Archbishopric of Warmia

Infobox Former Country
native_name = "Fürstbistum Ermland" (de)
"Diecezja warmińska" (pl)
"Dioecesis Varmiensis" (la)

conventional_long_name = Prince-Bishopric of Warmia
common_name = Warmia|
continent = Europe
region = Baltic
country = Poland since 1945
era = Middle Ages
status = Vassal
status_text = Prince-Bishopric 1356-1772
empire = Holy Roman Empire
government_type = Theocracy|
year_start = 1243
year_end = 1772|
event_start = Bishopric founded as one of four Prussian Bishoprics
ruled by Teutonic
date_start =
event1 = Imperial Prince-Bishopric Gained "Reichsfreiheit"
date_event1 = 1356
event2 = Independence from
the Teutonic Order
date_event2 = 1466
event3 = Subjugated to the
Polish Crown
date_event3 = 1479
event4 = Two-thirds annexed by
by Prussia
date_event4 = 1512 - 20th C Exempt Bishopric directly under the Pope
event_end = Annexed by Prussia
date_end = August 5|
p1 = Monastic state of the Teutonic Knights
image_p1 =
s1 = Kingdom of Prussia
flag_s1 = Flag of Prussia (1750).gif|

---

image_map_caption = |
capital = Olsztyn (Allenstein) |latd=53 |latm=47 |latNS=N |longd=20 |longm=30 |longEW=E
common_languages = Polish, German
religion = Roman Catholic
currency =

The Archbishopric of Warmia ( _pl. Archidiecezja warmińska; Audio-de|Erzbistum Ermland|Erzbistum Ermland.ogg; _la. Archidioecesis Varmiensis) is since 1992 a Roman Catholic archbishopric in northeastern Poland.

Originally founded as the Bishopric of Ermland, [Ermland, or Ermeland (Varmiensis, Warmia) a district of East Prussia and an exempt bishopric, Catholic Encyclopedia, [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05522a.htm] ] it was created by William of Modena in 1243 in the territory of Prussia after its conquest by the Teutonic Knights. Under Emperor Charles IV it became a prince-bishopric. Upon expulsion by Communists of the bishop Maximilian Kaller and the people of Prussia in 1945 the bishopseat remained vacant.

In 1972 a new Polish diocese was installed. It was raised to an archbishopric in 1992.

History

Christian of Oliva was the first bishop of Prussia before the Bishopric of Prussia was divided. [The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume III. Published 1908.] He was supposed to choose one of the new dioceses, but died before doing so.

Within the Territory of the Teutonic Order

Along with Culm, Pomesania, and Samland, Warmia was one of four dioceses in Prussia created in 1243 by the papal legate William of Modena. All four dioceses came under the rule of the appointed Archbishop of Prussia Albert Suerbeer who came from Cologne and was the former Archbishop of Armagh in Ireland. He choose Riga as his residence in 1251, which was confirmed by Pope Alexander IV in 1255. Several bishops at that time were priests of the Teutonic Order. Heinrich of Strateich, the first elected Bishop of Warmia, was unable to claim his office, but in 1251 Anselm of Meissen entered the see of Warmia. The bishop ruled one-third of the bishopric as a secular ruler. This was confirmed by the Golden Bull of 1356. The chapter had the right to elect independently the bishop. It resided at Braunsberg (Braniewo) until it moved to Frauenburg (Frombork) in 1280 after attacks by heathen Old Prussians.

Although the Bishops of Warmia defended their privileges and tried to put down all attempts to cut the prerogatives and the autonomy the bishopric enjoyed, some Polish sources disagree with German historians whether the bishopric was autonomous or controlled by the Teutonic Knights.The facts were, that the Teutonic Order held the "Schirmherrschaft" as protectors of the independent Fuerstbistum (Prince-Bishopric) Ermland, but it was possession of the prince-bishops.

After the Battle of Grunwald in 1410, both the Sambian and Warmian bishops paid homage to Jogaila of Poland and Lithuania, a maneuver to protect the territory from complete destruction. It resulted in the Teutonic Knights in their role as protectors regaining the territory from the forces of Poland, Lithuania and the Tatars.

In 1447 the prince-bishopric of Ermland as "German Nation" took part in a "Fuerstentag" at Aschaffenburg, and the 1448 Fuerstentag (governmental assembly) of Reichfuersten, Princes of the Holy Roman Empire.

When in the 1460s it became clear that the Teutonic Order would negotiate the Second Peace of Thorn, Bishop Paul of Lengendorf (1458-1467) joined the seceding Prussian Confederation.

Prince-Bishopric of Ermland/Warmia as Exempt Bishopric

The Second Peace of Thorn (1466) removed the bishopric from the protectorate of the Teutonic Knights and the same protector role went to the crown of Poland. The bishops insisted on keeping their imperial privileges and ruled the territory as "de-facto" prince-bishops although the Polish king did not share this point of view. This led to conflict when the Polish king claimed the right to name the bishops, as he did in the Kingdom of Poland. The chapter did not accept this and elected Nicolaus von Tüngen as bishop, which led to the War of the Priests ("Warmia Stift Feud", 1467-1479) between King Casimir IV Jagiellon (1447–1492) and Nikolaus von Tüngen (1467-89) who was supported by the Teutonic Order and King Matthias Corvinus of Hungary.

The Polish king accepted Tüngen as prince-bishop in the First Treaty of Piotrków Trybunalski, while Tüngen inversely accepted the Polish king as protector and obliged the chapter to elect only candidates approved by the Polish king. However, when Tüngen died in 1489, the chapter elected Lucas Watzenrode as bishop and Pope Innocent VIII supported Watzenrode against the wishes of Casimir IV Jagiellon, who preferred his son Frederic. This problem finally led to the Exempt Status of the bishopric in 1512 by Pope Julius II based on the Ermland status as part of German Nation. In the Second Treaty of Piotrków Trybunalski (December 7, 1512) Warmia conceded to King Alexander Jagiellon a limited right to propose four candidates to the chapter for the election, who however had to be native Prussians.

The Prince-Bishopric of Warmia lost the other two-thirds of its parishes in 1525 when the Order's Grand Master Albert of Brandenburg-Ansbach secularized all of the Order's Prussian territories surrounding the prince-bishopric Ermland to create the Duchy of Prussia during the Protestant Reformation, because the vast majority of burghers had become Lutherans.

Domherren, Cannon of Ermland had to be Prussians, speak German and had to be very well educated in the legal system in order to be able to become Prince-bishop and to uphold and fight for retaining the legal status of the Ermland diocese.

After the Council of Trent the later cardinal Stanislaus Hosius (1551-79) held a diocesan synode (1565) and the same year the Jesuits came to Braunsberg. While nearly all of Prussia took on evangelical Protestant religion, the prince-bishops Hosius and Cromer and the Jesuits were instrumental in keeping much of Warmia's population Catholic. The Congregation of St. Catherine, founded at Braunsberg by Regina Protmann, engaged in education, especially schooling for girls. Hoewever even Hosius and Cromer strongly defended the exempt status of Ermland against the many attempts of the Polish kings to annex it to Poland-Lithuania.

Several times in the 17th and early 18th centuries Prussia with Ermland were exposed to fighting between Polish, Holy Roman Empire and Sweden troops in the Polish-Swedish wars.

Until the late 18th century, the prince-bishop was also a "Ober-President" of all of Prussia combined as part of the Senate "Conventus generalus Terrarum Prussiae".

As part of East Prussia

At the time of the break-up of the Polish-Lithuanian multi-state-kingdom , referred to as First Partition of Poland in 1772, Ermland was incorporated into the Kingdom of Prussia's province of East Prussia.

The bishopric ceased to be an independend governmental unit, and King Frederick II confiscated its property. The prince-bishop, a personal friend of Frederick the Great, the noted Polish author Ignacy Krasicki, though deprived of temporal authority, retained influence at the Prussian court before his reappointment as Archbishop of Gniezno in 1795.

The prince-bishopric of Ermland remained an exempt bishopric until the 20th century.

Although the population of the bishopric Ermland remained largely Roman-Catholic, religious schools were suppressed [ [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05522a.htm|Catholic Encyclopedia] ] . Although there had been schools teaching in the Polish language since the 16th.C, the Polish language was forbidden in all schools in Warmia by decree of 1873 [ [http://www.spiritus-temporis.com/warmia/history.html|brief history of Warmia] ] .

By the bull "De salute animum" (July 16, 1820) the Catholic church in Prussia was reorganised. Since most of Prussia had become Lutherans , the few remaining Catholics were added to the Diocese of Warmia, which was expanded to include the territories with inhabitants which converted during Reformation in the former Diocese of Samland (Sambia) and a part of the Diocese of Pomesania. Later, Marienwerder (Kwidzyn) was attached as well.

In 1901, the total population in the area of the diocese was about 2,000,000, but only 327,567 were Catholics.

World War II and after

Bishop Maximilian Kaller was forced to leave his office by the Nazi Schutzstaffel for his safety in February 1945 during World War II, as the Soviet Red Army advanced into East Prussia. During the last months of the Second World War, the Potsdam Agreement went along with the Communist's conquest and the southern portion of the diocese was administered by Poland, while the northern part found itself in the Soviet Union as part of the Kaliningrad Oblast; the German population was subject to expulsion along with the last Ermland bishop Maximilian Kaller.

Kaller returned to the region to resume his office as bishop, but by then a Polish administration and population had moved in and were cleansing the territory of its German population. Cardinal August Hlond prevented Kaller from continuing his duties, and Kaller took refuge in what would become West Germany but never resigned. In 1946 he received "Special Authority as Bishop for the Deported Germans" from Pope Pius XII.

The office of Bishop of Warmia, traditionally at the cathedral of Frauenburg (Frombork), was left vacant after 1945. A new Polish bishopric was installed with the appointment of Józef Drzazga in 1972, who relocated the office to Olsztyn.

On March 25 1992, the Bishopric of Warmia was raised to an archbishopric, with the bishoprics of Elbląg and Ełk belonging also to the 12,000 km² area and its 703,000 Catholics, 33 deans, 253 church districts, 446 diocese priests, 117 order priests, and 231 order nuns.

The current archbishop is Wojciech Ziemba, supported by an auxiliary bishop.

References

* [http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ermland| history of Warmia in German Wikipedia]
* The Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol 3 - History of Bischopric of Ermsland.
* [http://www.warminsko-mazurskie.iap.pl/?id=31192&location=f&msg=1| Warmia and Mazuria History library] - in Polish
* [http://books.google.com/books?id=-W9_1hHDnZAC&pg=PA219&dq=simon+rudnicki+ermland&sig=1iAeWwr5a00D0k3z0GHZ1AdBpt4#PPA216,M1 Bistum Ermland. Detailed legal exempt status] , with Teutonic Order as protector, then Polish king as protector(protectio) not (superioritas) book in German