GORZE, ABBEY OF

A former benedictine monastery on the Gorze River in the arrondissement and Diocese of Metz, France. It was founded in 749 by Bp. chrodegang of metz and soon flourished. It was responsible for the reform of Gengenbach in 761 and the settling of lorsch in 765, and soon over 25 villages and 45 parishes made up its secular and religious domain. Decline set in with the introduction of commendation in 825 until finally Bp. Adalbero I of Metz in 933 gave the ruined monastery to the archdeacon Einold of Toul and to john of gorze, who wished to establish a more austere community. The reform movement that had its start in Gorze as well as in Saint-Evre in Toul and saint-maximin in Trier came to be known as the reform of Gorze when numerous communities adopted its customs under the Abbots Einold (933–967), John of Gorze (967–976), Immo (976–1016), Siegfried (1016–55), and Henry the Good (1055–93). This monastic federation, eventually counting over 170 houses, did not seek exemption from episcopal authority, nor did it tend toward centralization, as was the case with the equally famous reform movement instituted by cluny. Besides Gorze, whose immediate affiliation counted 31 monasteries, the principal centers of the movement were Saint-Maximin in Trier, sankt emmeram in Regensburg, niederaltaich, Lorsch, Fulda, Mainz-St. Alban, einsiedeln, Schwarzach on the Main, and Ilsenburg. Emperor henry ii imposed the customs of Gorze on several unwilling communities such as the Abbey of reichenau in 1006. As Gorze's spiritual power declined, it became a feudal principality, gaining the right of minting in 1095 and of fortifying the abbey in 1173. The monastery, again under commendatary abbots after 1468, saw French and Spanish troops fight over its territories from 1543 to 1552. At the request of Gorze's abbot, Cardinal Charles I of Lorraine (d. 1574, see lorraine, cardinals of), Pope gregory xiii secularized the monastery in 1572. In 1580, 12 canons with their abbot took the place of the monks. Duke Charles IV of Lorraine ceded the territory of Gorze to France in 1661, and the chapter was suppressed in 1790. The various buildings that still remain have been put to other uses.

Bibliography: Sources. Monumenta Germaniae Historica: Scriptores (Berlin 1826–) 4:333–377; 15:973–977. Literature. l. h. cottineau, Répertoire topobibliographique des abbayes et prieurés, 2 v. (Mâcon 1935–39) 1:1303–04. c. wolff, "Die Gorzer Reform in ihrem Verhältnis zu deutschen Klöstern," Elsasslothringisches Jahrbuch 9 (1930) 95–111. w. wattenbach, Deutschlands Geschchtsquellen im Mittelalter. Deutsche Kaiserzeit, ed. r. holtzmann, v.1.1–4 (3d ed. Tübingen 1948; repr. of 2d ed. 1938–43) 1:180–186, 596–597. k. hallinger, Gorze-Kluny, 2 v. (Studia anselmiana 22–25; 1950–51); Die Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart, 7 v. (3d ed. Tübingen 1957–65) 2:1695–96. h. bÜttner, "Verfassungsgeschichte und lothring. Klosterreform," in Aus Mittelalter und Neuzeit: Festschrift G. Kallen (Bonn 1957) 17–27. l. gaillard, "Gorze et St-Riquier," Mélanges de science religieuse 17 (1960) 143–151. j. fleckenstein, Lexikon Für Theologie und Kirche, ed. j. hofer and k. rahner, 10v. (2d, new ed. Freiburg 1957–65) 4:1061–62. r. gazeau, Catholicisme. Hier, aujourd'hui et demain, ed. g. jacquemet (Paris 1947–) 5:110–111.

[a. a. schacher]