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Abbot Nikolaus IV of Eltville

The challenges and looming crises that lay ahead of him were hardly foreseeable when he took office. In 1523, the first Lutheran sermon was preached on the juniper heath outside the monastery gates by Caspar Hedio, the former Mainz cathedral preacher who had declared his support for the Reformation. Even more drastic was undoubtedly the Peasants' War of 1525, when the Rheingau peasants emptied the famous Eberbach Barrel, which was filled with 71,000 liters of wine. Yielding to the pressure of the uprising, Nikolaus even had to sign a document abolishing the monastery on May 20, 1525. He was not alone; by the end of the month, similar obligations had been imposed on the monasteries of Gottesthal, Johannisberg, Marienthal, Aulhausen and Eibingen. However, this was prevented by the rapid suppression of the peasants' revolt by the League of Princes.

Source: German Inscriptions Online (43, No. 396), Academy of Sciences Mainz

Image of the tomb: Michael Leukel

The epitaph does not say a word about this turbulence and merely notes it in a rather sober and standardized way:

A(NN)O - 1 - 5 - 2 - 7 - K(A)L(ENDIS) IVNII / OB(IIT) REVERE(N)D(VS) IN CHR(IST)O P(ATE)R AC D(OMI)N(V)S NICOL(AVS) - DE / ALTAVILLA ABBAS / EBBERBACE(N)S(IS) - 25(VS) - CVIVS A(N)I(M)A REQ(VI)ES(CAT) IN PA(CE) AMEN

In the year 1527, on the calends of June (June 1), died the honorable father in Christ and lord Nikolaus von of Eltville, 25th abbot of Eberbach, whose soul may rest in peace. Amen.

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