John Blankenbaker's Germanna History Notes

Note 1606

The complaint signed by Schlosser said that Pastor Henckel had permitted a person to go to Holy Communion without doing penance, and that in this he erred.  The act of repentance should have taken place in the pastor’s lodging in the presence of the officers of the congregation and other male persons in the congregation (it was alleged).

Some time in 1714, Henckel left Daudenzell after nineteen years of service to the church there.  He returned to Mönchzell where he had been briefly before going to Daudenzell.  There were two reasons that he may have made this choice.  One is that he was a friend of the Baron von Festenburg there.  Second, he owned a small farm there.

Why did he leave Daudenzell?  Baron von Gemmingen was very blunt in saying that he dismissed Henckel for his insolence.  The Baron of Daudenzell wrote this to the Baron von Festenburg.  The Baron of Mönchzell had asked Baron de Bantz to check with the Knight Captain von Gemmingen of Heilbronn as to the type of man Pastor Henckel was while in his service.  The answer that came back through a third party was, “He was a frivolous man, unmindful of his honor.”  This was dated 28 Dec 1716, two years after Henckel had moved back to Mönchzell.

von Festenburg put pressure on von Gemmingen to write a letter himself, which von Gemmingen did on 4 Feb 1717.  von Gemmingen wrote:

“I herewith inform you although the peasants of Daudenzell are somewhat insolent, yet Mr. Henckel surpasses them far in insolence, which induced me to dismiss him from this service.  Hence I was not much pleased that my most honored Lord Baron Johann Melchoir of Mönchzell could make up his mind to accept immediately.”
Apparently Henckel and von Gemmingen had “words” and Henckel was dismissed.

While Henckel was pastor at Daudenzell, he also was pastor at a coupled church in the nearby village of Breitenbronn.  Earlier, the Barons of Landschaden von Steinach owned Breitenbronn and remained owners until the family died out in 1653.  The village became a vacant feudal estate and it fell to the Palatinate Elector.  The Elector was direct Lord of the Manor of Breitenbronn.  Thus, Henckel served two civil masters, the Baron von Gemmingen and the Elector.  Breitenbronn was considered a branch chapel of Daudenzell so the two churches were considered as one.  In 1581, an order had been given that the Breitenbronn grain tithe belonged one-half to the Landschaden family, and one-half to the Daudenzell pastor.  The small tithes were split also along the same lines.
(28 Feb 03)

We gratefully acknowledge the work of John Blankenbaker who published over 2,500 Germanna History Notes via the Germanna-L@rootsweb.com email list from 1997 to 2008. We are equally thankful to George Durman (Sgt. George) for hosting the list and republishing the notes via rootsweb.com.