ADOLFO I, archbishop of MAGONZA. — Count of Nassau, great-grandnephew of King Adolfo of Nassau, b. ca. 1353, d. 6 February 1390.
By his uncle Gerlach, archbishop of Magonza, he was proposed to that Chapter as coadjutor with the right of succession, which, however, he did not obtain. Instead, he was awarded the bishopric of Spira in 1371. Called two years later by the majority of the Chapter of Magonza to occupy the see, he could obtain it only after a struggle against Ludovico of Turingia, until then bishop of Bamberga, whom Pope Gregorio XI, at the request of Emperor Carlo IV, had designated administrator of Magonza by a bull dated 23 April 1374. In 1381 Pope Urbano VI transferred Ludovico to Magdeburgo and confirmed A. as archbishop of Magonza. On 4 February of the same year, he was also recognized by the assembly of the German princes at Norimberga as prince-elector and grand chancellor. He took an active part in the general politics of the Reich. His contemporaries praise his prudence and courage. He was more a politician than a Churchman. He showed himself a friend of the sciences by founding the University of Erfurt in 1389, which, with the privileges granted by Pope Urbano VI, was inaugurated in 1392, when A. was already dead.