Prince-Bishopric of Bamberg - History

History

From 1 November 1007 onwards, a synod was held at the City of Frankfurt am Main. Eight archbishops and twenty-seven bishops were present, led by Archbishop Willigis of Mainz, as well as the King of the Romans, Henry II the Saint. The king intended to create a new diocese that would aid in the final conquest of paganism in the area around Bamberg. But the territory of the Wends on the upper Main, the Wiesent, and the Aisch had belonged to the Diocese of Würzburg since the organization of the Middle German bishoprics by St. Boniface, so that no new diocese could be erected without the consent of the occupant of that see. Bishop Henry I of Würzburg raised no objection to parting with some of his territory, especially as the king promised to have Würzburg raised to an archbishopric and to give him an equivalent in Meiningen. The consent of Pope John XVII was obtained for this arrangement, but the elevation of Würzburg to an archbishopric proved impracticable also due to Willigis' reservations, and Bishop Henry I at first withdrew his consent.

Nevertheless after several further concessions, King Henry II obtained the consent for the foundation of the diocese of Bamberg from parts of the dioceses of Würzburg and - later - the Diocese of Eichstätt. Bamberg was made directly subordinate to Rome. It was also decided that Eberhard, the king's chancellor, would be ordained by Archbishop Willigis of Mainz, to be the head of the new border area diocese. The new diocese had expensive gifts at the synod confirmed by documents, in order to place it on a solid foundation.

Henry wanted the celebrated monkish rigour and studiousness of the Hildesheim cathedral chapter - Henry himself was educated there - linked together with the churches under his control, including his favourite diocese of Bamberg. The next seven bishops were named by the emperors, after which free canonical election was the rule. Eberhard's immediate successor, Suidger of Morsleben, became pope in 1046 as Clement II. He was the only pope to be interred north of the Alps at the Bamberg Cathedral. In the thirteenth century the diocese gradually became a territorial principality, and its bishops took secular precedence next after the archbishops; Bishop Henry I of Bilversheim (1242-57) became the first Prince-Bishop.

The fortieth bishop, George III of Limburg (1505-22), was inclined toward the Reformation, which caused a violent social outbreak under his successor Weigand (1522-56), and the city suffered severely in the Second Margrave War (1552-54), as well as in the Thirty Years' War, when it was placed under the jurisdiction of Bernard, the new Duke of Franconia.

At the Peace of Westphalia (1648), the bishops recovered their possessions; but these were overrun by the French revolutionary armies, and in 1802 annexed to Bavaria. From 1808 to 1817 the bishopric was vacant; but by the Bavarian Concordat of the latter year it was made an archbishopric, with Würzburg, Speyer, and Eichstädt as suffragan sees.