Archbishopric of Bremen

Archbishopric Of Bremen

The Archdiocese of Bremen (also Archdiocese of Hamburg-Bremen, German: Erzbistum Bremen, not to be confused with the modern Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Hamburg, founded in 1994) was a historical Roman Catholic diocese (787–1566/1648) and formed from 1180 to 1648 an ecclesiastical state (continued under other names until 1823), named Prince-Archbishopric of Bremen (German: Erzstift Bremen) within the Holy Roman Empire. The prince-archbishopric consisted of about a third of the diocesan territory. The city of Bremen was de facto (since 1186) and de jure (since 1646) no part of the prince-archbishopric but belonged to the archdiocese. Most of the prince-archbishopric lay rather in the area to the north of the city of Bremen, between the Weser and Elbe rivers. Even more confusingly, parts of the prince-archbishopric belonged in religious respect to the neighbouring diocese of Verden, making up 10% of its diocesan territory.

Verden ( ) itself had a double identity too — as the diocese of Verden (German: Bistum Verden) and the Prince-Bishopric of Verden (German: Hochstift Verden). Each prince-bishopric had the status of an Imperial Estate (German: Reichsstand, plural: Reichsstände), each of which were represented in the Diet (German: Reichstag) of the Holy Roman Empire. From 1500 on the Prince-Archbishopric of Bremen belonged to the Saxon Circle (later the Lower Saxon Circle; German: Sächsischer or, later. Niedersächsischer Kreis), an administrative substructure of the Empire. The Prince-Bishopric of Verden, on the other hand, belonged to the Lower Rhenish–Westphalian Circle (German: Niederrheinisch-Westfälischer Kreis, colloquially Westphalian Circle) and sent its own representative to the Diet. Even when the two prince-bishoprics were ruled in personal union, in order to maintain the two seats in the Diet they were never formally united in a real union. The same is true for the collectively governed Duchies of Bremen and Verden (German: Herzogtümer Bremen und Verden colloquially, but Herzogtum Bremen und Fürstentum Verden formally) which emerged in 1648 from the secularised two prince-bishoprics.