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The Archdiocese of Bremen (German: Erzbistum Bremen) is a historical Roman Catholic diocese and formed from 1180 to 1648 an ecclesiastical state, 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 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 neighboured diocese of Verden. Verden (IPA: [ˈfeːɐdn]) itself had a double identity too as Diocese of Verden (German: Bistum Verden) and Prince-Bishopric of Verden (German: Hochstift Verden). Each prince-bishopric had the status of an Imperial Estate (German singular: Reichsstand, plural: Reichsstände), each of which were represented in the Diet (German: Reichstag) of the Holy Roman Empire. 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 colloquial: Herzogtümer Bremen und Verden, but formally Herzogtum Bremen und Fürstentum Verden) which emerged in 1648 from the securalised two prince-bishoprics.
[edit] History[edit] The Archdiocese before statehoodThe foundation of the diocese belongs to the period of the missionary activity of Willehad on the lower Weser. It was erected 15 July, 787, at Worms, on Charlemagne's initiative, his jurisdiction being assigned to cover the Saxon territory on both sides of the Weser from the mouth of the Aller, northward to the Elbe and westward to the Hunte, and the Frisian territory for a certain distance from the mouth of the Weser. Willehad fixed his headquarters at Bremen, though the formal constitution of the diocese took place only after the subjugation of the Saxons in 804 or 805, when Willehad's disciple, Willerich, was consecrated bishop of Bremen, with the same territory. The diocese was conceivably at that time a suffragan of the archbishops of Cologne, this is at least how they later corroborated their claim to supremacy over Bremen. When, after the death of Bishop Leuderich (838–45), the see was given to Ansgar, it lost its independence, and from that time was permanently united with the Archdiocese of Hamburg. The new combined see was regarded as the headquarters for missionary work in the Nordic countries, and new sees to be erected were to be its suffragans, meaning subject to its jurisdiction. Ansgar's successor, Rimbert, the "second apostle of the north," was troubled by onslaughts first by Normans and then by Wends, and by Cologne's renewed claims to supremacy.[1] At Archbishop Adalgar's (888 - 909) instigation Pope Sergius III confirmed the amalgamation of the Diocese of Bremen with the Archdiocese of Hamburg to form the Archdiocese of Hamburg and Bremen, colloquially called Hamburg-Bremen, and by so doing he denied Cologne’s claim. He prohibited Hamburg's Chapter to found suffragan dioceses of its own. It was Pope Honorius III who in 1224 finally approved the amalgamation, deciding in the long-lasting dispute between the capitulars from Bremen and Hamburg how to combine their votes in episcopal elections. Honorius III affirmed the continued existence of both Chapters. Hamburg was entitled to send three capitulars for any election. Hamburg-Bremen's diocesan territory covered about today’s following territories: The Bremian cities of Bremen and Bremerhaven, the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg (north of Elbe), the Lower Saxon counties of Aurich (northernly), Cuxhaven, Diepholz (northernly), Frisia, Nienburg (westernly), Oldenburg in Oldenburg (easternly), Osterholz, Rotenburg upon Wümme (northernly), Stade, Wesermarsch, Wittmund, the Lower Saxon urban counties Delmenhorst and Wilhelmshaven, the Schleswig-Holsteinian counties of Dithmarschen, Pinneberg, Rendsburg-Eckernförde (southernly), Segeberg (easternly), Steinburg, Stormarn (easternly) as well as the Schleswig-Holsteinian urban counties of Kiel and Neumünster. The see of Hamburg-Bremen attained its greatest prosperity and later had its deepest troubles under Archbishop Adalbert of Hamburg (1043 - 1072). He was after Hamburg-Bremen's upgrade to the rank of a Patriarchate of the North and failed completely. Hamburg stopped being used as part of the diocese’s name. The next two archbishops, Liemar and Humbert, were determined opponents of Pope Gregory VII. Under the latter in 1104 Bremen's suffragan Diocese of Lund (S) was elevated to an archdiocese supervising all of Bremen's other Nordic former suffragan sees, to wit Århus (DK), Gardar (Greenland), Linköping (S), Odense (DK), Oslo (N), Ribe (DK), Roskilde (DK), Schleswig (D), Selje (N), Skálholt (IS), Skara (S), Strängnäs (S), Trondheim (N), Uppsala (S), Viborg (DK), Vestervig (DK), Västerås (S) and Växjö (S). Bremen's remaining suffragan sees at that time were only existing by name, since insurgent Wends had destroyed the so-called Wendish dioceses of Oldenburg-Lübeck, Ratzeburg and Schwerin and they were only to be reestablished later. At the stripping of the Duchy of Saxony (7th c. - 1180) in 1180 all of these suffragan bishops achieved for parts of their diocesan territories the status of imperially immediate prince-bishoprics. [edit] The Prince-Archbishopric of Bremen as a territory of imperial immediacy[edit] Gaining Grounds for a Prince-Archbishopric of Imperial ImmediacyHoly Roman Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa and his allies, many of them vassals and former supporters of his paternal cousin Duke Henry III, the Lion, had defeated the Duke of Saxony and Bavaria. In 1180 Frederick I Barbarossa stripped Henry the Lion of his duchies. In 1182 he and his wife Matilda Plantagenet, the daughter of Henry II of England and Eleanor of Aquitaine and sister of Richard Lionheart left from Stade to go into exile from the Holy Roman Empire in order to stay with Henry II of England. Frederick I Barbarossa partioned Saxony in some dozens of territories of Imperial Immediate status allotting each territory to that one of his allies who had conquered them before from Henry the Lion and his remaining supporters. In 1168 the Saxon clan of the Ascanians, allies of Frederick I Barbarossa, had failed to install their family member Siegfried, Count of Anhalt, on the see of Bremen. But in 1180 the Ascanians prevailed twofoldly. The chief of the House of Ascania, Otto I, Margrave of Brandenburg, son of Albert the Bear, a maternal cousin of Henry the Lion, provided his sixth brother Bernhard, Count of Anhalt, from then on Bernhard III, Duke of Saxony, with the later on so-called younger Duchy of Saxony (1180 - 1296), a radically belittled territory consisting of three unconnected territories along the river Elbe, from north west to south east, (1) Hadeln around Otterndorf, (2) around Lauenburg upon Elbe and (3) around Wittenberg upon Elbe. Except of the title, Duke of Saxony, Angria and Westphalia, which this younger Duchy of Saxony granted its rulers, even after its dynastic partition in 1296, this territory, consisting only of territorial fringes of the old Duchy of Saxony (7th c. - 1180), had little in common with the latter. In 1296 its rulers split the younger Duchy into the Duchies of Saxe-Wittenberg (German: Herzogtum Sachsen-Wittenberg) and Saxe-Lauenburg (German: Herzogtum Sachsen-Lauenburg), the latter holding the unconnected two northern territories, belonging both to the archdiocese of Bremen. Otto and Bernhard helped their second brother Siegfried, who since 1168 had called himself the Bishop Elect of Bremen, to gain the see of Bremen, with part of the diocesan territory being upgraded to form the Prince-Archbishopric of Bremen (German: Erzstift Bremen). Thus the Prince-Archbishopric of Bremen became one of the successor states of the old Duchy of Saxony, holding only a small part of its former territory. The territory of the Prince-Archbishopric of Bremen consisted of a number of sub-entities. The only thing they all had in common was, that the prior archbishops or capitulars or the Chapter as a collective obtained some secular power in them by way of purchase, application of force, usurpation, commendation, pledge, donation etc. The prior archiepiscopal authorities didn't have succeeded in almost any of the sub-entities to gain all the power, be it judicial, patrimonial, parochial, fiscal, feudal or else what. Almost everywhere the rule was to be shared with one or more competing bearers of authority, e.g. aristocrats, outside ecclesiastical dignitaries, autonomous corporations of free peasants (German: Landsgemeinden) or chartered towns and the like. Therefore the archiepiscopal authority used to refer to each sub-entity by different terms like county, parish, shire, bailiwick or patrimonial district, each according to the particular power, which the archiepiscopal authority had achieved in them. The Prince-Archbishopric of Bremen's former territory consists about of today's following Lower Saxon counties (German singular: Landkreis) of Cuxhaven (southernly), Osterholz, Rotenburg upon Wümme and Stade as well as of the Bremian exclave of the city of Bremerhaven and from 1145-1526 today's Schleswig-Holsteinian district of Dithmarschen. The city of Bremen was legally a part of the bishopric until 1646, but de facto ruled by its burghers and didn't tolerate the prince-archbishop's residence within its walls any more since 1313. Therefore the prince-archbishop moved to Vörde. Verden's former prince-bishopric's territory is represented about by the modern Lower Saxon County of Verden. [edit] Constitution and Politics within the Prince-ArchbishopricIn relation to the interior the archiepiscopal authority, consisting of Prince-Archbishop and Chapter, had to find ways to interact with the other bearers of authority. These were gradually transforming into the Bishopric's Estates (German: Stiftsstände), a prevailingly advisory body, but decision-taking in fiscal and tax matters. The bishopric's estates again were by no means homogenous and therefore often quarreled for they consisted of the hereditary aristocracy, the service gentry, non-capitular clergy, free peasants and burghers of chartered towns. The modus vivendi of interplay of the estates and the archiepiscopal authority, being in itself divided into the Prince-Archbishop and the Chapter, became the quasi constitution of the Prince-Archbishopric. However, the interplay was not determined by fixed standards of behaviour. While the consecutive Archbishops worked on discarding the bishopric's estates from the political landscape, the latter fought for the enforcement of the modus vivendi to become a real constitution. The Chapter often swung between increasing its influence by fighting the estates jointly with the Prince-Archbishop and repelling his absolutist intentions by making common cause with the estates. All parties made use of means like bluffing, threat, obstructionism, corruption, horse-trading and even violence. In 1542/47 - 1549 Chapter and estates managed to dismiss the autocratic and spendthrift Prince-Archbishop Christopher Duke of Brunswick and Lunenburg-Wolfenbüttel. Especially the Chapter used its power to elect very old candidates, to minimise the time a ruler can be harmful, or to elect minors, which it hoped to dress and tame in time. Once in a while the Chapter took up time and protracted elections for years, being itself the ruler for the time of sede vacante. During the dismissal of Prince-Archbishop Christopher Duke of Brunswick and Lunenburg-Wolfenbüttel the chapter ruled together with the estates which had gained at that time substantial power. In relation to the outside the Prince-Archbishopric of Bremen had the status of an imperial estate (German singular: Reichsstand, plural: Reichsstände) with a vote in the Diet (German: Reichstag) of the Holy Roman Empire. A prerequisite for being an imperial estate was imperial immediacy (German: Reichsunmittelbarkeit or Reichsfreiheit) of the rulers or ruling bodies, meaning that they had no other authority above them except of the Holy Roman Emperor himself. Furthermore, such rulers or ruling bodies possessed several important rights and privileges, including a degree of autonomy in the rule of their territories. [edit] Decline of the Prince-Archbishopric's IndependenceThe Prince-Archbishopric often suffered from military supremacy of neighbouring powers. Having no dynasty, but prince-archbishops of different descent, the Prince-Archbishopric became a pawn in the hands of the powerful. The establishment of a constitution, which would bind the conflicting estates, failed. Schisms in Church and State marked the next two centuries, and in spite of the labours of the Windesheim and Bursfelde congregations, the way was prepared for the Reformation, which made rapid headway, partly because the last Roman Catholic prince-archbishop, Christopher Duke of Brunswick and Lunenburg-Wolfenbüttel, was in permanent conflict with the Chapter and the estates. Being simultaneously the prince-bishop of Verden, he preferred to reside in the city of Verden. By the time he died (1558), nothing was left of the old religion apart from a few monasteries and the districts served by them. The title of prince-archbishop, with the secular jurisdiction, was borne for a time by Lutheran princes, officially carrying title of Administrators. These could and would of course not exercise the pastoral functions of a Roman Catholic bishop any more. So practically the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Bremen ceased to exist in 1558. After this the Roman Catholic Church considered the Roman Catholic pastoral care and mission in the area of the ceased archdioceses of Bremen and of Lund an endeavour of the newly founded Roman Catholic Nordic Missions, since 1622 being subordinate to the Congregatio de Propaganda Fide in Rome. The Holy See conveyed to the papal nuncio in Cologne the task to look after the Nordic Missions in - among others - the Prince-Archbishopric of Bremen and the Prince-Bishopric of Verden. In 1667 the Holy See further institutionalised the Nordic Missions by establishing the Vicariate Apostolic of the Nordic Missions. [edit] The further History of the Prince-Archbishopric after its Transformation in 1648The political entity of the Prince-Archbishopric of Bremen was transformed by the Peace of Westphalia (1648) into the Duchy of Bremen, without changing the territory's status of imperial immediacy. The same happened to the neighboured Prince-Bishopric of Verden, which became the Principality of Verden. The new duchy and principality, colloquially called Bremen-Verden, were both conveyed as an appanage to the crown of Sweden and collectively governed in personal union, even though they were formally not in real union, in order to maintain the Swedisch crown's two seats in the Diet of the Holy Roman Empire. In 1712 Bremen-Verden passed into the possession of Denmark, and three years later was sold to the Prince-Electorate of Brunswick and Lunenburg (or, colloquially Electorate of Hanover; German: Kurfürstentum Braunschweig und Lüneburg, or Kurhannover). In 1728 Emperor Charles VI enfeoffed George II Augustus, Hanoveran Prince-Elector and British King, with the reverted fief of Saxe-Lauenburg. By a redeployment of Hanoveran territories in 1731 Bremen-Verden was conveyed the administration of the neighboured Land Hadeln, since 1180 an exclave, first of the younger Duchy of Saxony, from 1296 on of the Duchy of Saxe-Lauenburg, one of the former's successors. In the Napoléonic wars, like all the electorate, greater Bremen-Verden was occupied, first by France, then by Prussia. In 1807 Bremen-Verden was annexed by the ephemeric Kingdom of Westphalia, only to be incorporated into the Empire of the French in 1810, forming the arrondissement Stade in the département Bouches-de-l'Elbe and several cantons in the département Bouches-du-Weser. Bremen-Verden was restored in 1813 to the Electorate of Hanover, which transformed into the Kingdom of Hanover in 1814. In 1823 an administrative reform united Bremen-Verden and Hadeln to form the High-Bailiwick of Stade, administered according to unitarian modern standards, thereby doing away with various traditional Bremian government forms. The High-Bailiwick of Stade (German: Landdrostei Stade) was named after and seated in Stade, Bremen-Verden's former capital, taking over its staff, installations and buildings. On 1 May 1827 a small section of the lower Weser shore in the West of the High-Bailiwick of Stade, forming the nucleus of the future city of Bremerhaven, was transferred to the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen, as agreed upon earlier that year in a contract by the Hanoveran minister Friedrich Franz Dieterich von Bremer and Bremen's Burgomaster Johann Smidt. Bremerhaven (literally English: Bremian Harbour) was founded to be a haven for Bremen's merchant marine, with that city located upstream the Weser being more and more disconnected from the sea, due to that river's silting up. Bremerhaven also became the home port of the German Confederation's Navy. In 1866, after the Prussian annexation, the high-bailiwick was redesigned according to Prussian law as the Governorate of Stade (German: Regierungsbezirk Stade), which weathered the following wars and constitional changes. Bremerhaven was several times enlarged at the expense of the Governorate of Stade's territory. But on the latter's territory several suburbs grew and in 1924 were united to form the city of Wesermünde. In 1937 the Reich's Nazi government decreed to incorporate the Hamburgian exclave of Cuxhaven into the Governorate of Stade. Two years later the Reich's Nazi government decreed to disentangle Bremerhaven from the Hanseatic City of Bremen and to incorporate it into Wesermünde. But that redeployment didn't last long. From 1945 on the occupational US forces in defeated Germany used the harbours of Bremen and Wesermünde as their Port of Embarkation. Being actually located in the British Zone of Occupation the Control Commission for Germany - British Element and the Office of Military Government for Germany, U.S. (OMGUS) agreed in 1947 to constitute the cities of Bremen and Wesermünde as a German state named Free Hanseatic City of Bremen, becoming at that occasion an exclave of the American Zone of Occupation within the British zone. Radio AFN (American Forces Network), based in rechristened Bremerhaven, became popular for its transmissions of jazz and rock music. After this territorial toing and froing the Governorate of Stade, since 1946 belonging to Lower Saxony, the state newly founded by the Control Commission for Germany - British Element, even before in 1947 the Allies officially dissolved the Free State of Prussia, continued to exist until 1977. Then it was incorporated into the neighbouring Governorate of Lunenburg (German: Regierungsbezirk Lüneburg), with the complete dissolution of all Lower Saxon governorates following in 2004. Today no single administrative entity covers the territory of the former Prince-Archbishopric of Bremen. [edit] Reorganisation of Roman Catholic Church in the former Territory of the Archdiocese and Prince-Archbishopric of BremenIn 1824 Bremen's former diocesan territory was distributed among the still-existing neighbouring dioceses of Osnabrück, Münster and Hildesheim, the latter of which covers today the former territory of the Prince-Archbishopric proper. Except for the prevailingly Calvinist Free Hanseatic City of Bremen and its territory, which continued to be supervised by the Roman Catholic Vicariate Apostolic of the Nordic Missions. The Free Hanseatic City of Bremen became part of the Diocese of Osnabrück only in 1929, with the Vicariate Apostolic being dismantled in the same year. [edit] List of bishops and archbishops of Bremen[edit] Bishops of Bremen, 787-865[edit] in Personal-Union with Archbishops of Hamburg 865-1072
[edit] Archbishops of Bremen, 1072-1179
[edit] Prince-Archbishops of Bremen, 1180-1558
[edit] Protestant Administrators of the Prince-Archbishopric of Bremen, 1558-1648
[edit] References
[edit] See also
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