BAMBERGA (BAMBERG), ARCIDIOCESI DI

BAMBERG, ARCHDIOCESE OF. — In Bavaria; it comprises Upper Franconia, the north of Central Franconia, part of Lower Franconia and of the Upper Palatinate, and the former duchy of Coburg. It has 1,910,000 inhabitants, of whom 717,000 are Catholics, and is divided into 2 urban deaneries (Bamberg and Nuremberg-Fürth) and 20 rural deaneries; it has a metropolitan chapter and an auxiliary bishop, 285 parishes, 561 secular priests and 124 regular priests. Patrons: St George and Emperor St Henry. The city of Bamberg, predominantly Catholic, built on the banks of the Regnitz, is first mentioned in 902 and was dependent on the lords of Babenberg. In 906 it passed directly under the Crown. In 973 Otto II ceded it to Henry I, Duke of Bavaria. It then passed to the latter’s son, Emperor Henry II, who, intending to make it a centre for the evangelisation of the Slavs, obtained from John XVIII on 19 November 1007 the erection of a bishopric there. Benedict VIII consecrated the church of St Stephen during his journey through Germany in 1020, and Henry wished the new diocese to be placed under the immediate dependence and lordship of the Holy See; this bond was however dissolved by St Leo IX in 1052. The diocese had to endure opposition from the bishop of Würzburg, from whose territory it had been carved, and this opposition was only overcome by the concession to that bishop of certain territories in the March of Meiningen and the right of jurisdiction over some parishes (cf. Hefele-Leclercq, IV, pp. 909 and 915). The diocese soon acquired considerable importance thanks to the rich donations of its founder, which ensured its economic status: already its first bishop enjoyed the privilege of minting coin and of levying pedagogues; it became a prince of the kingdom of Germany in 1230 by the will of Frederick II, and in the 16th century it had the direction of the Franconian Circle. Because of their mild and peaceful character, the bishops George III Schenk von Limburg (1505–22) and Weigand von Redwitz (1522–56) were unable to resist the

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