Archdiocese of Bremen

The Archdiocese of Bremen is a historical Roman Catholic diocese and a former eccesiastical state in the Holy Roman Empire. The secular state did not include the city of Bremen, but rather the area to the north of it, between the Weser and Elbe Rivers.

History

The foundation of the diocese belongs to the period of the missionary activity of Willehad on the lower Weser. It was erected July 15, 787, at Worms, on Charlemagne's initiative, his jurisdiction being assigned to cover the Saxon territory on both sides of the Weser from the mouth of the Aller, northward to the Elbe and westward to the Hunte, and the Frisian territory for a certain distance from the mouth of the Weser.

Willehad fixed his headquarters at Bremen, though the formal constitution of the diocese took place only after the subjugation of the Saxons in 804 or 805, when Willehad's disciple, Willerich, was consecrated bishop of Bremen, with the same territory. The diocese was probably at that time ecclesiastically subject to Cologne. When, after the death of Bishop Leuderich (838–45), it was given to Ansgar, it lost its independence, and from that time was permanently united with Hamburg.

The new combined see was regarded as the headquarters for missionary work in the north, and new sees to be erected were to be subject to its jurisdiction. Ansgar's successor, Rimbert, the "second apostle of the north," was troubled by onslaughts first of the Normans and then of the Wends, and by renewed claims on the part of Cologne. The see of Bremen attained its greatest prosperity and later had its deepest troubles under Adalbert. The next two archbishops, Liemar and Humbert, were determined opponents of Gregory VII.

Under the latter the archbishopric of Lund was erected, and Bremen had suffragan sees only in name, the Wendish bishoprics having been destroyed. Schisms in Church and State marked the next two centuries, and in spite of the labours of the Windesheim and Bursfelde congregations, the way was prepared for the Reformation, which made rapid headway, partly because the last Roman Catholic archbishop, Christopher of Brunswick, was also bishop of Verden and resided there.

By the time he died (1558), nothing was left of the old religion apart from a few monasteries and the districts served by them. The title of archbishop, with the secular jurisdiction, was borne for a time by Protestant princes. The Peace of Westphalia (1648) secularized it and made it (with Verden) a duchy and an appanage of the crown of Sweden, which also fully recognized the secularization, and changed the territory's status from an Archbishopric to that of a duchy.

In 1712 it passed into the possession of Denmark, and three years later was sold to Hanover, to which it was restored in 1813 after the Napoleonic disturbances. Its former territory was distributed ecclesiastically at this time among the neighbouring dioceses of Hildesheim, Osnabrück, and Münster, the imperial city of Bremen and the surrounding district being administered by the vicar-apostolic of the northern missions.

List of bishops and archbishops of Bremen

Bishops of Bremen, 787-865

*787–789 Willehad
*789–838 Willerich (Wilrich)
*838–845 Leuderich (Leutrich)
*848–865 Ansgar

in Personal-Union with Archbishops of Hamburg 865-1072

*865–888 Rimbert
*888–909 Adalgar
*909–915 Hoger/Huggar
*916 Reginwart
*916–936 Unni
*936–988 Adaldag
*988–1013 Libentius I (Libizo)
*1013–1029 Unwan
*1029–1032 Libentius II
*1032–1035 Herman
*1035–1043 Adalbrand
*1043–1072 Adalbert

Archbishops of Bremen, 1072-1558

*1072–1101 Liemar
*1101–1104 Humbert
*1104–1123 Friedrich I.
*1123–1148 Adalbert II.
*1148–1168 Hartwig I of Stade
*1168–1178 Baldwin of Holland
*1178–1179 Bertram (also Bishop of Metz)
*1180–1184 Siegfried, son of Margrave Albert the Bear; formerly Bishop of Brandenburg (1173-1180)
*1184–1207 Hartwig of Uthlede
*1207–1210 Burghard, Count of Stumpenhausen
*1208–1212 Waldemar, Prince of Denmark (also Bishop of Schleswig)
*1210–1219 Gerhard von Oldenburg-Wildeshausen
*1219–1258 Gerhard II of Lippe / Gebhard II. zur Lippe
*1258–1273 Hildebold von Huntstorf / Hildbold Graf von Wunstorf
*1273–1306 Gisbert von Bronchorst
*1306–1307 Heinrich I. von Goltern
*1307 Florenz von Bronchorst
*1307 Bernhard Graf von Wölpe
*1308–1327 Jens Grand (before Archbishop of Lund)
*1316– Johann I. Herzog von Braunschweig-Lüneburg
*1327–1344 Burghard II. Grelle
*1344–1348 Otto I of Oldenburg / Otto I. Graf von Oldenburg
*1348–1359 Gottfried of Arnsberg / Godfried Graf von Arnsberg
*1348–1359 Moritz Graf von Oldenburg (Administrator)
*1359–1395 Albert II of Brunswick-Lüneburg
*1395–1406 Otto II of Brunswick-Lüneburg, son of Magnus II, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg
*1406–1421 Johann II. von Schlamstorf
*1422–1435 Nicholas of Oldenburg-Delmenhorst / Nikolaus Graf von Delmenhorst, resigned
*1435–1441 Baldwin II. von Wenden
*1442–1463 Gerhard III. Graf von der Hoye
*1463–1496 Heinrich II. Graf von Schwarzburg (also Bistum Münster|Bishop of Münster)
*1497–1511 Johann III. Rode von Wale
*1511–1558 Christopher of Brunswick-Lüneburg / Christoph Herzog von Braunschweig-Lüneburg (also Bistum Verden|Bishop of Verden)

Protestant Administrators of Bremen, 1558-1648

*1558–1566 Georg of Brunswick-Lüneburg Georg Herzog von Braunschweig-Lüneburg
*1567–1585 Heinrich III of Saxe-Lauenburg / Heinrich III. Herzog von Sachsen-Lauenburg
*1585–1596 Johann Adolf of Holstein-Gottorp
*1596–1634 Johann Friedrich of Holstein-Gottorp / Johann Friedrich von Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorf|Johann Friedrich Herzog von Holstein-Gottorf
*1634–1648 Prince Frederick of Denmark

References

* H.Grote: Stammtafeln, Leipzig 1877, S. 506
*

ee also

*Duchy of Bremen