Prince-Bishopric of Warmia | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1243–1772 | |||||||||
 Banner used in theBattle of Grunwald (1410)  Original Coat of arms  | |||||||||
 Prince-Bishopric of Warmia within thePolish–Lithuanian Commonwealth | |||||||||
| Status | Part of theState of the Teutonic Order(1243–1464) Part ofPoland(1464–1772) | ||||||||
| Capital | Lidzbark Warmiński 53°47′N20°3′E / 53.783°N 20.050°E /53.783; 20.050 | ||||||||
| Common languages | Polish,German | ||||||||
| Religion | Roman Catholic | ||||||||
| Government | Principality | ||||||||
• 1766–1772 | Ignacy Krasicki(last) | ||||||||
| Historical era | Middle Ages | ||||||||
• Prussian bishoprics
| 1243 | ||||||||
• Gainedimperial immediacy | 1356 | ||||||||
| 1464 | |||||||||
| 1466 | |||||||||
| 1479 | |||||||||
• First Partition of Poland: annexation and secularization byPrussia | 1772 | ||||||||
| |||||||||
| Today part of | Poland | ||||||||
ThePrince-Bishopric of Warmia[3] (Polish:Biskupie Księstwo Warmińskie;[4]German:Fürstbistum Ermland)[5] was a semi-independentecclesiasticalstate, ruled by theincumbent ordinary of theWarmia see and comprising one third of the then diocesan area. The Warmia see was a Prussian diocese under the jurisdiction of theArchbishopric of Riga that was aprotectorate of theMonastic state of the Teutonic Knights (1243–1464) and a protectorate and part of theKingdom of Poland—later part of thePolish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (1464–1772), confirmed by thePeace of Thorn in 1466.[6] The other two thirds of the diocese were under the secular rule of the Teutonic Knights until 1525 andDucal Prussia thereafter, both entities also being a protectorate and part of Poland from 1466.[7]
It was founded as theBishopric of Ermland[8] byWilliam of Modena in 1243 in the territory ofPrussia after it was conquered by theTeutonic Knights during theNorthern Crusades. The diocesancathedral chapter constituted in 1260. While in the 1280s theTeutonic Order succeeded to impose the simultaneous membership of all capitular canons in the Order in the other three Prussian bishoprics, Ermland's chapter maintained its independence. So Ermland's chapter was not subject to outside influence when electing its bishops. Thus theGolden Bull of EmperorCharles IV names the bishops asprince-bishops, a rank not awarded to the other three Prussian bishops (Culm (Chełmno),Pomesania, andSamland).
In 1440, most of the nobility and towns of Warmia joined the anti-TeutonicPrussian Confederation,[9] upon the request of which the region was incorporated into the Kingdom of Poland in 1454, and in 1464, during the followingThirteen Years' War, the Prince-Bishopric of Warmia sided with Poland and officially recognized the overlordship of the Polish King.[1] By theSecond Peace of Thorn (1466) the Teutonic Knights renounced any claims to the prince-bishopric and recognized it as part of the Kingdom of Poland.[2] It since formed part of the newly constituted Polish province ofRoyal Prussia, and after 1569 along with the province joined thePolish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, within which it was part of the largerGreater Poland Province, and Warmia's autonomy gradually faded, however, it flourished as an important religious, scientific and cultural center in Poland, thanks to such figures asNicolaus Copernicus,Stanislaus Hosius,Marcin Kromer andIgnacy Krasicki.
After theFirst Partition of Poland in 1772, theKingdom of Prussia annexed and secularised the prince-bishopric as a state.[10] Its territory,Warmia, was incorporated into the newly formed Prussian province ofEast Prussia in 1773. Calvinist KingFrederick II of Prussia confiscated the landed property of the Roman Catholic prince-bishopric and assigned it to theKriegs- und Domänenkammer inKönigsberg.[11] In return he made up for the enormous debts of then Prince-BishopIgnacy Krasicki.
By theTreaty of Warsaw (18 September 1773), King Frederick II guaranteed the free exercise of religion for the Catholics, so the religious body of the Roman Catholic diocese continued to exist, known since 1992 as theRoman Catholic Archdiocese of Warmia.
Along withCulm (Chełmno),Pomesania, andSamland (Sambia), Warmia was one of four dioceses in Prussia created in 1243 by thepapal legateWilliam of Modena. All four dioceses came under the rule of the appointedArchbishop of PrussiaAlbert Suerbeer who came fromCologne and was the former Archbishop ofArmagh inIreland. He chose Riga as his residence in 1251, which was confirmed byPope Alexander IV in 1255. Heinrich of Strateich, the first elected Bishop of Warmia, was unable to claim his office, but in 1251Anselm of Meissen entered the see of Warmia, which resided atBraunsberg (Braniewo) until it moved to Frauenburg (Frombork) in 1280 after attacks by heathenOld Prussians. The bishop ruled one-third of the bishopric as a secular ruler which was confirmed by theGolden Bull of 1356. The other two-thirds of the diocese were under the secular rule of the Teutonic Order.
The Bishops of Warmia generally defended their privileges and tried to put down all attempts to cut the prerogatives and the autonomy the bishopric enjoyed.
After theBattle of Grunwald in 1410, the Sambian and Warmian bishops paid homage to KingWładysław II Jagiełło of Poland and Lithuania, a maneuver to protect the territory from complete destruction.
In February 1440 the nobility of Warmia and the town of Braunsberg (Braniewo) co-founded thePrussian Confederation, which opposed Teutonic rule, and most towns of the Prince-Bishopric joined the organization in May 1440.[9] In February 1454, the organization asked Polish KingCasimir IV Jagiellon to incorporate the region to the Kingdom of Poland, to which the king agreed and signed the act of incorporation inKraków on 6 March 1454,[12] and theThirteen Years' War (1454–1466) broke out. During the war Warmia was recaptured by the Teutonic Knights, however, in 1464 BishopPaul of Lengendorf sided with Poland and the Prince-Bishopric came again under the overlordship of the Polish King.[1]
In theSecond Peace of Thorn (1466) the Teutonic Knights renounced any claims to the Prince-Bishopric, and recognized Polish sovereignty over Warmia, which was confirmed to be part of Poland.[2] So the third of its diocesan territory forming the prince-episcopaltemporalities was disentangled from Teutonic Prussia, while the other two thirds of the diocese proper remained within the Order State, which according to the peace treaty also became part of the Kingdom of Poland as afief and protectorate.[7] The prince-bishopric became part of the newly established Polish province ofRoyal Prussia, and later also became part of the largerGreater Poland Province of the Polish Crown.
The bishops insisted on keeping their imperial privileges and ruled the territory asde factoprince-bishops although the Polish king did not share this point of view. This led to conflict when the Polish king claimed the right to name the bishops, as he did in theKingdom of Poland. The chapter did not accept this and electedNicolaus von Tüngen as bishop, which led to theWar of the Priests (1467–1479) between KingCasimir IV Jagiellon (1447–1492) and Nikolaus von Tüngen (1467–89) who was supported by theTeutonic Order and KingMatthias Corvinus of Hungary.
The Polish king accepted Tüngen as prince-bishop in theFirst Treaty of Piotrków Trybunalski, while Tüngen inversely accepted the Polish king as sovereign and obliged the chapter to elect only candidates approved by the Polish king. However, when Tüngen died in 1489, the chapter electedLucas Watzenrode as bishop andPope Innocent VIII supported Watzenrode against the wishes ofCasimir IV Jagiellon, who preferred his sonFrederick. This problem finally led to the Exempt Status of the bishopric in 1512 byPope Julius II. In theSecond Treaty of Piotrków Trybunalski (7 December 1512) Warmia conceded to KingAlexander Jagiellon a limited right to propose four candidates to the chapter for the election, who however had to be native Prussians.
Renowned Polish astronomerNicolaus Copernicus lived in the prince-bishopric, in the towns ofLidzbark,Olsztyn andFrombork, and there he began and completed his groundbreaking work onheliocentrism. In 1521 Copernicus commanded the successful Polish defense of Olsztyn during asiege by the Teutonic Knights during thePolish–Teutonic War (1519–1521).[15]
The Diocese of Warmia lost the two thirds of its diocese within Teutonic Prussia after 1525 when the Order's Grand MasterAlbert of Brandenburg-Ansbach converted the monastic state intoDucal Prussia, himself ruling as duke. On 10 December 1525, at their session in Königsberg, thePrussian estates established theLutheran Church in Ducal Prussia by deciding theChurch Order.[16]
Thus BishopGeorg von Polenz of Pomesania and Samland, who had converted to Lutheranism in 1523, took over and introduced theProtestant Reformation also in the ducal two thirds of Warmia diocese, territorially surrounding the actual prince-episcopal third. With the formal abolition of the now Lutheran bishopric of Samland in 1587 the now Lutheran Warmian parishes became subject to the SambianConsistory (later moved to Königsberg).[16] As a result, even within ducal Warmia, the vast majority of burghers had become Lutherans.
After theCouncil of Trent the later cardinalStanislaus Hosius (1551–79) held a diocesan synode (1565) and the same year theJesuits came to Braunsberg. While nearly all of Ducal Prussia took on Lutheranism, the prince-bishops Stanislaus Hosius andMarcin Kromer and the Jesuits were instrumental in keeping much of the prince-episcopal Warmians Catholic. In 1565, Stanislaus Hosius founded theCollegium Hosianum, which would become one of the leading colleges in northern Poland until thePartitions of Poland, and was also the firsttheological seminary in Poland.[17] The Congregation of St. Catherine, founded at Braniewo byRegina Protmann, engaged in education, especially schooling for girls.
In this period thecathedral chapter mostly elected bishops of Polish nationality. The faithful in the northern part of the diocese were by large majority ethnicGermans, while in the remainder they were overwhelminglyPoles. Following KingSigismund III's contract on regency in Ducal Prussia (1605) withJoachim Frederick of Brandenburg, and hisTreaty of Warsaw (1611) withJohn Sigismund of Brandenburg, confirming the co-enfeoffment of the Berlin Hohenzollern with Ducal Prussia, these two rulers guaranteed free practice of Catholic religion in all of prevailingly Lutheran Ducal Prussia.
Some churches were reconsecrated to or newly built for Catholic worship (e.g.,St. Nicholas, Elbląg,Propsteikirche, Königsberg). Those new Catholic churches located in the ducal two thirds of Warmia diocese and in diocesan territory of the suppressed Samland see were then subordinated to the Warmian Frombork see. This development was recognised by the Holy See in 1617 by de jure extending Warmia's jurisdiction over Samland's former diocesan territory, only containing few immigrated Catholics. In practice the ducal government obstructed Catholic exercise in many ways.
Five Prince-Bishops of Warmia resigned from their position to becomeArchbishops of Gniezno andPrimates of Poland, the highest representatives of the Catholic Church in Poland.
As a result of theFirst Partition of Poland in 1772, Warmia was annexed by theKingdom of Prussia, and in 1773 incorporated into its newly formed province ofEast Prussia asbishopric of Ermland.
At the time of the break-up of thePolish-Lithuanian multi-state-kingdom, referred to asFirst Partition of Poland in 1772, Ermland was incorporated into theKingdom of Prussia'sprovince of East Prussia.
The bishopric ceased to be an independent governmental unit, and KingFrederick II confiscated its property. The prince-bishop, a personal friend of Frederick the Great, the noted Polish authorIgnacy Krasicki, though deprived oftemporal authority, retained influence at the Prussian court before his reappointment asArchbishop of Gniezno in 1795.
Although the population of the bishopric Ermland remained largely Roman Catholic, religious schools were suppressed.[18] Although there had been schools teaching in the Lithuanian and Polish languages since the 16th century, those languages were forbidden in all schools in East Prussia by decree in 1873.
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