Essen Abbey

Imperial Abbey of Essen
Stift Essen
Imperial Abbey of the Holy Roman Empire
845–1803
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Capital		Essen Abbey
Government		Theocracy
Historical era		Middle Ages
•	Founded	circa 845
•	Gained Imperial immediacy	between 874 and 947 circa 845
•	Gained princely status	1228
•	Contracted with Duchy of Cleves     and County of Mark over Vogtei	1495
•	Joined Westphalian Circle	1512
•	Occupied by the Kingdom of Prussia	1802
•	Annexed by Prussia	1803–06/7 and from 1813 1803
•	Awarded to Berg	1806/7—1813
Succeeded by Kingdom of Prussia
Today part of		Germany

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Essen Abbey (Stift Essen) was a monastery of secular canonesses for women of high nobility in Essen, Germany. It was founded about 845 by the Saxon Altfrid (died 874), later Bishop of Hildesheim and saint, near a royal estate called Astnidhi, which later gave its name to the religious house and to the town. The first abbess was Altfrid's kinswoman, Gerswit.

Apart from the abbess, the canonesses did not take vows of perpetual celibacy, and were able to leave the abbey to marry; they lived in some comfort in their own houses, wearing secular clothing except when performing clerical roles such as singing the Divine Office. A chapter of male priests were also attached to the abbey, under a dean. In the medieval period, the abbess exercised the functions of a bishop, except for the sacramental ones, and those of a ruler, over the very extensive estates of the abbey, and had no clerical superior except the pope.

Because of its advancement by the Liudolfings (the family of the Ottonian Emperors) the abbey became reichsunmittelbar (an Imperial abbey) sometime between 874 and 947. Its best years began in 973 under the Abbess Mathilde, granddaughter of Otto I and thus herself a Liudolfing, who governed the abbey until 1011. In her time the most important of the art treasures of what is now the Essen Cathedral treasury came to Essen. The next two abbesses to succeed her were also from the Liudolfing family and were thus able further to increase the wealth and power of the foundation. In 1228 the abbesses were designated "Princesses" for the first time. From 1300 they took up residence in Schloss Borbeck, where they spent increasing amounts of time.

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