Goslar Precedence Dispute

The Goslar Precedence Dispute (German: Goslarer Rangstreit) escalated at Pentecost in 1063 in the Goslar Collegiate Church of St. Simon and St. Jude from a dispute over the order of seating into an armed confrontation which resulted in several deaths. The background is the early medieval legal system, based mainly on personal loyalty and privileges that could be conferred or withdrawn at any time.

In medieval social order, the symbols and rituals of rank were associated with real power and income. One of these rituals was the order of precedence in the seating at ceremonial occasions. Whoever sat closer to the king or other high-ranking person, had greater rights than other people at the ceremony. As a result, when it was unclear where the delineation was in terms of responsibilities and areas of jurisdiction, so-called "armchair disputes" often arose over the seating order. These rarely resulted in an agreement, because "conceding or giving in would have decided the dispute in favour of one or the other and ... so was out of the question," according to historian Gerd Althoff. None of these disputes ended in such a confrontation, however, as that of the Goslar Precedence Dispute between Abbot Widerad of Fulda and Bishop Hezilo of Hildesheim which resulted in several deaths and a subsequent rebellion by monks.

The Abbot of Fulda Abbey, Widerad, and the Bishop of Hildesheim, Hezilo, twice ended up arguing over who had the right to sit next to the Archbishop of Mainz in Goslar's Collegiate Church of St. Simon and Jude.

During vespers at Christmas in 1062 the dispute broke out for the first time. The actually quite low-ranking abbot claimed this right probably due to the traditional, special relationship between the monastery at Fulda and Archbishop of Mainz: Fulda Abbey had been founded by the Archbishop of Mainz, Boniface. Many imperial and papal privileges had been granted to Fulda Abbey and also to the abbot, who thereby held a special position. For example, the monastery was "exempt", the abbot had a primate and had a right to episcopal pontificalia.

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