BALTIMORE - Timber basin in the commercial port.
(Int. U.S.)
On 8 April 1808, Pius VII, by the brief Pontificii muuensis, elevated B. to a metropolitan see, assigning to it as suffragans the four new dioceses of New York, Philadelphia, Boston, and Bardstown (today Louisville, Kentucky). Further divisions followed, but the most important occurred with the detachment from B. of the city of Washington and the District of Columbia, which formed the immediately subject archdiocese of Washington (constitution Supremae, 22 July 1939), at first united with that of B., then separated on 15 November 1947 by the apostolic constitution Universi Dominici gregis (AAS, 40 [1948], p. 100).
The sole metropolitan see of the American republic until the erection of St. Louis as an archbishopric (20 July 1847), B. subsequently saw the establishment of no fewer than 19 other ecclesiastical provinces and at present has as suffragans the dioceses of Charleston, Raleigh, Richmond, St. Augustine, Savannah-Atlanta, Wheeling, and Wilmington.
The Church in the United States owes most of its development, its present organization, and its legislation to the bishops (especially the first two) and to the Councils of B. The first diocesan Synod took place in 1791. In 1829 the series of provincial councils began; these followed one another almost every three years until 1869. There were 10 of them, but only the first 7 are regarded as plenary (1829-49), since the first Plenary Council, held in 1852, recognized them as such. The second Plenary Council was held in 1866, and the third and last in 1884, under the presidency of the celebrated Archbishop Gibbons. - Vedi Tav. XLIX.
BIBL.: AAS, 31 (1939), pp. 668-70; Archive of the S. C. of Propaganda: Acta S. C. Prop., vols. 153-75 (1783-1808); Istruzioni e Lettere della S. C., vols. 242-89 (1783-1805); Scritture riferite nei Congressi, America Centrale, II (1776-90); Juris pontificii de Propaganda Fide... pars prima (ed. De Martinis), 7 vols., Rome 1888-97; D. C. Shearer, Pontificia americana, a documentary history of the catholic Church in the United States, 1784-1884, Washington 1933, pp. 19-102; M. P. Andrews, Separation of Church and State in Maryland, in Catholic historical review, 21 (1935-36), pp. 164-76; W. T. Russell, s. V. in Cath. Enc., II, pp. 228-35; E. I. Devitt, Washington, ibid. XV, pp. 558-60; P. Guilday, s. V. in DHG, VI, col. 431; J. Gillard, America's first colored parish, in The Colored Harvest, 1933 and 1934, no. 1; P. Guilday, Life and time of John Carroll, archbishop of B. (1735-1815), New York 1922; T. Hughes, History of the Society of Jesus in North America, 4 vols., Cleveland 1907-17; J. G. Shea, History of the Catholic Church in the United States, 4 vols., New York 1886-92; Stanton, History of the Church in the Western Maryland, Baltimore 1900. - Councils and bishops: Acta et decreta SS. Conciliorum recentiorum, collectio lucensis, III, Freiburg in Br. 1875; Concilii Baltimorensis II... editio altera mendis expurgata, Baltimore 1894; Concilii Baltimorensis III, ibid. 1886; J. H. O'Donnel, The catholic hierarchy of the United States, Washington 1922; J. Baisnée, France and the establishment of the American hierarchy, in Catholic historical review, 24 (1938-39), pp. 175-89; P. Guilday, History of the Councils of B., New York 1932; W. H. W. Fanning, s. V. in Cath. Enc., II, pp. 235-41; Official Catholic Directory, New York 1947, pp. 12-29.
Corrado Morin
