Archbishopric of Magdeburg

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The Archbishopric of Magdeburg was a Roman Catholic archdiocese from 968 to 1545, and a state of the Holy Roman Empire from the 12th century until 1806. Its capital was Magdeburg, and it was located along the Elbe River.

1 History
2 Archbishops of Magdeburg, 968-1545
3 Protestant Administrators of Magdeburg, 1545-1648
4 Dukes of Magdeburg, 1648-1807
5 References
6 External links

[edit] History

After the wars of the years 940 and 954, when the Slavs, as far as the Oder, had been brought into subjection to German rule, Otto the Great, in 955, set to work to establish an archbishopric in Magdeburg, for the newly acquired territory. He wished to transfer the capital of the diocese from Halberstadt to Magdeburg, and make it an archdiocese. But this was strenuously opposed by the Archbishop of Mainz who was the metropolitan of Halberstadt. When, in 962, John XII sanctioned the establishment of an archbishopric, Otto seemed to have abandoned his plan of a transfer. The estates belonging to the convents mentioned above (founded in 937) were converted into a mensa for the new archbishopric, and the monks transferred to the Berge Convent. The archiepiscopal church made St. Maurice its patron, and in addition received new donations and grants from Otto.

Its ecclesiastical province included the existing dioceses of Brandenburg and Havelberg and the newly founded dioceses of Merseburg, Zeitz, and Meißen. The new archdiocese was close to the border between the Holy Roman Empire and Slavic tribes, and was meant to promote Christianity among the Slavs. Then, on 20 April, 967, the archbishopric was solemnly established at the Synod of Ravenna in the presence of the pope and the emperor. The first archbishop was Adelbert, a former monk of St. Maximin's at Trier, afterwards missionary bishop to the Russians, and Abbot of Weissenburg in Alsace. He was elected in the autumn of 968, received the pallium at Rome, and at the end of the year was solemnly enthroned in Magdeburg.

The Diocese of Magdeburg itself was small; it comprised the Slavonic districts of Serimunt, Nudizi, Neletici, Nizizi, and half of northern Thuringia, which Halberstadt resigned. Posen was added to the suffragan bishoprics later on (from 970 until the twelfth century, when it fell to Gnesen), also Lebus, and, for a time, Kammin. The cathedral school especially gained in importance under Adalbert's efficient administration. The scholasticus Othrich was considered the most learned man of his times. Many eminent men were edudated at Magdeburg.

Othrich was chosen archbishop after Adalbert's death (981). Gisiler of Merseburg by bribery and fraud obtained possession of the See of Magdeburg, and also succeeded temporarily in grasping the Bishopric of Merseburg (until 1004). Among successors worthy of mention are: the zealous Gero (1012-23); Werner (1063-78), who was killed in battle with Henry IV; St. Norbert, prominent in the twelfth century (1126-34), the founder of the Premonstratensian order.

Archbishop Wichmann (1152-92) was more important as a sovereign and prince of the Holy Roman Empire than as a bishop; Albrecht II (1205-32) quarrelled with the Emperor Otto II (1198-1215), because he had pronounced the pope's ban against the latter and this unfortunate war greatly damaged the archbishopric. In 1208 he began to build the present cathedral, which was only consecrated in 1263, and never entirely finished; Günther I (1277-79) hardly escaped a serious war with the Margrave Otto of Brandenburg, who was incensed because his brother Erich had not been elected archbishop. And the Brandenburegers actually succeeded in forcing Günther and Bernhard (1279-1281) to resign and in making Erich archbishop (1283-1295).

Cardinal Albrecht of Brandenburg (1513-45), on account of his insecure position, as well as being crippled by a perpetual lack of funds, gave some occasion for the spread of Lutheranism in his diocese, although himself opposing the Reformation. It is not true that he became a Lutheran and wished to retain his see as a secular principality, and just as untrue that in the Kalbe Parliament in 1541 he consented to the introduction of the Reformation in order to have his debts paid. His successors were the zealous Catholics John Albert of Brandenburg (1545-1550), who however could accomplish very little, and Frederick IV of Brandenburg, who died in 1552.

Administrators who were secular princes now took the place of the archbishop, and they, as well as the majority of the cathedral chapter and the inhabitants of the diocese, had become Evangelical. They belonged to the House of Brandenburg. Christian Wilhelm was taken prisoner in 1631, and went over to the Catholic Church in Vienna. At the time of the Peace of Prague, this country fell to the share of Prince August of Saxony, and after his death (1680) it was secularized and publicly assigned by the Peace of Westphalia to Brandenburg-Prussia (1648), to which it has since belonged, with the exception of the interval of French rule (1807-1814). During Napoleonic times, the Duchy of Magdeburg became part of the Kingdom of Westphalia. In 1813, it returned to Prussia (the former Brandenburg), and was soon thereafter dissolved and made the main part of the newly-founded Prussian Province of Saxony.

The remaining Catholic parishes and abbeys in the area of the former archdiocese were put under supervision of the Archdiocese of Cologne in 1648. In 1821, the area was transferred to the Diocese of Paderborn. In 1994, the Diocese of Magdeburg was founded in the area.