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Hersfeld.]
GERMANY,
Kreutzberg, a brge village, feated on the Werra. Near it ftands
Philipßhal^ which is the refidentiary leat of an appenage branch of
Hciffe-Cajpl. On its fide too formerly flood the convent of KrnttzherT,
which having been conferred by the Landgrave Charles on his brother
Philip, he rebuilt it in its prefent form and gave it his naine.
The prefetlurate of Frauensee, on the other fide of the IVerra, and
which is but fmall. This prefe(fturate was formerly a convent belonging- to
the biilioprick of Hersfeld; but afterwards one half of it defcended, bv
virtue of a mortgage, to the houfe of He£'e, which obtained the other half
by the treaty of Weßphalia. The maniion-houfe here ftands on a natural
dam betwixt two large lakes.
Gellingen, once a priory, lies together with the prefecflurate of Franken^
havjen, in Thuringia, being a fief belonging to Schwarzburg-rudelßadts.
Schildjchbg,
a feudal bailiwick for Bucheiuiu.
Obf. The parifli of CT/Astw;, in the infpetlion oi Langen-Salza, in Titiringia,
is a üef of Hersjcld ; and for this reai'on the paftor, on his collation,
mufl: make his appearance before the confiflory at Cajfel.
The county of Sponheim, or Spanheim, lying betwixt the Rhi?ie and the
Mofel, in the countries formerly called Nohgau ; Hiinßrucl, Trachgau
and Bedgau was anciently divided into the hither and farther, the former of
which properly bears the name of Sponheim and belonged to Eajl-Franconia-,.
but the latter, which is alfo called the county of Starkenburg, to Wejlern-
Franconia, or H'eß-Rich.
§. 2. The firft count of Sponheim, known with any degree of certaintv,
was Ekrhard; who, in the year 1044, founded a church on the mountain
of Feldberg, not fzx from Krenfznach, and lived till the year 1065. He ftvled
himfelf Count of Naumburg; from a caftle ofthat name belongin"; to him.
Count Stephen of Sponheim, who converted the church of Sponheim into a
convent, was probably his fon ; and Megenhard, or Meinhard, Stephen's
fon, continued the Sponheim line ; and having completed the convent there,
made an order, that the eldeft of his fons, and, on his death, the elded of
his iffue, who was alfo lord of Kreufznach, fliould be patron and ticafurer
of the convent. His eldeft fon, Count Godfrey, fucceeded to the county
appenaged to his brother Crafto, together with the caftle of Koppenftei?i and
its dependencies ; but thefe afterwards became a part of the convent of Sponheim,
Crafto being abbot thereof. It is not improbable that Count Eberhard
was fon to this Godfrey, and that he had for his fons tlae Counts Gerlach
and Simon ; as, alfo, that this Simon was father to Count john of
Sponheim and Starkenbia-g ; though all this ftands in need of further enquiry
and confirmation. Thus far, however, is certain, that the faid Count 'John
was the founder of all the fucceeding counts ; he was hkewife proprietor of
the hither and farther county, and refided at the caftle of Starkenburg on
the MoJeU His fpoufe, Adelkaida^ was fifter to He^iry^ the fecond count of
Sayn^
T.