Roman Catholic Diocese of Passau

Lorch

The Diocese of Passau may be considered the successor of the ancient Diocese of Lorch (Laureacum). At Lorch, a Roman station and an important stronghold at the confluence of the rivers Enns and Danube, Christianity found a foothold in the third century, during a period of Roman domination, and a Bishop of Lorch certainly existed in the fourth. The letter of Pope Symmachus (498–514) to Archbishop Theodore of Lorch is a forgery of Bishop Pilgrim.^[3] During the great migrations, Christianity on the Danube was completely rooted out, and the Celtic and Roman population was annihilated or enslaved.

Foundation of the diocese of Passau

In the region between the rivers Lech and Enns, the wandering Baiuvarii were converted to Christianity in the seventh century, while the Avari, to the east, remained pagan. The ecclesiastical organization of Bavaria was brought about in 739 by the papal legate St. Boniface, who, with the support of Duke Odilo or at least enacting an earlier design of the duke,^[4] erected the four sees of Freising, Ratisbon, Passau, and Salzburg.^[5] He confirmed as incumbent of Passau, Bishop Vivilo, or Vivolus, who had been ordained in Rome by Pope Gregory III (731-741). From that time, Vivilo resided permanently at Passau, on the site of the old Roman colony of Batavis. Here there existed a church established by a founder now unknown, which was dedicated to St. Stephen. Bishop Vivilo's diocese received by annexation the ancient Lorch, which meanwhile had become a small place of little importance. Thanks to the duke, a cathedral was soon erected near the Passau church of St. Stephen, and there the bishop lived in common with his clergy.

The ecclesiastical province of Bavaria was created on 20 April 798, at the request of Charlemagne. Pope Leo III named Salzburg its metropolitan archdiocese, assigning as its suffragan dioceses Passau, Ratisbon, Freising, Säben-Brixen, and Neuburg and sending Bishop Arno of Salzburg the pallium.^[6] The diocese of Passau was subject to Salzburg until 1728; from 1728 until 1817 it was directly subject to the Holy See (Papacy); from 1826, it became subject to the archdiocese of Munich-Freising.^[7]

Troubles with Moravia

Pope Eugenius II (824–827) was said to have sent a letter to four bishops in Moravia and Hungary (Pannonia), informing them that he had created Bishop Urolfus of Passau an archbishop, and made him metropolitan of an ecclesiastical province, which included the dioceses of Favianensis, Speculiiuliensis (also known as Ouguturensis), Nitravensis, and Vetuarensis.^[8] Only two of the diocesan names are known. The document, however, is a forgery.^[9] It was invented by Bishop Pilgrim, to advance his claim that the diocese of Passau was the successor of the (arch)diocese of Lorch, and was entitled to the pallium.^[10] Neither the German kings nor the popes ever acknowledged validity of the claim.^[11]

On 24 September 860, at the request of Bishop Hartwig of Passau, King Louis II granted a number of mansiones to Hartwig's chorepiscopus^[12] Alberic.^[13] But in May 864,^[14] Pope Nicholas I, writing to King Louis, noted that Bishop Hartwig of Passau had been paralysed for the previous four years (abhinc quattuor annos), but that he could not simply be deposed or set aside; he could, however, resign the diocese, if he were able to execute the proper documents.^[15]

The first missionaries to the pagan Hungarians went out from Passau, and in 866 the Church sent missionaries to Bulgaria.^[16]

Before the spring 873, a three year long struggle on the part of several German bishops attempted to unseat Bishop Methodius, the "Apostle to the Slavs."^[17] Pope John VIII (872–882) wrote to his legate in Germany and Pannonia, Bishop Paul of Ancona, ordering him to advise King Louis that Pannonia was directly subject to the Holy See (Papacy), and that he should inform Archbishop Alvinus of Salzburg and Bishop Ermericus of Passau that if they should deprive Bishop Methodius of his sacred ministry, the pope would do the same to them.^[18] Ermericus captured Methodius, kept him in prison during the bitter winter, held a meeting of bishops, and would have had Methodius beaten in public, were it not for the intervention of others. Pope John suspended Emericus, and summoned him, along with Bishop Paul and Bishop Methodius, to Rome for trial.^[19] He died on 2 January 874.^[20]

The Magyars made their first incursions into northern Italy in 899; in 900, they made their first raids into Bavaria.^[21] In July 900, Archbishop Dietmar of Salzburg, Bishops Waldo of Frising, Erchanbald of Eichstatt, Zacharias of Säben-Brixen, Tuto of Ratisbon, and Richarius of Passau, sent a letter of complaint to Pope John IX.^[22] They wrote that three bishops had come into the diocese of Passau from Moravia, Archbishop John and Bishops Benedict and Daniel, and had consecrated an archbishop and three bishops without the knowledge of the archbishop of Salzburg or the consent of the bishop of Passau. They reminded the pope of the good deeds of the kings of the Franks toward his predecessors; they refuted the charges of the Slavs; and they advised the pope not to believe the lies that they were telling about the Bavarian bishops.^[23][24]

Passau, the outermost eastern bulwark of the Germans, suffered most from the incursions of the Hungarians. At that time many churches and monasteries were destroyed. The canons of Passau suffered especially great losses. On 12 August 903, therefore, at the request of Counts Arbo and Engilmar, vassals of the Church of Passau, and with the consent of Bishop Burchard, King Louis IV agreed to the transfer of loca in Innveiertel, along with their decima and other appurtenances, which had previously been given as benefices by the bishop, to the power of the canons.^[25] This is the earliest clear mention of the canons of Passau as a single body.^[26] Additional invasions by Hungarians, usually damaging Passau, occurred in the incursion into Alemannia in 915 and 917, when Basel was destroyed and Alsace devastated; 921, centered on Thuringia and Saxony; 924, in which Franconia suffered; 925 in which Bavaria and Alemannia were attacked; and 926, when incursions reached Gallia.^[27]

When, after the victory the Battle of Lechfeld, the Germans pressed forward and regained the old Ostmark, Bishop Adalbert (946-971) hoped to extend his spiritual jurisdiction over Hungary. He was present at the Council of Ingelheim in 948, and his title is given as "bishop", not "archbishop."^[28]

Bishop Pilgrim

His successor, Bishop Piligrim (971-991), who worked successfully for the Christianization of Pannonia, aspired to free Passau from the metropolitan authority of Salzburg, but was completely frustrated in this, as well as in his attempt to assert the metropolitan claims which Passau was supposed to have inherited from Lorch, and to include all Hungary in his diocese. By founding many monasteries in his diocese he prepared the way for the princely power of later bishops. He also built many new churches and restored others from ruins.^[29]

Princes of the Empire

His successor, Christian (991-1002) received in 999 from Emperor Otto III the market privilege and the rights of coinage, taxation, and higher and lower jurisdiction.^[30] Bishop Christian attended the diet of Frankfurt in 1007, at which the decision was taken to establish the diocese of Bamberg, and in 1012 he participated in the consecration of its new cathedral.^[31] The Emperor Henry II granted him a large part of the North Forest. Henceforward, indeed, the bishops ruled as princes of the empire, although the title was used for the first time only in a document in 1193. Under Berengar (1013–1045) the whole district east of the Viennese forest as far as Letha and March was placed under the jurisdiction of Passau. During his time the cathedral chapter made its appearance, but there is little information concerning its beginning as a distinct corporation with the right of electing a bishop. This right was much hampered by the exercise of imperial influence.

At the beginning of the Investiture Controversy, Bishop Altmann occupied the see (1065–1091) and was one of the few German bishops who adhered to Pope Gregory VII. He served as papal legate of Pope Gregory.^[32] In 1175, he held a council in Passau, in which he had Pope Gregory's synodical letters of 1074 and 1075 read to the assembly; they mandated clerical celibacy. There was difficulty in enforcing the mandate, and Altmann wrote to the pope, who replied that if one of the clergy complied, he could be restored to his position, but if one refused, he was to be cut off completely.^[33] In 1080, Pope Gregory deposed Bishop Otto of Konstanz in the Roman synod of Lent, and ordered Bishop Altmann to travel to Konstanz and supervise the election of a proper bishop.^[34] In 1081, he commissioned Altmann to win back the archbishop of Salzburg and the other bishops who had gone over to King Henry IV, and that he should receive fraternally those who returned to papal obedience, in particular Bishop Benno of Osnabrück.^[35] In Easter Week 1085, Altmann attended a synod of bishops at Quindlenburg, presided over by the cardinal bishop of Ostia, in which Wezilo of Mainz; two weeks later, Wezilo and nineteen other schismatic bishops held a meeting at Mainz, and excommunicated fifteen bishops who were loyal to Gregory VII, including Altmann of Passau. Bishop Altmann was driven out of his diocese by his own clergy, who preferred King Henry and his Antipope Clement III. He was replaced by the schismatic Hermann, brother of Duke Liutold of Eppenstein of Carinthia.^[36]

Bishop Ulrich (1092–1121) was present at the synod held by Pope Urban II at Piacenza from 1–7 March 1095.^[37] He was for a time driven from his see by Emperor Henry IV,^[38] promoted monastic reforms and supported the Crusades. Reginmar (1121–1138), Reginbert, Count of Hegenau (1136–1147) who took part in the crusade of Conrad III, and Conrad of Austria (1149–1164), a brother of Bishop Otto of Freising, were all interested in the foundation of new monasteries and the reform for those already existing. Bishop Conrad attended the diet of Ratisbon on 17 September 1156, and witnessed the privilegium of the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, in which he elevated the Ostmark of Austria into a duchy.^[39]

Bishop Diepold of Berg went on the Third Crusade with Frederick Barbarossa in 1189, accompanied by the dean of the cathedral, Tageno,^[40] whose diary contributed to later authors. Diepold died in Antioch on 3 November 1190, probably of some plague.^[41]

Bishop Ulrich (1215–1221), was formally recognized as a prince of the empire at the Reichstag of Nuremberg in January 1217.^[42] The reforms which were begun by bishops Gebhard von Plaien (1221–1232) and Rüdiger von Rodeck (1233–1250) found a zealous promoter in Otto von Lonsdorf (1254–1265), one of the greatest bishops of Passau. He took stringent measures against the relaxed monasteries, introduced the Franciscans and Dominicans into his diocese, promoted the arts and sciences, and collected the old documents which had survived the storms of the preceding period, so that to him we owe almost all our knowledge of the early history of Passau.^[43] Bishop Peter, formerly Canon of Breslau, contributed to the House of Habsburg by bestowing episcopal fiefs on the sons of King Rudolph.

Cardinal Guido di Borgogna (Guy de Bourgogne), as papal legate, held a council in Vienna on 10 May 1267, attended, among many others, by Bishop Peter of Passau.^[44]

It was during this period that the Fürstenzell Abbey was founded, in 1274.

Bishop Godefrid presided over a diocesan synod, held at St. Pölten on 19 March 1284.^[45] Bishop Bernhard of Prambach held a diocesan synod in Passau in June 1293.^[46]

Passau without a bishop

Under Bernhard of Brambach (1285–1313), Passau started striving to become a free imperial city. After an uprising in May 1298, the bishop granted the burghers, in the municipal ordinance of 1299, privileges in conformity with what was called the Bernhardine Charter. The cathedral having been burned down in 1281, he built a new cathedral which lasted until 1662. Bishop Bernhard died on 27 July 1313.^[47]

The cathedral Chapter met as usual to select a successor, but the result was disorder. Two factions selected two different candidates, the larger part chose Canon Gebehard Walse, the minority Canon Albertus, the son of the King of the Romans. Gebehard went to Avignon, to lodge an appeal with Pope Clement V, who died on 20 April 1314 before the matter was resolved; Gebehard too died before a new pope was elected. Pope John XXII rejected Albert, who was under age and not in holy orders. He then, on 3 June 1317, appointed Henri of Vienne, the brother of Jean, the Dauphin of Viennois, who was also under age and not in holy orders.^[48] In fact, in April 1313, Pope Clement had granted Henri a license for seven years to study civil law, with the provision that he reside in one of his benefices. Then, on 6 September 1316, Pope John had written to the bishop of Grenoble that Henri wanted to resign all his benefices, and that the bishop should accept his resignations.^[49] Documents indicate that there was no bishop seated in Passau in 1317–1320, and that episcopal functions were being carried out by the bishop of Frising.^[50] Finally, Pope John XXII appointed Albert of Saxony to the diocese of Passau, on 14 June 1320, though he was only in minor orders, and rector of the parish of Vienna. On 22 June 1320 he was given the privilege of having all his ordinations carried out on the same day, by a bishop of his own choosing.^[51] He was ordained a subdeacon in Vienna, and ordained and consecrated in Salzburg by the archbishop in September 1321.^[52]

Bishop Albert von Winkel (1363–1380) was particularly active in the struggle with the burghers and in resisting the robber-knights. The Black Death visited the bishopric under Gottfried II von Weitzenbeck (1342–1362).

Bishop George von Hohenlohe (1388–1421) participated in the coronation of King Sigismund of Germany on 8 November 1414 at Aachen;^[53] from which he proceeded immediately to the Council of Konstanz, which he attended throughout its sitting, as a close advisor of King Sigismund. He recognized Pope John XXIII, and promoted an expedition against King Ladislaus of Naples.^[54] Pope John XXIII granted Bishop George a bull on 1 February 1415, in which he released Passau from all metropolitan subjection to the archbishop of Salzburg, as well as from their control as papal legates, and granted the bishops of Passau the right to use the pallium.^[55] After 1418, he was imperial chancellor,^[56] energetically opposed the Hussites.

At the request of the archbishop of Salzburg, Pope Martin V issued a papal bull on 6 August 1418, "intenta Semper", in which he cancelled the arrangements made by John XXIII with respect to Passau. Passau's archiepiscopal status was removed, and the bishops no longer received the pallium.^[57]

Frederick III, Sixtus IV, and Passau

During the time of Bishop Ulrich von Nussdorf (1451–1479) the diocese suffered its first great curtailment. At the request of the Emperor Frederick III, the Diocese of Vienna was established by Pope Paul II on 18 January 1469, out of territory taken from the Diocese of Passau.^[58] This diocese was afterwards further enlarged at the expense of Passau by Pope Sixtus IV. Towards the close of the fifteenth century the conflict between an Austrian candidate for the see and a Bavarian brought about a state of war in the diocese.

On 1 July 1478, at the request of the Emperor Frederick, Pope Sixtus IV issued the bull "Super Universas", in which he granted the emperor the right to name the next bishop of Passau on the death of Bishop Ulrich.^[59] The emperor conveyed the contents of the bull to the Provost, Dean, and Chapter of Passau, in a letter of 25 October 1478, with the warning that they faced excommunication and loss of imperially granted privileges if they transgressed the terms of the papal bull or the imperial rights.^[60]

Bishop Ulrich died on 2 September 1479, and in October, claiming that they had received no notice of the Emperor's candidate, they proceeded to their usual and customary election.^[61] The name of Canon Frederick Maurkircher was put forward by George, Duke of Bavaria, the son of Duke Louis IX. Maurenkircher was a Doctor of Law and Chancellor of the duchy.^[62] In a contentious electoral process, he was supported by Bishop Albertus of Salona, the auxiliary bishop of Passau; and by the Dean of the Chapter, and by six other canons; they were joined by the dean of the collegiate church of Mautern, the abbot of Aspach, the provost of the collegiate church of S. Nicholas, and by two vicars of the cathedral.^[63] The emperor's nominee was George Hasler, who had studied at the University of Vienna and been a follower of the Franciscan inquisitor, John of Capistrano. Hasler had gone to Rome following his studies, where he became a protonotary apostolic, and then a priest in the papal entourage.^[64] He returned to Germany, where he served as the emperor's secretary and councillor for more than ten years. In 1477, he was named a cardinal by Sixtus IV, over the objections of the College of Cardinals.^[65] The electors at Passau, in a letter to the pope, claimed that the emperor had not nominated his candidate within a reasonable time, but, in a decree of 28 January 1479, Pope Sixtus rejected their claim on grounds of canon law, which provided for as much as a six-month interval between death of an incumbent and nomination of a successor.^[66] Furthermore, their claim was beside the point, since they had violated the papal prohibition of an election. Sixtus therefore voided the election of Canon Frederick Maurenkircher, and threatened him with excommunication if he should persist in his claims and pretensions.^[67] On the same day, 28 January 1479, the pope provided (appointed) Cardinal George Hasler bishop of Passau.^[68]

Bishop Hasler was not welcomed in Passau.^[69] On 13 December 1480, Pope Sixtus issued an excommunication against Michael Loehmer, Commissary of the diocese of Passau, because he and his associates refused to turn over the property of the diocese to Cardinal Hasler, and tore down and defiled papal bulls and letters from the doors of the church in Vienna.^[70] On 8 January 1481, Pope Sixtus admonished Dukes Albert and George of Bavaria not to give aid and comfort to the enemies of Cardinal George Hasler who had already been excommuinicated by the pope.^[71] On 15 January 1481, Pope Sixtus provided faculties and orders to his nuncio in Germany, Bishop Orso Orsini of Theano, to cite the auxiliary bishop Albertus, Canon Frederick, and the other canons of Passau, to appear at the papal court and purge themselves of suspicion of heresy.^[72]

Cardinal Hasler died on 21 September 1482; his body was taken to Vienna, where he was buried in the church of S. Maria Stiegen.^[73] On 30 October 1482, Pope Sixtus IV appointed Bishop-elect Friedrich Maurenkircher to the bishopric of Passau.^[74]

Reformation

The Protestant Reformation was kept out of all the Bavarian part of the diocese, except the Countship of Ortenburg, by the efforts of Ernest of Bavaria who, though never consecrated, ruled the diocese from 1517 to 1541. Lutheranism found many adherents, however, in the Austrian portion. Bishops Wolfgang von Salm (1540–1555) and Urban von Trennbach (1561–1598) led the counter-Reformation. Under Bishop Wolfgang the Peace of Passau was concluded, in the summer of 1552.^[75] The last Bavarian prince-bishop was Urban, who in his struggles during the Reformation received substantial aid for the Austrian part of the diocese from Albert V, Duke of Bavaria, and, after 1576, from Emperor Rudolf II. All the successors of Urban were Austrians. Bishop-elect Leopold Ferdinand of Austria (1598–1625) (who also held the diocese of Strasburg after 1607) was one of the first to enter the Catholic League of 1609. In the Thirty Years' War he was loyal to his brother, Emperor Ferdinand II. Leopold II Wilhelm (1625–1662), son of Ferdinand II, a pious prince and a great benefactor of the City of Passau, especially after the great conflagration of 1662, finally united five bishoprics.

Bishop Wenzelaus von Thun (1664–1673) began the new cathedral which was completed thirty years later by his successor Cardinal John Philip von Lamberg. Bishop John Philip was named a cardinal by Pope Innocent XII on 21 June 1700.^[76] His nephew and successor, Bishop Joseph Dominicus von Lamberg (1723–1762), was appointed a cardinal by Pope Clement XII on 20 December 1737.^[77] They were brother and son to Franz Joseph I, Landgrave of Leuchtenberg, and both cardinals served as diplomats for the Austrian court.

Archdiocese

In November 1719, the Emperor Charles VI wrote to Pope Clement XI, requesting that he elevate the bishopric of Vienna to the rank of metropolitan see. The pope referred the proposal to the Consistorial Congregation, which reported favorably on 6 March 1721. Before the bulls could be prepared for signature, however, the pope died, on 19 March. The new pope, Innocent XIII, issued the bulls on 1 June 1722, and named Sigismund von Kollonitz to the archbishopric.^[78] When Vienna was raised to an archdiocese in 1722, Bishop Raymond von Rabatta relinquished the parishes beyond the Viennese Forest, but in compensation the diocese of Passau was exempted from the metropolitan authority of Salzburg, and became a metropolitan diocese itself, directly dependent upon the Holy See (Papacy); the bishop obtained the pallium for himself and his successors.^[79] Archbishop Leopold Ernst von Firmian (1763–1783), created cardinal by Pope Clement XIV on 14 December 1772,^[80] established an institute of theology at Passau, and, after the suppression of the Jesuits in 1773,^[81] founded a lyceum.

Under Archbishop Joseph von Auersperg (1783–1795), the Emperor Joseph II took away two-thirds of the diocese to form the dioceses of Linz and St. Pölten and to enlarge for the last time the archdiocese of Vienna. Pope Pius VI issued the bull "Romanus Pontifex" on 28 January 1784, establishing the diocese of Linz.^[82] On the same day, the pope issued another bull, "Inter plurimas," in which he established the diocese of St. Pölten, also partially on territory which had been part of the diocese of Passau.^[83]

The last prince-bishop, Leopold von Thun (1796–1826), saw the secularization of the old bishopric in 1803;^[84] the City of Passau and the temporalities on the left bank of the Inn and the right bank of the Ilz went to Bavaria, while the territory on the left banks of the Danube and of the Ilz went to Ferdinand III of Habsburg-Lorraine, the former Grand Duke of Tuscany, becoming part of the Electorate of Salzburg and afterwards to Austria. On 22 February 1803, when the Bavarians marched into Passau, the prince-bishop withdrew to his estates in Bohemia, and never revisited his former residence.^[85]

Reconstruction

After the abdication of Napoleon (1815), Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria was confirmed as king of Bavaria by the Congress of Vienna, and as a member of the Federative Constitution of Germany, on 8 June 1815. There were adjustments in boundaries, the most significant being the transfer of Salzburg from Bavaria to Austria. New boundaries of ecclesiastical provinces and dioceses, therefore, had to be negotiated. A concordat between Bavaria and the Papacy was negotiated by Cardinal Ercole Consalvi and Baron Johann Casimir Häffelin, and signed on 5 June 1817.^[86] The diocese of Freising was suppressed and its territory incorporated into the diocese of Munich.^[87] Article IX granted the kings of Bavaria in perpetuity the right to nominate candidates to all the vacant archbishoprics and bishoprics in the kingdom, subject to papal approval.^[88]

On 1 April 1818, Pope Pius VII issued the bull "Dei ac Domini", in which he put into effect canonically the changes agreed to in the Concordat with Bavaria.^[89] He began by abolishing the ecclesiastical province of Ratisbon, with all the dioceses within it, including Passau, and the Provostship of Berchtesgaden.^[90] When the diocese was reconstituted, it contained, in addition to the city of Passau, 136 parishes, which are listed in the papal bull.^[91] The Chapter of the cathedral of S. Stephen in Passau was to consist of two dignities, the Provost and the Dean, and eight canons, four major and four minor.^[92] This was a reduction from the 23 canonries which had existed in the 18th century.^[93]

Passau was made directly subject to the Holy See until the death of the last prince-archbishop, Leopold von Thun, which took place on 22 October 1826. Thereafter, the diocese became a suffragan of Munich-Freising.^[94]

Pope Benedict XVI was born and baptized on Holy Saturday, 16 April 1927, at Marktl am Inn, which is located within the Diocese of Passau.

To 1200

From 1200 to 1500

From 1500 to 1826

Since 1826