WERDEN, ABBEY OF

Former Benedictine monastery in the Ruhr (Rhineland), Germany; founded c. 800 by (St.) ludger as a base for his Saxon mission. In 887? it was given immunity and royal protection, and in 974, coinage and market rights; from the 12th century it came directly under imperial control. Eminent abbots of the early period were St. hildigrim, who founded the abbey of Helmstedt, and St. bardo. Helmstedt remained in personal union with Werden until secularization. The advocates were the counts of Mark and in the last period, electors of Brandenburg. Strong secularizing tendencies developed under the lay Abbot Conrad of Gleichen (1454–74); at the instigation of Pope and Emperor, Werden joined the Bursfeld Reform in 1478 and played a significant part in this reform movement. Fourteen general chapters met in Werden from 1524 to 1754, and four of Werden's abbots were presidents of the Bursfeld Union. Werden produced such scholars as Altfrid, Uffing, John Cincinnius, Abbot Duden, and the two brothers Gregory and Adolph Overham. The Codex argenteus of ulfilas's translation of the Bible belonged to Werden at one time; it is now in the library of the university of Uppsala. The author of the heliand is also supposed to have lived there. The abbey came under Prussian control in 1803, but the monastic school continued to exist as a Latin school (Rektoratsschule ) until 1881.

Bibliography: a. fuchs, Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, ed. m. buchberger, 10 v. (Freiburg 1930–38) 10:825–826. l. h. cottineau, Répertoire topobibliographique des abbayes et prieurés, 2 v. (Mâcon 1935–39) 2:3443–44. p. volk, Die Generalkapitel der Bursfelder Benediktiner Kongregation (Münster 1928). d. p. blok, De oudste particuliere oorkonden van het klooster Werden (Assen 1960).

[p. volk]