In this city, in fact, at the request of the Elector of Bavaria, Pius VI established an Apostolic Nunciature in 1785, subjecting to its jurisdiction certain territories hitherto subject to the Nunciature of Cologne. Against this measure the Rhenish bishops rose up, supported by Emperor Joseph II, who backed his brother Maximilian Francis, at that time Archbishop of Cologne. The bishops of Cologne, Trier, Mainz and Salzburg, meeting at Aschaffenburg, decided to send representatives to E.: they convened there in August 1786, namely Heinrich von Tautphäus for Maximilian of Habsburg, Joseph Ludwig Beck for Clement Wenceslas, Archbishop of Trier, Johann Michael Bönicke for the Prince of Colloredo, Archbishop of Salzburg, and the most famous Justinus Febronius, called Febronius, for Frederick Charles von Erthal, Archbishop of Mainz.
After a brief series of meetings, the delegates of the four archbishops subscribed to a declaration in twenty-one articles, known precisely by the name of the "punctation of E.", in which were listed the claims of the Rhenish episcopate: the right to subject papal documents to prior approval before promulgating them in their respective dioceses, the abolition of Apostolic Nunciatures in Germany, the prohibition of the regular clergy to elect superiors who were not of German nationality, the prohibition for the secular clergy to apply directly to Rome, the faculty to confer ecclesiastical benefices of every degree, etc.
The punctation of E., signed on 25 August, was ratified by the archbishops, which—naturally—provoked protests from the Apostolic See, first in the form of a circular by the nuncio Pacca (the future cardinal) and then in a papal brief: *Responsio super Nuntiaturis Apostolicis* (14 November 1790). The matter dragged on for a long time and was even brought before the Imperial Diet of Regensburg in 1790, causing a stir throughout the German episcopate: the majority of bishops, especially those of Austrian dioceses, resolutely sided with the Roman Church, recognizing the danger of schism; the Archbishop of Mainz eventually recanted, while the others persisted stubbornly in their rebellion until the French occupation of the Rhineland and the secularization of the ecclesiastical electorates put an end to the unfortunate affair.