EICHSTÄTT, Diocese of. - The diocese of E. is a suffragan of the metropolitan sees of Bamberg and comprises regions of central Franconia, of the Upper Palatinate, of Bavaria and of Swabia as well as of Upper Bavaria, with a total of 334,456 Catholics out of 606,708 inhabitants of the region. The diocese has an area of 6,020 sq. km.; it counts 574 churches, of which 216 are parishes. There are 452 secular priests and 94 regulars; 12 male religious houses and 91 female religious houses. The city of E. possesses a seminary and a university for philosophy and theology. Among the organizations for works of charity, mention should be made of 20 care homes and 42 children's homes, 65 places of healing, 4 orphanages, 16 hospitals and 12 hospices for the aged. There are furthermore 74 assistance unions and 110 charitable leagues (1948).
The diocese was founded by St. Boniface in about 741 and was a suffragan of Mainz. From 882 to 1806 it was a so-called Fürstbistum and became, in 1821, after the secularization, a suffragan of Bamberg.
From as early as 900 the canons of the Cathedral had a great influence in the government of the diocese; the bishop Heribert, however, in 1022 reduced the number of canons from 70 to 50, and in 1234 there were only 30. The first auxiliary bishop was appointed in 1309. During Luther's reform the territories of the counties of Aasbach (1528) and the cities of Nuremberg and Weissenburg, the Palatinate of Neuburg and the counties of Ottingen became Protestant. Nevertheless, the city of E., the Bavarian territory and the domains of the Teutonic Knights remained forever in Catholic worship.
The bishop Martin v. Schaumberg created in 1564 the Willibaldine College, one of the first Tridentine seminaries in Germany.
From the time of Charlemagne the secular territory of the bishops of E. possessed immunity; in 1705 the bishop possessed a territory of 20 square miles with an income of 800,000 florins. The capital of the Cathedral Chapter increased, in the time of the secularization, until it reached the sum of 3 million 400 thousand florins. During the secularization (1800-1803) the diocese was divided between Bavaria and Prussia and in 1806 it depended completely on Bavaria.
On 24 Nov. 1821 the diocese (Landesbistum) of E. was then erected, according to the Bavarian concordat, and on the basis of the decree of circumscription of 1817, as a suffragan of Bamberg without the boundaries being changed. Ecclesiastical life resumed its development under the guidance of zealous bishops. In 1838 the Tridentine Seminary was again erected, and in 1843 a philosophical and theological university under the guidance of the bishop.
The first bishop, St. Willibald, was born in 700 in England. During his pilgrimages with his father and his brother Wunibald, he came to Rome and went to Palestine. In 740 he returned to Germany at the request of St. Boniface, and founded the monasteries of E. and of Heidenheim.
Gebhard I, bishop in 1042, was from 1055 pope under the name of Victor II (d. in 1037). The bishop Gundakar II (1057-75) gave his name to the Gundakarianum, a pontifical book, which is the most precious object of the treasury of the Cathedral. During the Counter-Reformation the diocese was governed by Cristoforo v. Westerstetten (1612-36), who called Jesuits and Capuchins there. After 1821, the date of the new creation of the diocese, the best-known bishop is Karl August v. Reisach (1836-46), who founded the university and the lyceum in 1843 and gave, in the period of the Kulturkampf, asylum to the theology students of upper Germany.
The tomb of St. Willibald is kept in the Romanesque basilica erected in the period from 1042 to 1060. Its late Gothic cloister is well known; also well known is the church of the Archangels, of the late Renaissance, also called the Jesuit church. In Baroque style is the residence of the bishops, which possesses a library composed of 500 thousand volumes. To the west of the city of E. are found the ruins of a medieval castle called that of Willibald and another with two towers in Renaissance style which from 1609 until 1619 was the residence of the bishops.
Bibliography3 works
Freiburg in Br. 1915; J. B. Kurz, Die Eigenklöster in der Diöz. E., 1922; E. Bauernfeind, Die Säkularisationsperiode im Hochstift E., Munich and Freising 1927.
Bruno Wüstenberg