BURCHARD II. - Bishop of Halberstadt (1059-1088), from a noble Swabian family, nephew of Archbishop Anno of Cologne, was provost at Goslar when the Empress Agnes appointed him bishop of Halberstadt at Christmas in 1059. At the Council of Augsburg in October 1062, B. decided in favor of Pope Alexander II against the antipope Honorius II. In the first decade of his episcopate he was a friend of the young King Henry IV, but in 1073 he became his implacable adversary because of his policy against the Saxons. Alongside the rebels and the rival claimants Rudolf of Swabia and Hermann of Salm, B. continued the struggle against Henry IV until, following a serious wound received at Goslar, he died in his beloved monastery of Flensburg on April 7, 1088, at the age of sixty. His name is linked in a particular way to fidelity toward Pope Gregory VII and to his program of reform. His reforming activity is documented by the founding of monasteries and colleges in the diocese of Halberstadt and by the grandiose and artistic reconstruction of the cathedral (burned in the last war).

Bibliography7 works

BIBL.: Gesta episcoporum Halberstadenium, in MGH, Scriptores, XXIII, pp. 96, 101; Annalista Sassone, ibid., II, pp. 722-26; G. Schmidt, Urkundenbuch des Hochstifts Halberstadt, I, Leipzig 1883, pp. 58-77; R. Leera, B. II, Bischof von H., Eisenach 1892 and 1894; G. Sellin, Bischof B. II v. H., Leipzig 1914; G. Allemang, s. v. in DHG, X, coll. 1233-34; A. Herte, s. v. in LThK, II, col. 638.

Lucchesio Späding

@incollection{ec3_burcardo_ii, author = {Spätling, Lucchesio}, title = {Burcardo II}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {III}, pages = {224}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1949}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/burcardo-ii} }

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Burchard II

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