Bishopric of Merseburg
Prince-Bishopric of Merseburg Hochstift Merseburg | |||||||||
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| 1004–1565 | |||||||||
 Coat of arms
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Protestant | 1544 | ||||||||
• Incorporated by Saxony | 1565 | ||||||||
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The Bishopric of Merseburg was an
Meissen and Zeitz (from 1029: Naumburg), all suffragan dioceses of the Archbishopric of Magdeburg as part of a plan to bind the adjacent Slavic ("Wendish") lands in the Saxon Eastern March beyond the Saale River more closely to the Holy Roman Empire
.
The
Margraviate of Meissen
in the east.
History
About 919 Otto's father King
St. Emmeram's Abbey in Regensburg (Ratisbon), already distinguished by his missionary labours among the pagan Sorbs
.
Boso's successor
Great Slav Rising of 983, therefore the dissolution was revoked by the papacy in 998 or early in 999 at a Roman
synod. Upon Archbishop Gisilher's death in 1004, King Henry II re-established the prince-bishopric; the diocese did not, however, recover all its former territory, and was now almost exclusively a missionary jurisdiction among the Sorbs, who were not fully converted to Christianity until the middle of the 12th century.
Under Bishop
Meissen margraves of the Wettin dynasty, from 1423 Electors of Saxony, who by denying Merseburg's Imperial immediacy attempted to acquire the overlordship. By the 1485 Treaty of Leipzig the Wettins allocated the protectorate over Merseburg to Duke Albert III of Saxony
.
The bishopric's fate was sealed with the
Protestant Reformation, which was enforced here during the episcopate of Prince Adolph II of Anhalt, who was driven out of office by his uprising subjects during the German Peasants' War in 1525. In 1544 Elector Augustus of Saxony finally assumed the rule as Protestant administrator, with Prince George III of Anhalt as Coadjutor bishop. In 1561 the Saxon elector installed his minor son Alexander as administrator, who nevertheless died four years later, whereafter the Bishopric of Merseburg was finally incorporated by the Saxon electorate. From 1652 to 1738 the descendants of the Wettin duke Christian I
held the title of a "Duke of Saxe-Merseburg".
At the 1815 Congress of Vienna, three-fourths of the former diocesan territory was assigned to the Kingdom of Prussia, the rest remaining Saxon; the religious attitude of the people was by that time almost entirely Lutheran.
Incumbents of the see of Merseburg
Bishops of Merseburg
- 967–970: Boso
- 971–981: Gisilher
- 981–1004: diocese dissolved
Prince-Bishops of Merseburg
- 1004–1009: Wigbert
- 1009–1018: Thietmar of Walbeck
- 1019–1036: Bruno of Merseburg
- 1036–1050: Hunold
- 1050–1053: Alberich
- 1053: Winther
- 1053–1057: Ezzelin I
- 1057–1062: Offo (also Uffo, Onuphrius, or Woffo)
- 1062–1063: Günther (also Winithar)
- 1063–1093: Werner of Wolkenburg
- 1075: Eberhard (anti-bishop)
- 1093–1097: sede vacante
- 1097–1112: Albuin
- 1112–1120: Gerard (Gerhard)
- 1120–1126: Arnold
- 1126–1140: Megingoz (also Meingod)
- 1140–1140: Henry I
- 1140–1143: Ezzelin II (also Eckhelm)
- 1143–1151: Raynard (Reinhard) of Querfurt
- 1151–1170: John I (Johann)
- 1171–1201: Count Eberhard of Seeburg
- 1201–1215: Derek of Meissen (Dietrich von Meißen)
- 1215–1240: Ekkehard Rabil (also Engelhard)
- 1240–1244: Rudolph of Webau
- 1244–1265: Henry II of Waren
- 1265: Albert I of Borna (Albrecht)
- 1265–1283: Frederick I of Torgau
- 1283–1300: Henry III von Ammendorf
- 1300–1319: Henry IV
- 1320–1340: Gebhard of Schrapelau (or Schraplau)
- 1341–1357: Henry V, Count of Stolberg
- 1357–1382: Frederick II of Hoym
- 1382–1384: Burkhard of Querfurt
- 1382–1385: Andreas Dauba (anti-bishop)
- 1384–1393: Henry VI, Count of Stolberg
- 1393–1403: Henry VII, treasurer from Orlamünde
- 1403–1406: Otto of Honstein
- 1406: Bishop Elect Henry (VIII), Count of Stolberg
- 1407–1411: Walter von Köckeritz
- 1411–1431: Nicholas Lubich
- 1431–1463: John II of Bose (Johannes; 23 May 1431 - 3 October 1463)
- 1464–1466: John III of Bose (Johannes; January 1464 - 11 July 1466)
- 1466–1514: Thilo of Trotha (21 Jul 1466 - 5 Mar 1514)
- 1514–1526: Adolph of Anhalt (5 March 1514 - 23 March 1526)
- 1526–1535: Vincent of Schleinitz (Vinzenz; 9 April 1526 - 21 March 1535)
- 1535–1544: Sigismund of Lindenau (3 April 1535 - 4 January 1544)
Lutheran Administrator and coadjutor
- 1544–1548: Augustus of Saxony, as administrator
- 1544–1549: George of Anhalt, as Lutheran coadjutor
Prince-Bishop
- 1549–1561: Michael Helding (28 May 1549 - 30 September 1561)
Lutheran Administrator
- 1561–1565: Alexander of Saxony
- In 1565 the prince-bishopric was annexed to the Electorate of Saxony
References
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the New Schaff–Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge (third ed.). London and New York: Funk and Wagnalls.){{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty|title=(help
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