Burchard II

BURCARDO II. - Bishop of Halberstadt (1059–1088), of a noble Swabian family and nephew of Archbishop Annone of Cologne, he was provost at Goslar when Empress Agnese appointed him bishop of Halberstadt at Christmas 1059. At the Council of Augsburg in October 1062, B. declared in favour of Pope Alessandro II against the antipope Onorio II. During the first decade of his episcopate he was a friend of the young King Enrico IV, but in 1073 he became his implacable opponent because of the latter’s policy against the Saxons. Alongside the rebels and rival claimants Rodolfo di Svevia and Ermanno di Salm, B. continued the struggle against Enrico IV until, following a serious wound sustained at Goslar, he died in his favourite monastery at Flensburg on 7 April 1088, at the age of sixty. His name is particularly associated with fidelity to Pope Gregorio VII and to his programme of reform. His reforming activity is attested by the foundation of monasteries and colleges in the diocese of Halberstadt and by the magnificent and artistic reconstruction of the cathedral (burned down in the recent war).