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A Prince-Bishop is a Bishop who is a territorial Prince Of The Church on account of one or more Secular principalities, usually pre-existent nobiliary titles held concurrently with their inherent Cleric al office. If the see is an archbishopric, the correct term is '''prince-archbishop'''; the equivalent in the regular clergy is a Prince-abbot . In the West, with the decline of imperial power from the 4th Century onwards in the face of barbaric invasions, sometimes Christian bishops of Cities took the place of the Roman commander, made secular decisions for the city and led his own troops when necessary. Later relations between a prince-bishop and the Burgher s were not invariably cordial. As cities demanded charters from emperors or kings and declared themselves independent of the secular territorial magnates, friction intensified between burghers and bishops. In the Byzantine Empire , the still autocratic Emperors have taken general legal measures assigning all bishops certain rights and duties in the secular administration of their dioceses, but that was part of a Caesaropapist development putting the Eastern Church in the service of the Empire, with its Ecumenical Patriarch almost reduced to the Emperor's minister of religious affairs. The Russia n empire acted similarly. HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE BIshops had been envolved in the government of the Frankish realm and subsequent Carolingian empire frequently as the clerical member of a duo of envoys styled Missus Dominicus , but that was an individual mandate, not attached to the see. Prince-bishoprics were most common in the feudally fragmentarised Holy Roman Empire , where many were formally awarded the rank of '' Reichsfürst '' ("Prince of the Empire"), granting representation in the Reichstag (imperial Diet). They were finally dissolved in most countries by Napoleon Bonaparte , with the downfall of the old Empire and Holy Roman Emperor in 1806 . However in some countries outside of French control, such as Austria and Prussia the institution continued, as well as revivals of prince-bishoprics and a new, titular type arose. In Germany proper No less then three of the (originally only seven) Prince-elector s, the highest order of Reichsfürst en (comparable in rank with the French Pair s), were Prince-archbishops, each holding the title of Archchancellor (the only archoffice in multiplicity) for a part of the Empire; given the higher importance of an alectorate, their principalities were known as ''Kurfürstentum'', not archbishopric: Other prince-archbishoprics were: Other prince-bishoprics in present Germany were those of:
Furthermore there were prince-bishoprics in neighbouring regions, then considered part of Germany (read the Holy Roman Empire minus all other realms within the empire), notably in the former central kingdom of Lotharingia, presently in France's region Alsace-Lorraine:
In Austria
Furthermore among of its suffragans:
In Switzerland
In present Italy
?other In the Low Countries
In the colonized east , 16th century Prince-Bishop of Warmia]]
The career of Albert Of Buxhoeveden and his brother Herman exemplify the double nature of power, especially on the Marches of Europe, where Roman Catholicism was pushed aggressively to the East. At the opening of the 13th Century , the time of the Third Crusade , Albert, with a fleet of ships and a thousand Crusader s, began the Christianization of the Eastern Baltic Region , with the blessing of Pope Innocent III , his uncle the Archbishop of Hamburg and Bremen , and of King Philip of the Holy Roman Empire, who created the former canon of Bremen a Prince of the Holy Roman Empire ( 1207 ) and Livonia ( Latvia and part of Estonia ) as a fief. The Prince built his own cathedral at Riga , the city that he founded.
ELSEWHERE Other Habsburg - and/or former Ottoman territories
England The famous Bishops Of Durham were also territorial Prince Bishops, with the extraordinary secular rank of Earl Palatine , for it was their duty not only to be head of the large diocese, but also to help protect the Kingdom against the Scottish threat from the north. The title survived the union of England and Scotland into the Kingdom Of Great Britain in 1707 until 1836. The Bishops of Durham founded the University Of Durham , amongst the most prestigious and amongst oldest universities in England. France Apart from Cambrai (see above, Low Countries ), no French diocese had a principality of political significance linked to its see. However, a number of French Bishops did hold a noble title, with a tiny territory usually about their seat; it was often a and five other Bishops ( Suffragans to Reims, except the Bishop of Langres ); the three highest ones held a Ducal title and the others a Comital title. They were later joined by the Archbishop Of Paris , with a ducal title, but with precedence over the others. See also Peerage Of France . BEYOND CATHOLIC FEUDALISM While one might expect that the Protestant Schisma, Contrareformation and more modern regimes then the traditional feudal principality would have eradicated the prince-bishopric, they didn't quite. Even when the true prince-(arch)bishoprics disappeared from the map or Europe as it was redrawn by Napoleon (who caused the end of the very Holy Roman Empire) and the Congress of Vienna, the title found a new, ''titular'' use. In the Habsburg dynasty's "new" empire, the Danubian Double Monarchy Austria-Hungary , reduced to the parts south of Prussia's (German) sphere of dominance that would become the German Empire, actual territorial power was no longer held by the bishops, but the status of ''Fürst(erz)bisschof'' was maintained, and could be given a similar political role in the more modern, almost standardized Cisleithania n provincial level, the ''Kronland'' ' Crown Land ', as Ex Officio members of its Landtag , the representative and legislative assembly, often with virilstimme, while other bishops could collectively be represented as a prelates bench (an elected ''Kurie'') The Emperors of Austria now bestowed the title upon Bishops even ''without'' any feudal principality, but as a princely style and rank (as had been usual for centuries with secular noble titles of peerage ranks) awarded to episcopal sees, carrying the privilige of a seat in the estates, e.g. for the bishop of Laibach (as a consolation prize for the loss of metropolitan rank to Graz). SPECIAL CASES The ultimate Prince Bishop is the Bishop Of Rome , i.e. the Pope, universal head of the Roman Catholic church, whose claims to territorial power were bolstered by the fraudulent document called the '' Donation Of Constantine '', building up the powerful Papal States . He was the last of the true, sovereign Prince-Bishops and was divested of territorial powers when the Papacy was forced to surrender the rule of Rome in 1870 to the reunited kingdom of Italy. The Pope was however made Head Of State again of the specially created Vatican City , a small part of the Eternal City, by treaty with Mussolini's Italy. The Spanish Bishop Of Urgell , who no longer has any secular rights in Spain, still is one of the two Co-princes Of Andorra , along with the Head of State (presently President) of France. SEE ALSO SOURCES, REFERENCES AND EXTERNAL LINKS
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