Economic and religious centre

The St. Peter und Alexander collegiate church was the paramount economic power in the Lower Main region in the Middle Age. The continual acquisition of property and rights assured it an agricultural and financial income, which served as the basis for the canons’ prebends and was reinvested for the acquisition of new estates or rents. Due to its economic supremacy, it became the most important lender for the town and region.

Furthermore, the collegiate church was an important consumption factor, which led craftsmen and traders to settle in the area and thus accelerated Aschaffenburg’s urban and economic development. The town’s good links to long-distance trade and its integration into the Rhenish economic area was at the same time both the result and prerequisite of this process: a bridge was already built over the Main near Aschaffenburg under Archbishop Willigis (c. 940-1011, archbishop from 975), by 1157 at the latest the town was a customs station, and a moneyer can be evidenced there in 1160.

Its role as a spiritual centre in the town and region was also connected to the collegiate church’s economic rise. As the oldest church in Aschaffenburg, the collegiate church played the role of a mother church for the town. By owning or later incorporating the two Aschaffenburg parishes and a large number of other parochial churches, the collegiate church had a source of extensive income, and was in turn was responsible for the appointing and prebends of the respective parish clergy. The income was also increased by the multitude of chantry endowments and testamentary legacies, which refer to the collegiate church’s and the Aschaffenburg canons’ essential functions in spiritual matters: as members of the first estate, their main task was to provide for the salvation of the people. From the 12th century, the collegiate church was also the centre of the Aschaffenburg archdiaconate and thus took on important roles in the administration of the Mainz archdiocese.