BRESLAU (Lat. Fratislavia, Polish Wróclaw, Ger. Breslau), archdiocese of. — Now in Poland. Capital of Silesia and metropolitan see.
I. Formation (1000–1335)
The diocese of B. was founded about the year 1000, simultaneously with Cracow and Kołobrzeg, as a suffragan of Gniezno (Gnesen), but disappeared again during the pagan reaction after the death of the Polish ruler Bolesław Chrobry; thus there is a gap between the first bishop, John (mentioned only by Thietmar of Merseburg), and the second, Jerome (1046–62). Even for the following bishops, up to the end of the 12th century, the documents are very scarce. Walter (1149–69), the first provost of Malonne, diocese of Liège, obtained from Pope Adrian IV in the year 1155 the first document of patronage, from which one can learn the extent and the provisions or prebends of the diocese. The cathedral chapter was probably composed of Premonstratensian canons. The number of parishes, despite the ecclesiastical foundations of the Polish magnate Peter Wlast, remained small: the diocese was a missionary diocese.A change occurred only when, at the end of the 12th century, the Polish dukes of Silesia, beginning with Henry I, husband of St. Hedwig (d. 1243), invited German colonists into the country; in their villages and towns new churches were built, so that from the year 1200 to 1350 the number of churches actually mentioned rose from 24 to 771. At the same time the organization of the diocese was completed: to the already existing archdeaconry of B. were added in 1227 the archdeaconries of Opole and Głogów, in 1261 Legnica; from 1219 the existence of archpriests can be proven.
The great bishops of the 13th century, Lawrence (1207–32), Thomas (1232–68) and his nephew Thomas II (1270–92), all Poles, promoted German colonization also in their own territories, Ottmachau-Neisse.
In 1244 the construction of the new cathedral was begun, and it still exists today. In 1288 a long dispute arose with Duke Henry IV concerning the right to the tithe.
The wealthy Cistercian monasteries of Leubus, Kamenz, and Trebnitz; the foundations of St. Hedwig at Heinrichau, Griessau, Rauden, and Himmelwitz; the Augustinian canons of St. Mary in B., Sagan, and the Premonstratensian abbey of St. Vincent in B. developed into centers of intense religious life. Under the first German bishop, Henry von Würben (1302–15), this development appears to have concluded.
II. Under the Bohemian Crown (1335–1742). The future fate of the diocese was decided by the fact that, through the Treaty of Trentschin in 1335, Silesia became an immediate dependency of the Bohemian Crown, passed in 1536 to the House of Habsburg, and remained a hereditary possession of that house until it was ceded to Prussia in 1742. Bishop Nanker (1326–42) strove in vain to curb Bohemian influence. Under Preczlaw von Pogarell (1341–76), Bohemian culture, which emanated from the Prague court of Emperor Charles IV, also radiated into Silesia. The diocese reached its first flowering and was distinguished by the honorary title of episcopatus aureus; the territory of the diocese was also expanded by the acquisition of the Duchy of Grottkau.
The Hussite invasions under Bishop Conrad von Oels (1417–47), the disputes surrounding the Council of Basel, and later the struggle between the commercially powerful city of Breslau and George of Poděbrady of Bohemia naturally also harmed ecclesiastical life. But under Rudolph of Rüdesheim (1468–82), who had previously resided in Breslau as a papal legate, and later under John Roth (1482–1506), the diocese experienced a new flowering: the number of benefices in the ten collegiate churches (St. Giles, the Holy Cross, a. B.-Glogau, Oppeln, Beuthen, Liegnitz, Brieg, Ottmachau-Neisse, Oberglogau, and Falkenberg) and in the large parish churches of the city of Breslau, Schweidnitz, and Hirschberg, as well as the number of charitable institutions and ecclesiastical schools, saw a notable increase. It would be unjust to accuse the clergy of general corruption or neglect of their duty of residence. Up to 1517, proof can be adduced of 37 diocesan synods.
Protestantism was able to take root in Breslau (from 1520), in the Duchy of Liegnitz, and generally in the cities, all the more easily because it showed tolerance toward the old liturgy and other ecclesiastical institutions, so that the people scarcely noticed the substantial principles and believed it to be a reform while it was in fact a revolution; indeed, the bishops themselves did not clearly grasp the significance of the danger.
James von Salza (1521–39) in 1525 made a proposal to Pope Clement VII for combating Protestantism, but neither he nor his successors, Balthasar von Promnitz (1540–62) and Caspar von Logau (1562–74), took more energetic measures. The shortage of Catholic priests led many parishes to turn to Protestant preachers. By about 1570, the greater part of the diocese had become Protestant.
Reconstruction began under Bishop Martin Gerstmann (1574–85) with a visitation (1579) and a diocesan synod (1580) at which the decrees of the Council of Trent were accepted. It was then continued by Andrew von Jerin (1585–96), the first alumnus of the German College to occupy the see of Breslau, who called the Jesuits to Breslau.
This Catholic reform suffered a setback, to be sure, through the intrigues of the ambitious provost of the chapter, Albert, against the election of Bonaventura Hahn (1596–1600), but it was then resumed by Sitsch (1600–1608) and by Archduke Charles (1608–24), brother of Emperor Ferdinand II, and was never interrupted under the Polish prince Charles Ferdinand (1625–55), despite the absence of the bishop and the turmoil of the Thirty Years’ War.
In 1628, on the basis of the Edict of Restitution and with the aid of public authority, 656 churches were restored to the Catholic Church. The damage of the great war was repaired, and under the bishops Sebastian von Rostock (1664–71), Cardinal Frederick of Hesse, a convert (1671–82), and the excellent administrator Palatine Count Francis Louis (1683–1732), the diocese experienced a second rebirth. The piety of the Baroque period found its most splendid expression in the poetry of the convert Angelus Silesius (d. 1677) and in the art of the sepulchral chapel of Francis Louis in the Breslau cathedral.
The Habsburg state protected the Church but at the same time subjected it: the episcopal elections almost always produced candidates favored by the emperor.
III. Modern Times from 1742
In the Peace of Breslau (1742), King Frederick II of Prussia pledged to maintain the status quo of religion in that part of the diocese of Breslau that was assigned to him. Although he generally observed this agreement, the regime of the Protestant state was nonetheless felt: in the territories forcibly recatholicized, there were numerous apostasies; the chapters and convents were compelled to surrender up to 50 percent of their revenues to the state. The weak Cardinal Sinzendorf (1732–42) and Count Schaffgotsch (1747–95), once the king’s favorite, were unable to alter this situation. The latter fell into disfavor (1747) and retired to the part of his diocese that remained under Austria, while the auxiliary bishops Strachwitz and Rothkirch administered the Prussian portion as apostolic administrators.The diocese suffered its hardest blow following Napoleon’s victory. By virtue of the Secularization Edict of October 30, 1810, the episcopal see lost the territory of Neisse-Grottkau and all its property; the cathedral chapter, eight collegiate chapters, and 68 convents were suppressed, and their property was expropriated for the state; their total value amounted to 15 million thalers. The protest of Prince-Bishop Hohenlohe (1795–1817) had no effect.
The magnificent structure of the episcopal palace, which dated from the Middle Ages, was thus definitively destroyed.
However, space had remained free for new construction. The bull *De salute animarum* of 16 July 1821 detached the diocese from the metropolitan see of Gnesen, with which it had in fact had no relationship since 1641. The eastern part of Lausitz and the deaneries of Upper Silesia—Beuthen and Pless—were united to the diocese, which was placed immediately under the Holy See. The prince-archbishop, as apostolic delegate, was granted jurisdiction over the Catholics of the provinces of Brandenburg and Pomerania, including Berlin. The episcopal see and the cathedral chapter were provided with state subsidies. The consequences and effects of the so-called “Enlightenment” were overcome under the bishops Schimonski (1824–32), Knauer (1834–44), and Cardinal Diepenbrock (1845–53), a highly gifted man formed in Sailer’s school; Sedlnicky (1836–40) had been forced to resign because of his stance in the controversy over mixed marriages. The pseudo-Catholicism of the chaplain Ronge did not inflict serious harm upon the awakened and renewed ecclesiastical sense.
Taking advantage of the freedoms granted by the Prussian Constitution of 1850, the Catholics, under Prince-Bishop Förster (1853–81), also renowned as a skilled preacher, developed Catholic associations and the Catholic press (through the *Katholisches Kirchenblatt*, 1835–85). New orders and female congregations were introduced or arose in the diocese (for example, as early as 1842, the Grey Sisters of St Elizabeth for the care of the sick). The development was so vigorous that the movement of the so-called Old Catholics, which arose after the First Vatican Council, and the *Kulturkampf* promoted by Bismarck were able to slow but not destroy this new flowering of Catholic life. In 1881 the bishop was forced into exile; 345,000 souls were left without organized parochial care; between 1876 and 1886 only 102 priests were ordained, while 380 died. One of the first concerns of the “bishop of reconciliation,” Cardinal Kopp, who was transferred from Fulda to Breslavia after the death of the former Prince-Bishop Herzog (1882–86) (1887–1914), was to fill these gaps in the clergy by founding minor seminaries and constructing a new residence for theology students who attended the theological faculty of the University of Breslavia. Thus it became possible to supply priests for the new churches built in the rapidly developing industrial centers and in the mission territories of Brandenburg-Pomerania.
Under the “bishop of Catholic Action,” Cardinal Bertram (from 1914), with the parts of the diocese ceded to the Polish Republic, the diocese of Katowice was founded (1924). Breslavia itself, by virtue of the concordat with Prussia (14 June 1929), was elevated to an archdiocese and had as its suffragans the dioceses of Warmia (Ermland, newly constituted), Berlin, and the *prelatura nullius* of Schneidemühl.
In 1936 the archdiocese of Breslavia comprised 795 parishes with 1,600 priests and more than 2,300,000 souls.