BRESSANONE, Diocese of. – In the Alto Adige, in the province of Bolzano. The city, at 560 m above sea level, lies in a sunny basin where the Rienza joins the Isarco.
In the second half of the 6th century, we find existing among the Breuni—a Romanized people inhabiting the Roman province of Raetia Secunda above Trent—a bishopric centered at Sabiona (near Chiusa on the Isarco) and dependent on the metropolitan of Aquileia. It is difficult to say when Christianity was introduced into the territory of the Alto Adige and its tributaries, including the Inn. The first bishop of whom we have record is Materninus, followed by Ingenuinus, who is known for his role in the Three Chapters schism during its most acute phase at the end of the 6th century, and for the good memory he left in a land tormented by invasions. After 591, there is no further news of Sabiona and its bishops, but it is highly probable that the succession was not interrupted. In 769, a document of Tassilo, Duke of Bavaria, and in 770 at the Synod of Dingolfing, a bishop named Alim appears—probably of Celtic origin—who is connected with the Bavarian episcopate; at that time, Sabiona was certainly not dependent on Aquileia. When, on 20 April 798, Pope Leo III established the metropolitan see of Salzburg, Sabiona became one of the suffragan sees dependent on II. Scant information survives for the 9th century. On 13 September, Louis, son of Emperor Arnulf, donated to Bishop Zacharias the possession of Pristina-[Prichsna]Brixen, that is, Bressanone.
Around 975, Albuino appears as “bishop of the church of Sabiona and Bressanone,” who enjoyed the favor of Emperors Otto II and Henry II and, through donations, exchanges, and purchases, greatly expanded the importance of his church in the valleys of the Isarco, Rienza, and Inn, as well as in Carinthia, Bavaria, and Carniola, where on 10 April 1004 he received from Henry II the possession of Weiden. Albuino died on 5 February 1006 after having built his cathedral at Bressanone and established a chapter school. Among his immediate successors, the most notable is Poppo, elected pope in 1048 under the name of Damasus II (d. 9 August of that year). At Bressanone, in June 1080, a council of bishops was held at which a sentence of deposition was pronounced against Gregory VII (see below: Council of Bressanone).
In 1179, Frederick Barbarossa granted the bishops the dignity of Princes of the Empire, though their power was much limited by the ascendancy of the Counts of Tyrol, with whom the celebrated Cardinal Nicholas of Cusa—who served as bishop of Bressanone from 23 March 1450 to 16 August 1464—had particularly to contend.
Political events led in 1805 to the secularization of the principality; in 1818, the diocese was given a new circumscription, enlarged within Tyrol by territories taken from the dioceses of Constance, Chur, Augsburg, and Salzburg. As a result, on 16 June 1819, the vicariate general of Feldkirch in the Vorarlberg was established. After the Great War, following the Treaty of Saint-Germain (1919), the vicar general of Feldkirch was constituted Apostolic Administrator for all the parts of the diocese remaining in the Austrian Republic (9 April 1921), and then on 12 December 1925 the Apostolic Administration of Innsbruck was established under a titular bishop; meanwhile, from 25 April, the bishop of Bressanone had already come under the direct jurisdiction of the Holy See.
According to its ancient boundaries, the entire diocese in 1925 numbered 488,532 souls, with 508 pastoral districts; of these, 394,722 were dependent on Feldkirch-Innsbruck.
The diocese of Bressanone now has an area of approximately 4,279 sq km and a population of about 100,000 inhabitants, almost all Catholic, with 137 parishes, 244 diocesan priests, and 121 regular clergy (1948).
Numerous religious institutes have arisen over the centuries within the ancient territory of the diocese; particularly notable for its importance is the Jesuit college “Canisianum” in Innsbruck, which also maintains the theological faculty at the university of that city.
Bressanone – Reliquary in gilded metal (15th century).
Cathedral Treasury.
**Art.** – Bressanone is one of the most important artistic centers of Alto Adige. It preserves numerous medieval buildings from the Renaissance and Baroque periods. The Cathedral (St. Michael) dates back to the 13th century, but its interior was entirely renewed in the 18th century according to a design by Giuseppe Delaia, and its façade was completed in 1790 by G. Pirchstaller. The bell towers retain elements of the original construction. In the cloister, founded in the 13th century and later modified in the 14th, there are paintings from various periods between the 14th and 16th centuries depicting scenes from the Old and New Testaments. Adjacent is the Baptistery of St. John, with frescoes from the 13th and 14th centuries. Byzantine-style frescoes from the 13th century are also found in the attic of the Collegiate Church. In the diocesan museum, there is a most interesting collection of Alto Adige art and the cathedral treasury, including reliquaries and sacred vestments. Among these, of particular value is the chasuble of Bishop Ermanno (1140–64), a Byzantine textile from the 12th century. Other notable features include several ancient churches, such as those of SS. Ermanno and Gottardo, the Bishop’s Palace, begun in the 13th century and altered several times, and the Renaissance Pfander House. Not far from Bressanone is the ancient Novacella Convent, which contains a chapel (St. Michael) dating to the 11th century, a Gothic cloister, and a rich library.
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Emilio Lavagnino
**Council of Bressanone.** – By order of Henry IV, King of Germany, a few German bishops and a few from Italy, including Cardinal Ugo Candido and Enrico, Patriarch of Aquileia, gathered in Bressanone on 25 June 1080 (the Conciliabulum of Bressanone) to deliberate on the excommunication and deposition of Pope Gregory VII. This was done after examining the accusations brought against the pope by the king’s lay and ecclesiastical supporters: 1) that he had usurped the papal see through simony; 2) that he had subverted order and peace in the Church and the empire; 3) that he had called into question the Catholic faith regarding the Body and Blood of Christ, as Berengar of Tours—his former teacher—had done.
Guibert, Archbishop of Ravenna (see CLEMENT III, antipope), who had already been excommunicated and deposed by a Roman council in 1078 for his immoral life and disobedience to the Holy See, was elected to replace Gregory VII on the papal throne. This was a retaliatory measure against the sentence of excommunication and deposition from the thrones of Germany and Italy pronounced by Gregory VII against Henry IV in the Roman council of 7 March of that same year, declaring him a rebel and enemy of the Roman Church.
The illegality of Clement III’s election is beyond doubt: it contravened the decree of Nicholas II (1059) because only one cardinal participated in the election, and neither the Roman clergy nor people were consulted. To support the twofold decision of the conciliabulum, Peter Crassus, a jurist from Ravenna loyal to the king, composed a pamphlet opposing the arguments of canonists with principles of Roman law—a new weapon that would be used effectively in future conflicts.
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Giovanni Soranzo