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Kempten.] G E R M A N T,
'
171
KEMPTEN,
T/je Princely Abbey of
§. I, r\^ the abbey and Imperial iovfno^ Kempten, a plan, together with
^^ a map of the abbey-lands, may be ieen in the HochJurftHchen
Stifts
Kempten gnindlichen Widerlegung des von der Stadt ejufdem nonwiis vor
demfelben ßcb anmafzenden alteren Herkommens, printed in folio, in the year
1737 ; both of which were defigned in that year by Thanner, and engraved
by Bodenehr of Augsburg. The town of Kempten alfo, to its Grundlichen
Ausfuhrung und Rettung ihres uralten Hirkommens und Reichs Immedietat,
printed in the year 173 i, and to which the above piece was an anfwer, has
annexed a plan of the town and abbey, and likewife a view of the river
Her, with all its old and new bridges drawn from Hurters map, and engraved
in the year 1730 by EfJ'er ; but in the reprefentation of the abbeylands
the latter is defedive. Thefe lie on both fides of the river Her,
which it receives above S. Martinfzell, where it ceafes to be the boundary
of the bifhopric of Augsburg and the county of Konigjeck Rothenfels,
and leaves it below Karndorf in the county of Waldburg. The greateft
part of it confifts of the princely county of Kempten; to which fome other
diftriäs and places have been added, together with a part of yf/^^w, Ilcrgau
and other ancient Gaus or territories.
Hildegard, confort to Charlemagne, repaired
§. 2. About the year 773,
t\\t Benedictine convent, oi Kempten, if flie was not the original foundrefs ihe
fettled on it her fliare of her mother's inheritance; in acknowledgment of
which the abbey took her image for its coat of arms 3 and it is thought that
by this legacy of the Emprefs it acquired that tradl of land which it is at
prefent poflefled of, there being the moft evident proofs that it belonged to
the abbey fo long ago as the ninth or tenth century : for, though in fucceeding
times it acquired many cftates and lordlhips, yet thefe are only to
beunderftood of property and inferior jurifdidion, being before within the
marches of the abbey, and confequently under its fuperior jurifdiftion, the
lordOiip of TeiJ/elberg alone excepted. At what time the title of Prince was
conferred on this Benedictifie abbey is not precifely known ; fome pretend
that Andegarius its firft abbot, was fo created by Charlemagne, whilft others
aflert that this title was firfl: conferred, in 1360, by the Emperor //cwj IV.
on the Abbot Henry of Mittelberg; but Schatcn, in his AnnaL Paderb. /. 8.
fol. 783, produces an inftrument of the Emperor Conrad III. dated in the
year 1 1
50, in which the abbot of Kempten is ranked among the ecclefiaftical
Princes.
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