BAMBERG
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BAMBERG
Middle Franconia (in particular the cities of
Nuremberg, Fiirth, Ansbach, and Erlangen), parts
of Lower Franconia, of the Upper Palatinate, and
of the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg. According to the
census of 1 December, 1900, the archdiocese then
contained 379,442 Catholics; in 1907 the Catholics
numbered 410,000, and members of other denomina-
tions 720,000. Bamberg as an ecclesiastical province
includes, besides the Archdiocese of Bamberg, the
suiYragan dioceses of WUrzburg, Eichstatt, and
Speyer, all of Bavaria.
History. — In the early centuries the region after- wards included in the Diocese of Bamberg was in- habited for the most part by Slavs; the knowledge of Christianity was brought to these people cliiefly by the monks of the Benedictine Abbey of Fulda. and the land was under the spiritual authority of the Diocese of Wiirzburg. The Emperor Henry II and his pious wife Kunigunde decided to erect a separate bishopric at Bamberg, which was a family inheritance. The emperor's purpose in this was to make the Diocese of Wiirzburg less unwieldy in size and to give Christianity a firmer footing in the dis- tricts of Franconia. In 1008, after long negotiations with the Bishops of Wiirzburg and Eichstatt, who were to cede portions of their dioceses, the boundaries of the new diocese were defined, and John XVHI granted the papal confirmation in the same year. The new cathedral was consecrated G May, 1012, and in 1017 Henry II founded on Mount St. Michael, near Bamberg, a Benedictine abbey for the training of the clergy. The emperor and his wife gave large temporal possessions to the new diocese, and it re- ceived many privileges out of which grew the secular power of the bishops (cf. Weber in " Historisches Jahrbuch der Gorresgesellschaft " for 1899, 326-345 and 617-639). Pope Benedict VIII during his visit to Bamberg (1020) placed the diocese in direct de- pendence on the Holy See. In 1248 and 1260 the see obtained large portions of the estates of the Counts of Meran, partly through purchase and partly through the appropriation of extinguished fiefs. The old Bishopric of Bamberg was composed of an unbroken territory extending from Schliisselfeld in a north-easterly direction to the Franconian Forest, and possessed in addition estates in the Duchies of Carinthia and Salzburg, in the Nordgau (the present Upper Palatinate), in Thuringia, and on the Danube. By the changes resulting from the Reformation the territory of this see was reduced nearly one half in extent; in 1759 the possessions and jurisdictions situated in Austria were sold to that State. When the secularization of church lands took place (1802) the diocese covered 1276 square miles and had a population of 207,000 souls.
t"p to this period the Diocese of Bamberg had been ruled by 63 bishops. The first eight were appointed by the German emperors; after this they were chosen by the clergy and people jointly; still later they were elected by the cathedral chapter. On several oc- casions, when the election was disputed, the ap- pointment was made by the pope. The first bishop, Eberhard I (1007-40), chancellor to Henry II, greatly increased the possessions of the diocese; Suidger (1040-46) became pope under the name of Clement II; Hartwig (1047-53) defended the rights of his see against the Bishop of Wiirzburg and received the pallimn from the pope in 1053; Adalbero (1053- 57) was followed by Gunther (1057-65) who held the .first synod of Bamberg (1058). Gunther died at Udenburg (Sopron) in Hungarj-, while on a crusade. Hermann (1065-75) acquired the Prin- cipality of Banz; in the struggle between the empire and the papacy he took the side of the empire. He was charged with obtaining his election by simony and deposed. Rupert (1075-1102), as partisan of Henry IV, was a member of the pseudo-Synod of
Brixen which declared Pope Gregory VII to be d».
posed; on this account the bishop was excommuni-
cated. During his episcopate Rupert did much for the-
encouragement of classical learning in the diocese.
St. Otto I (1102-39), the Apostle of the Prussians:
and Pomeranians, had a large share in the recon-
ciliation of the pope and the emperor by the Con-
cordat of Worms; he founded numerous churches
and monasteries and during a famine showed large-
hearted generosity to his subjects. Otto's immediate
successors were men of less distinction: Egilbert (1 139-
46), who had been Patriarch of Aquileia; Eberhard II
of Otelingen (1146-70) who with great pomp cele-
brated, in 1147, the canonization of Henry II. Eber-
hard increased the territory of the diocese, but,
being a partisan of Frederick I, he was for a time
under sentence of excommunication. He was suc-
ceeded by Hermann II, of Aiu'ach (1170-77). Otto
II, of Andechs (1177-96), rebuilt in 1181 the cathe-
dral, which had been burned. Otto II understood how
to remain loyal both to the emperor and the pope.
Thiemo (1196-1202) obtained in 1200 the canoniza-
tion of the Empress Kunigunde, joint foundress;
with the emperor Henry II of tlie see; Conrad, Duke
of Silesia (1201-03), died .soon after his election; Eck-
bert. Count of Meran and Andechs (1203-37), was sus-
pected of being pri\y to the murder of Kng Philip-
of Germany in 1208; the ban of the empire was pro-
claimed against him, and he was removed from his.
see, but in 1212 he was restored, and in 1217 took
part in an unsuccessful crusade to Palestine. la
spite of his warlike disposition he was zealous in
promoting the spiritual life of his clergy. Poppo I,
Count of Andechs (1237-42), soon retired from his.
office; Henry I of Bilberstcin (1242-51) received
from the emperor the title of Prince-Bishop for him-
self and his successors, as well as numerous rights,
of sovereignty. Thenceforth the Bishops of Bam-
berg had ecclesiastical precedence directly after the
archbishops.
Their power w-as encroached on, however, from two directions; on the one side bj' the cathedral canons, the so-called Brothers of St. George, who abandoned the vita communis during the episcopate of Bishop Berthold of Leiningen (1257 -85) and developed gradually into a cathedral chapter. In time the cathedral chapter of Bamberg was chosen, as in other German dioceses, exclusively from the nobility; the chapter, by so-called election pacts (W ahlkapiiulationcn) forced the bishops to abandon numerous privileges and many of the church, livings under their control in favour of the chapter, limited the bishop's disciplinary authority over the clergy as well as his right to le\'y taxes, and abridged other powers. The episcopal authority was also limited, as in other parts of Germany, by the growing power of the towns which rebelled against the secu- lar jurisdiction of the ecclesiastical princes. Thus the city of Bamberg revolted (1291) against Arnold of Solms (1286-96), a quarrel which was settled in 1291 by arbitration in favour of the bishop. During this episcopate the finances of the diocese became much involved, and the indebtedness increased under Leopold I of Griindlach (1297-1303). A Dominican appointed by the pope, Wulfing of Stubenberg (1304-18), founded in Bamberg a Dominican monas- tery and a convent of Dominican nuns. Several of the succeeding bishops ruled for brief periods: John of Giittingen (1322-23), afterwards Bishop of Freising; Henry II of Sternberg (1324-28). a Domini- can; John, Count of Nassau (1328-29), who died before consecration; Werntho Schenk of Reicheneck (1329-35); Leopold II of Egloffstein (1335-43), who maintained ecclesiastical discipline in his diocese and shrewdly kept out of the quarrels between pope and emperor. Frederick I of Hohenlohe (1344-.52) did much to establish peace between the imperial
