Roman Catholic Diocese of Chiemsee
This article is actively undergoing a major edit for a little while. To help avoid edit conflicts, please do not edit this page while this message is displayed. This page was last edited at 07:51, 30 September 2012 (UTC) (11 years ago) – this estimate is cached, . Please remove this template if this page hasn't been edited for a significant time. If you are the editor who added this template, please be sure to remove it or replace it with {{Under construction}} between editing sessions. |
Bishopric of Chiemsee Bistum Chiemsee | |
1216 - 1808 | |
Capital Circle Bench |
Herrenchiemsee Bavarian until ? none |
Established | 1216 |
Abolished | 1808 |
The Bishopric of Chiemsee was a Roman Catholic diocese. While based on the islands of the Chiemsee in Bavaria, Germany, most of its territory lay in Tyrol, Austria. In 2009 it was reestablished as titular see, however the seat is still vacant.
Establishment
The Bishopric of Chiemsee was established by the Archbishop of Salzburg, Eberhard II of Regensberg, in 1215 after a large increase in size of the archdiocese on the islands of the Chiemsee. This followed the precedent set by his predecessor, who had established the Bishopric of Gurk in 1072 and was to be completed by the setting the bishoprics of Seckau in 1218 and Lavant in 1225. Both the Holy Roman Emperor and the Pope gave their support to the establishment of the bishopric in 1213.
Structure
All bishops of Chiemsee were selected by the Archbishops, for the archbishop and the bishops formed some of the most important supporters of the archbishops. The bishops usually served as auxilliary bishops or fulfilled other duties for the archbishops. Locally the real power in the bishopric rested in the archdeacons who supported by the Dukes of Bavaria prevented the bishops from residing in the bishopric. Therefore the Bishops never became prince-bishops of the Empire, unlike most other ecclesiarchs. Thus the bishopric should not be considered as a state of the Holy Roman Empire, but as a territory within the state of the archbishopric. According to this, the bishops had a seat in archbishoprics diet.
As cathedral, the monastery church of the old Benectine Abbey of Herrenchiemsee was declared. In fact, the seat of the bishopric was in the so called Chiemseehof in the city of Salzburg. This building nowadays is used by the parliament and the government of the state of Salzburg.
The bishopric was very small, consisting of 10 parishes when it was created and 11 in 1804, the most of beeing located as exclaves in the vicinity of St. Johann in Tirol. The most famous bishop was Berthold Pürstinger (1508 - 1525) who twice used his influence to save innocent people from the bishops (the town-councillors in 1511, and peasants in 1524), and after retiring from office became a noted humanist.
Abolition
Together with the secularisation of the archbishopric in 1803, the bishropric lost its function as territory as well. In 1808 the diocese was abolished after the last bishop waived his rights. Temporary under the rule of the Ordinariate of the Bishopric of Freising, the austrian parts returned to Salzburg and got added to the Bishopric of Brixen in 1817/18, the rest becoming regular part of newly renamed Bishopric of Munich-Freising.
List of Bishops of Chiemsee (1216 - 1808)
External links
- Diocese of Chiemsee at catholic-hierarchy.org
- Titular Episcopal See of Chiemsee at gcatholic.com
- Article about the Bishopric of Chiemsee at Historisches Lexikon Bayerns (german)