# Urkundenbuch des Stiftes und der Stadt Hameln, Teil II (1408–1576), ed. Erich Fink, Hannover 1903 (Quellen und Darstellungen zur Geschichte Niedersachsens X), no. 663, p. 479

Scan/OCR: https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_gBs3AQAAMAAJ

Bishop Heinrich of Minden consents (1502 July 6) to the building of a chapel before the Landwehr at Afferde; the text describes a Way-of-the-Cross/Calvary laid out from the east gate of Hamelin to the boundary of Klein-Afferde, 'vulgariter beneden den Koppen'.

```
663.  Rischof  Heinrich  von  Minden  giebt  seine  Zustimmung  zu 
der  Erbauung  einer  Kapelle  vor  der  Landwehr  zu  Afferde  und  verheisst 
allen,  die  hierzu  beisteuern,  einen  vierzigtägigen  Ablass.  1502,  Juli  0 
(feria  quarta  post  visitationis  Marie  virginis). 
Cum  igitur  sicut  nobis  expositum  extitit,  quidam  in  Christo  fideles 
devoti  certam  capellam  in  honore  illius  dolorissimi  transitus  domini 
nostri  Jesu  Christi  ipso  die  parasceves  a loco  nicostratos  (?)  et  tri- 
bunalis, postquam  morti  licet  innocenter  fuit  adiudicatus,  emeem  sibi 
baiolans  et  illorum  trium  penalissimorum  casuum  ciun  cruce  ipsa 
gravissima  via  in  eadem  passi  et  facti  usque  ad  montem  Calvarie, 
ubi  cruci  affixus  est  et  mortem  pro  nostra  omniumque  salute  pertulit, 
ante  valvam  orientalem  opidi  Hamelensis  nostre  diocesis  cum  signis 
et  distanciis  sicuti  in  pluribus  aliis  locis  habetur  ad  limites  ville  parve 
Afferde,  vulgariter  beneden  den  Koppen,  ex  certa  devotione  in  me- 
moriam passionis  Christi  ac  sancto  Crucis,  beate  Marie  virginis,  sancti 
Johannis  baptiste,  beatorum  Johannis  evangeliste,  Jacobi,  Mathie  ac 
Philippi  et  Jacobi  apostoloram  sanctorum,  quatuordecim  auxiliatorum, 
sancti  Scbastiani,  sancti  Jheronimi  et  Jodoci,  beate  Anne,  Marie 
Magdalene,  Katherine,  Dorothee  ac  Gertrudis  virginum  de  voluntate, 
ac  beneplacito  et  consensu  honorabilis  viri  domini  Hermanni  Bartol- 
deken  plebani  in  dicta  parrochia  Afferde  sub  certo  modo  et  forma, 
de  quibus  certificati  sumus,  una  cum  altari  ad  divina  ibidem  pera- 
gendum dudum  edificare  et  instaurare  presumpsissent  et  attemp- 
tassent.  Sed  quia  per  venerabilem  et  honorabiles  viros  dominos 
decanum  et  capitulum  ecclesio  Hamelensis,  qui  sua  intoresse  preten- 
dcbant,  impediti  propter  bonum  pacis  et  concordiam  eandem  capellam 
cum  suis  attinendis  a dicto  loco  ammovisscnt  et  iam  de  novo  extra 
phalangas  dicti  opidi  Hamelen  vulgariter  buten  vor  der  lanthwer 
to  Afferde  pro  parte  in  via  publica  versus  Hildensem  in  honorem 
sanctorum,  quorum  supra  versa  vice  erexerunt,  fundarunt  et  instau- 
rarunt ac  erigere  fundare  et  instaurare  proposuerunt  atque  statue- 
runt 11.  s.  w. 
Or.  zu  H.  (Dtp.  Hameln  405).  Mit  Sgl. 
664.  Der  Knappe  Hans  von  Reden  belehnt  in  Vollmacht  seines 
Vaters  Henning  Johann  Deneke  für  den  Rath  von  Hameln  mit  dci 
Vogtei  und  dem  Schweinsberg  u.  s.  w.  *)  1503,  November  6. 
Eck  Hans  von  Reden  knape,  Henninck  von  Reden  sone,  bekenne 
openbacr  vor  alsweme,  dat  ick  liebbe  in  stadt  unde  gantzer  fuhnacht 
```

## What this charter can and cannot establish

**Can establish.** Where the town of c. 1500 located "Calvary … beneden den Koppen": a devotional Calvary with measured stations running from the east gate to the boundary of Klein-Afferde on the Hildesheim road, moved in 1502 outside the Landwehr. Because the house inscriptions of 1525–1602 use the same words in the same town within a generation, the charter fixes what "Calvarie bi den Koppen" meant to the people who carved it. That removes Kopahn (Dobbertin) and Coppenbrügge/Ith (Woeller, Hüsam) as readings of "Koppen" in the inscriptions, and agrees with Erich 1654 ("Calvarien- oder Kopffelberg … da das Halsgerichte stehet") and Backhaus 1589 ("das Halsgericht allda versteh").

**Cannot establish.** Anything about 1284. It does not show that a group left by that road, that a Calvary or execution place existed there in 1284 (the earliest witness to a Hamelin "Calvary" is the Lüneburg note of c. 1430–50; the stations are a fifteenth-century devotion), or any direction or destination. The "direction east" in the report comes from the Lüneburg note's "extra valvam orientalem", not from this charter. Its value is to the source criticism of the later tradition, not to the reconstruction of the event.

**Novelty qualified.** Not found cited in Udolph 1997, Cammann 1984, DI 28 commentary or the theory literature read for this report; Hüsam 1993 ("Calvaria") and Meinardus 1882 were not accessible, so it may have been noticed before.