Abbreviata species facti in causa abbatis Anselmi in Monte S. Michaëlis prope Bambergam Ordinis S. Benedicti quoad spiritualia

reduced to straits and rendered unable to defend itself, and at last had to succumb to the violence and overbearing power of Bamberg. For, in the name of the Most High Bishop of Bamberg—with the religious of the monastery thrown into prison—the Abbot himself was forcibly abducted by soldiers to the custody of the Bishop and was held there until he subscribed to letters highly prejudicial to the rights and privileges of the monastery, acknowledging the Most High as his Ordinary and
Letter I.

territorial Lord. By this, through a transaction initiated at Cologne and further solidified in appearance under Letter I, the first visitation was soon instituted in 1675. New statutes were published, while the old ones of the Bursfelde Congregation were completely suppressed. And because this deed was entirely contrary to the special oath of the Abbot and monks—namely, I promise obedience to the annual chapter concerning the Bursfelde Observance, submitting myself to the statutes and those to be established—many of the professed monks fled, preferring to live and die in exile rather than consent freely to this violent dismemberment of the abbey from the Congregation. Behold now the solemn beginning of a subjection achieved, or rather extorted by force and fear against the notorious immediacy of the monastery! Behold a deed against good faith, given the notorious knowledge of the rights of another! What claim did the Congregation have
Sign. †

in said abbey, which had been possessed and united to it for over two hundred years? See Sign. †. Not to mention that the faith itself, given on the part of Bamberg in the Cologne Pacts, has been violated in many ways up to this point. Therefore, the rule justly applies: To the faith-breaker, let faith be broken. And what does not stand by law from the beginning does not recover by the passage of time, especially since, due to the lack of good faith and other circumstances of war and turbulence, no prescription runs or can exist.

Hardly had this storm passed when another soon arose under Abbot Christopher, Baron of Guttenberg, coadjutor and immediate successor to the Roman Abbot. For when his own brother, Godfrey, the Most High Bishop of Würzburg and Duke of Eastern Franconia, had died, the syndic of the monastery was taken prisoner by Bamberg soldiers at Forchheim around the year 1701 and cast into a squalid prison. Abbot Christopher, shortly thereafter, completely stripped of his abbatial administration like his predecessor, lived in exile for seven years until he was restored with his syndic through another transaction, not unlike the first, which was highly
Letter K.

prejudicial and made under force and fear, as under Letter K. The damage brought to the abbey by these two disturbances exceeds one hundred thousand florins. Meanwhile, the regular discipline, relaxed and almost shapeless, changed like a Proteus. With the monks as corrupt as the secular officials of the monastery, everything declined from day to day for the worse, just as Christopher, who was Abbot for thirty-four years, lamented shortly before his death See Letter Q. And although both aforementioned abbots initiated actions at the Holy See regarding spiritual matters, and at the Imperial Aulic Council in Vienna regarding temporal matters, and obtained rescripts and the most severe inhibitory mandates against the Most High Bishops of Bamberg, they never achieved full effect due to the prevailing and disobedient overbearing power of the opposing party in those miserable times. Meanwhile, the effects worthy of special consideration are the following: the abbey violently torn from the Bursfelde Congregation, its rights deeply wounded or completely lost; the abbey’s damage amounting to so many thousands of florins; the discipline dissolved and the eternal salvation of so many souls endangered or completely lost; and finally, divine worship neglected.

Therefore, seeing this most miserable state of the Imperial Monastery, Abbot Anselm, elected in 1724 as the immediate successor to the Most Reverend Christopher, wished to test whether—while the subjection of the monastery with respect to the Bamberg Ordinary persisted—he could at least save the souls entrusted to him, along with exact divine worship, as the more principal obligation of his office, by means suitable to his calling and state! Hence, he began first to seek the Kingdom of God and His justice through the restoration of the collapsed discipline, not according to private judgment, but according to the clear constitution of the Council of Trent, Session 25, Chapter 1 on Regulars. Similarly, to promote divine worship, he restored the collapsed Provostry of Saint Faith (mentioned above) according to the same Council of Trent, Session 25, Chapter 21 on Regulars, regarding those things which are strictly prescribed concerning observance and the strict execution of the aforementioned decrees in the same Council, Session 25, Chapter 22 on Regulars. Furthermore, he strove not only to preside but also to be of profit, and thus to perform his office entirely and duly, with God giving special increase, at least regarding temporal matters See
Letter T.

Letter T. With no less zeal, he singularly promoted the public good of the Fatherland (the Bishopric of Bamberg itself) through arduous labors for sixteen years. But despite all this, both inside and outside the monastery, during his administration