Archbishops of Trier - History

History

The temporal power of the archbishops was not gained without opposition. The German Kings Otto IV and Conrad IV granted charters to the city, which however admitted the jurisdiction of its archbishop, Baldwin of Luxemburg, in 1308. This prince, a brother of the emperor Henry VII, ruled from 1307 to 1354, and was the real founder of the power of Trier. His predecessor Diether III. of Nassau had left his lands heavily encumbered with debt. Baldwin raised them to great prosperity by his energy and foresight, and chiefly as a result of the active political and military support he rendered to the emperors Henry VII., Louis the Bavarian and Charles IV. enlarged his dominions almost to their ultimate extent. He assumed the title of archchancellor of Gaul and Aries (or Burgundy), and in 1315 admitted the claim of the archbishop of Cologne to the highest place after the archbishop of Mainz aong the spiritual princes of the empire. Thenceforward the elector of Trier held the third place in the electoral college. After Baldwin's death the prosperity of Trier was checked by wars and disputes between rival claimants to the see, and in 1456 the estates united for the purpose of restoring order, and secured the right of electing their archbishops.

Throughout the Middle Ages the sancta civitas Trevirorum abounded in religious foundations and was a great seat of monastic learning. The university, founded in 1473, existed until 1797. The elector Richard von Greiffenklau (1467-1531) successfully opposed the Reformation, and inaugurated the exhibitions of the holy coat, which called forth the denunciations of Luther, but have continued since his day to bring wealth and celebrity to the city. In the latter half of the i6th century the direction of education fell into the hands of the Jesuits.

During the Thirty Years' War the elector Philip Christopher von Sotern favoured France, and accepted French protection in 1631. The French in the following year expelled both Spaniards and Swedes from his territories, but in March 1635 the Spaniards recaptured Trier and took the elector prisoner. He remained in captivity for ten years, but was reinstated by the French in 1645 and confirmed in his possessions by the peace of Westphalia. The French again temporarily took Trier in 1674 and 1688.

The last elector and archbishop, Clement Wenceslaus (1768-1802), granted toleration to the Protestants in 1782, established his residence at Coblenz in 1786, and fled from the French in 1794. By the peace of Luneville in 1801 France annexed all the territories of Trier on the left bank of the Rhine, and in 1802 the elector abdicated. A new bishopric was created for the French department of the Sarre, of which Trier was the capital. The Treveran territories on the right bank of the Rhine were secularized and given to Nassau- Weilburg in 1803, and in 1814 nearly the whole of the former electoral dominions were given to Prussia. A bishopric was again founded in 1821, with nearly the same boundaries as the old archbishopric, but it was placed under Cologne.