You are here

The institutional foundation of the chapter of St Stephen

Reinhard Strohm

The establishment of the collegiate chapter at St Stephen’s by Duke Rudolf IV was part of a longer effort by the Austrian rulers to ennoble their most important secular church.[20] Already in the fourteenth century, the church was referred to as “der thumb” or “die thumkirchen” (i.e., cathedral); it was not designated as a bishop’s seat until 1469 and was factually established as such only in 1480. The collegiate chapter, dedicated to All Saints and Angels, had already been conceived by Rudolf IV in 1358 and confirmed by Pope Innocent VI. According to many historians, this was originally a foundation for Duke Rudolf’s princely palace chapter and burial place in the Hofburg Chapel, which was transferred to St Stephen’s in 1365.[21] However, Viktor Flieder shows that a chapter never existed in the Hofburg Chapel and that the foundation was intended for St Stephen’s from the outset.[22] The liturgical services of the St Stephen’s chapter are described in a ducal memorial foundation dated 28 March 1363; this formed, based on the Passau diocesan rite, the starting point for the church’s further liturgical and musical development.[23] Here, Duke Rudolf created 25 prebends for canons, one of whom, as provost, held the prepositura. Three other leading offices were the decanatus (dean), the thesauraria (treasurer, sacristan), and the cantoria (cantor, Sangherr). There were also 25 (later 26) prebends for chaplains. The “choirmaster” (magister chori), who is not mentioned in Rudolf’s foundation, was the senior among the priests entrusted with pastoral care (octonarii: the group of eight).[24] His role is clearly distinguishable from that of the cantor.[25]

[21] Grass 1967, especially 464–467.

[22] Flieder 1968, 140–148, especially 148.

[23] Edited by Ogesser 1779, Appendices X and XI, 77–83. See also Flieder 1968, 155, 158–160.

[24] A statute from 1367 stipulated that the roles of “choirmaster” (magister chori) and dean should be united in one person (Göhler 1932/2015, 141 f.), which, however, apparently did not occur (Flieder 1968, 173 f.).

[25] Mantuani’s (Mantuani 1907, 288) mistaken equation of “choirmaster” with “cantor” has often been repeated. The German term for the latter was “Sangherr”. Ulreich senior (1365?) was “magister chori et cantor” (Göhler 1932/2015, 142 and fig. 11), i.e. the two titles were not synonymous. On the correct use of the terms, see Ebenbauer 2005, 14 f. (choirmaster responsible for the parish), although Mantuani is cited there without contradiction.