WARMIA (ERMLAND), DIOCESE of. — City and diocese in eastern Prussia, today in Poland. It has an area of 23,344 sq km, with a population of
749,401 inhabitants, of whom 684,494 are Catholics, distributed among 216 parishes served by 175 diocesan priests and 59 religious priests; it has two seminaries, 8 male and 50 female religious communities (Ann. Pont. 1953, p. 452).
The diocese is a suffragan of Breslau; it was created by Innocent IV on 30 July 1243, directly subject to the Holy See. The episcopal residence was at Heilsberg until around 1800, while the Chapter first resided at Braunsberg and, from 1288, at Frauenburg. With the Peace Treaty of Thorn (1466), W. passed from the rule of the Teutonic Order of the Crusaders to that of Poland; indeed, in 1512 King Sigismund, through the Treaty of Parezow, secured predominance in the election of the bishop. The diocese suffered from Protestantism, the Swedish wars (1626–1709), and Napoleon’s campaign of 1807, after Prussia had annexed its territory in 1772; further destruction occurred in the war of 1915–18. Under the Treaty of Versailles, Danzig was separated from W., which in 1926 also lost the parishes of the Memel territory; under the Concordat of 14 June 1929, W. became a suffragan of Breslau; since 1945 it has had an apostolic administrator.
The first bishop of the diocese was Andrea (c. 1245–65). In 1457 Cardinal E. Silvio Piccolomini was elected, but he did not take possession. Copernico (v.), born at Frauenburg in 1543, was for some time administrator of the diocese. ZOSIMAS (v.) was distinguished; he came to W. from the see of Kulm and was made a cardinal in 1560. He was one of the papal legates to the Council of Trent and the author of the Confessio fidei catholicae christianae, which enjoyed enormous circulation; he fought strenuously against the Lutheran threat in his diocese; he founded in Rome (1578) the church of S. Stanislao alle Botteghe Oscure; he is buried in Rome at S. Maria in Trastevere. He was succeeded by Martino Kromer (1579–89); Cardinal A. Batori (d. 1599); and Cardinal Giovanni Alberto (1621), son of King Sigismund.
The Cathedral dates from 1350. In 1565 the Jesuit College was erected, to which the diocesan seminary (1567) and the “Liceum Hosianum” (1578) were attached; a second Jesuit college was established at Rösseil in 1632.