 1600. In 1611, however,
the Protestants rose afresh, plundered the Jesuit college, drove out the Catholic officials in 1612, and opened
their gates to troops from Brandenburg. The Ban of the
Empire was again laid on the city, and executed by the
Spanish general, Spinola. The Protestant ringleaders
were tried or exiled, and many other Protestants
banished. These troubles, together with a great fire
which destroyed 4,000 houses, put an end to the
prosperity of the city.
Two treaties of peace were concluded at Aachen during
the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. By the first,
dated 2 May 1668, Louis XIV was compelled, by the
Triple Aliiance between England, the Netherlands, and
Sweden, to abandon the war against the Spanish
Netherlands, to restore the Franche Comte, which he had
conquered, and to content himself with twelve Flemish
fortresses. The second treaty, dated 18 October, 1748,
put an end to the War of the Austrian Succession. In
1793 and 1794, Aachen was occupied by the French,
incorporated with the French Republic in 1798 and
1802, and made the capital of the Department of the
Roer. By the terms of the French Concordat of 1801
Aachen was made a bishopric subject to the Archbishop
of Mechlin, and composed of 79 first class, and 754 second class, parishes. The first and only bishop was Marcus Antonius Berdolet (b. 13 September, 1740, at
Rougemont, in Alsace 3; d. 13 August, 1809), who, for
the most part, left the government of his diocese to his
vicar-general, Martin Wilhelm Fonck (b. 28 October,
1752, at Goch; d. 26 June, 1830, as Provost of Cologne
Cathedral). After the death of Bishop Berdolet the
diocese was governed by Le Camus, Vicar General of
Meaux; after his death, in 1814, by the two vicars-general
Fonck and Klinkenberg. The Bull of Pius VII, "De Salute
Animarum," dated 16 July, 1821 which regulated church
matters in Prussia anew, did away with the bishopric of
Aachen, and transferred most of its territory to the
archdiocese of Cologne; a collegiate chapter, consisting
of a provost and six canons, taking the place of the
bishopric in 1825. In 1815 Aachen became Prussian
territory. The Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle sat there
from 30 September to 11 November, 1818, and was
attended by the sovereigns of Russia, Austria, and
Prussia, and by plenipotentiaries from France and
England, to determine the relations between France and
the Powers. France obtained a reduction of the war
indemnity and the early departure of the army of
occupation, and joined the Holy Alliance; the other four
Powers guaranteed the throne of France to the Bourbons,
against any revolution that might occur. Aachen, under
Prussian government, returned to
prosperity, chiefly through the development of the coal
mines in the neighborhood, which facilitated several
extensive industries (such as the manufacture of linen,
needles, machinery, glass, woolen, and half-woollen
stuffs, etc.), but also in consequence of the large number of visitors to its hot springs.
The minster ranks
first among the church buildings; it consists of three
distinct parts: the octagon, the choir, and the crown,
or ring, of chapels, the octagon forming the central
portion. This last is the most important monument
of Carolingian architecture, it was built between
796 and 804, in the reign of Charlemagne, by Master
Odo of Metz, and modelled after the Italian circular
church of San Vitale at Ravenna. It was consecrated
by Pope Leo III. It is an eight-angled, domed
building, 54 feet in diameter, with a sixteen-sided
circumference of 120 feet, and a height of 124 feet.
The interior of the dome is adorned with mosaics
on a gold ground, executed by Salviati of Venice,
in 1882, representing
Our Lord
surrounded by the
four and twenty Ancients of the Apocalypse. The
main building was decorated with marble and mosaics
in 1902, after the designs of H. Schaper. Over the
spot supposed to be the site of Charlemagne's grave
hangs an enormous corona of lamps, the gift of the
Emperor Frederick I, Barbarossa; in the choir of the
octagon, the so-called upper minster, stands Charlemagne's throne,
made of great-slabs of white marble,
where, after the coronation, the German emperors
received the homage of their nobles. The rich upper
choir, built in Gothic style, joins on to the eastern
side of the octagon; it was begun in the second half
of the fourteenth century, and dedicated in 1414.
The thirteen windows, each 100 feet high, have been
filled with new coloured glass; on the pillars betwen
them stand fourteen statues (the Mother of God, the
Twelve Apostles, and Charlemagne), dating from the
fifteenth century. Among the treasures of the choir
should be mentioned the famous Gospel-pulpit,
enriched with gold plates, the gift of the Emperor
Henry II, the throne canopy of the fifteenth century
the new Gothic high altar of 1876, and the memorial
stone which marks the spot where the Emperor Otto III
formerly lay. The lower portions of the bell-tower, to
the west of the octagon, belong to the Carolingian
period, the Gothic superstructure dates from 1884. Of
the chapels which surround the whole building, the
so-called Hungarian chapel contains the minster
treasury, which includes a large number of
relics,
vessels, and vestments, the most important being those known
as the four "Great Relics," namely, the cloak of the
Blessed Virgin, the swaddling-clothes of the Infant
Jesus, the loin-cloth worn by Our Lord on the Cross,
and the cloth on which lay the head of St. John the Baptist after his beheading. They are exposed every
seven years and venerated by thousands of pilgrims.
Among the
other Catholic churches of Aachen, the following may
be mentioned:
- the Church of Our Lady, a Gothic church
in brick, built by Friederich Statz in 1859
- the Church
of St. Foillan, the oldest parish church in the city,
which dates, in its present form, from the Gothic
period, and was renovated between 1883 and 1888; and
- the Romanesque Church of St. James, built between
1877 and 1888.
The most important
secular building is
the Rathaus, built between 1333 and 1350, on the site
of, and out of the ruins of,
Charlemagne's imperial
palace, and completely renovated between 1882 and
1903. The
facade is adorned with the statues of
fifty-four
German emperors, the great hall
(
Kaisersaal) with eight
frescoes from designs by
Alfred Rethel.
In Aachen there are foundations established by the
Franciscans, Capuchins, Alexians, and Redemptorists.
A number of female orders also have establishments,
including:
COUNCILS OF AACHEN
A number of important
councils were held here in the early Middle Ages. In the
mixed council of 798, Charlemagne proclaimed an
important capitulary of eighty-one chapters, largely a
repetition of earlier ecclesiastical legislation, that was accepted by the clergy and acquired canonical authority.
At the council of 799, after a discussion of six days
Felix, Bishop of Urgel, in Spain, avowed himself
overcome by
Alcuin and withdrew his heretical theory of
Adoptianism. In the synods of 816, 817, 818, and 819,
clerical and monastic discipline was the chief issue, and
the famous "Regula Aquensis" was made obligatory
on all establishments of canons and canonesses (see
WESTERN MONASTICISM),
while a new revision of
the
Rule of St. Benedict
was imposed on the monks of
that order by the reformer Benedict of Aniane. The
synod of 836 was largely attended and devoted itself to
the restoration of ecclesiastical discipline that had been
gravely affected by the civil wars between Louis the Pious and his sons. From 860 to 862 three councils
were occupied with the question of the divorce of King Lothaire I from his wife, Theutberga. In 1166 took
place the famous schismatic council, approved by the
Antipope Paschal III, in which was decreed the
canonization of Charlemagne, that was solemnly
celebrated 29 December of that year.
JOSEPH LINS
Transcribed by Tomas Hancil
The 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia