WORMS. — City and ancient diocese in Germany. It is the Celtic “Borbetomagus,” the Roman “Vormatia.”
There is no certain information concerning the origin of the diocese. At the pseudo-Council of Cologne in 346, Victor, bishop of Vangio, appears; although its acts seem to have been drawn up in the ninth century, Duchesne considered the names of the bishops to be authentic (Fastes épiscopaux de l'ancienne Gaule, I, 2nd ed., Paris 1907, p. 7). Orosius (Hist. adv. paganos, VII, 32, 10-13) and Socrates (Hist. eccl., VII, 30) attest to the existence of the diocese of W. in the fourth century. But the first bishop of whom there is reliable record is Bertolph, present at the Council of Paris in 614 (MGH, Concilia, I, p. 192). It is not known whether in its early period the diocese was a suffragan of Trier; however, when the catalogue of bishops begins in the seventh century, it was a suffragan of Mainz (L. Duchesne, op. cit., III, Paris 1915, pp. 161-63). The first bishops were also abbots of Weissenburg. Among the prelates are remembered Hildebold (979-98), chancellor of Otto II and III; I (v.); 1000-25), who composed the Decretum and the statutes of St. Peter of W., where Bruno, later Gregory V, had been educated (Lib. Pont., II, p. 262); and Bishop Adalbert (1069-1107), exiled from W. The diocese had a limited territory on both banks
of the Rhine. Suppressed in 1802, between 1821 and 1827 its territory was incorporated for the most part into the diocese of Mainz, and the remainder into those of Speyer, Freiburg, and Rottenburg.
Numerous imperial diets were held at W.: the famous one of 1122, when the Concordat that brought the Investiture Controversy to an end was concluded, and the other of 1521, when Luther was condemned.
The Cathedral, formerly dedicated to SS. Peter and Paul, enjoyed privileges from the seventh century onward, confirmed by Pepin and Louis the Pious. Restored in 852, it is described at that time as dedicated to St. Peter. From the twelfth to the sixteenth century its provosts were archdeacons of the Church of W. (H. Weigert, Die Dome zu Speyer, Mainz und W., Berlin 1930; W. Hege, Die Kaiserdome am Mittelrhein, Speyer, Mainz und W., ibid. 1936). The cathedral of W. is architecturally connected with those of Speyer and Mainz, and was built between 1000 and 1018 by Bishop Burchard on the site of the modest Merovingian church.
The Library has almost entirely been dispersed: the tenth-century missal is in the Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal in Paris; a manuscript is now in the Vatican (Vat. Palat. 477). A list of the royal and imperial diplomas granted to the churches of W. was published by L. Lachner (in Mittel des Instituts für Österreich, Geschichtsforsch., 22 [1901], pp. 571-74). The episcopal Archive was largely transferred after 1802 to Darmstadt (G. Fink, Geschichte des hessischen Staatsarchivs zu Darmstadt, Darmstadt 1925, pp. 54-58); part of it ended up in the Libraries of Heidelberg and Hannover and in the Archive of Speyer; very little remains in the Archive of the city of W. The Benedictine nunnery of St. Mary — Nonnenmünster — situated in the suburb of the city, founded and endowed by Louis the Pious, was renewed by Bishop Burchard; the Cistercians replaced the Benedictines there in 1236; it was suppressed in 1862. St. Martin’s dates from the end of the tenth century; the church of St. Andrew is Romanesque, was profaned in 1802, and is now used as a museum. St. Magnus, dating from the thirteenth century, is now in the possession of the Protestants. The Dominican church dates from the fourteenth century. The Liebfrauen, dating from 1468, has three naves; it has been a parish church since 1898. Among the ancient churches of the diocese are the Collegiate Church of St. Cyriacus at Neuhausen, known since the ninth century; erected by Bishop Samuel and renewed by Burchard I, it was disputed between the monks of Gorze and the clergy of the city; the Collegiate Church of St. Paul, founded by Bishop Burchard in 1016, burned in 1264, restored in 1681, and suppressed in 1802; and the Collegiate Church of St. Peter at Wimpfen, whose provost is recorded in 1068 and which was suppressed in 1802. The Benedictine monastery of St. Mary at Schönau, near Heidelberg, founded by Hugh II in 1142 but transferred to the Cistercians as early as 1145, was suppressed in 1560. Noteworthy is the Church of St. Mary Magdalene at Frankenthal, erected in 1197 by Eckenbert beside a large monastery of the Canons Regular of St. Augustine; near it stood a small nunnery of the same Order, erected in 1125 and remaining until 1432; it was enriched with privileges by Popes Innocent II, Victor IV, and Alexander III, and was given to laymen in 1562. The monastery of Heiligenberg on Mount Abraham was erected in 870 by Tiodroch, abbot of Lorsch, and received privileges from Louis III in 882, from Conrad I in 912, and from Otto I in 965. Reginbald, abbot of Lorsch between 1023 and 1033, erected there a monastery in honor of St. Michael. It received a privilege from Lucius II in 1144 and was restored in 1165 by Henry, abbot of Lorsch; it was granted to the Benedictine nuns in 1195, later replaced by Cistercian nuns; in the fifteenth century the Benedictine nuns returned; from 1706 to 1777 it was granted to the Society of Jesus, and it is now affiliated with the Benedictine Congregation of Beuron. The Church of SS. Peter and Verena at Hömingen, founded by Henry II, Count of Lainingen, and his wife Alberta in the time of Callistus II (Liber Censum, ed. P. Fabre - L. Duchesne, I, Paris 1889-1910, p. 160), belonged to the Canons Regular of St. Augustine and was suppressed in 1569. At Neuburg, the Church of St. Bartholomew was founded by an Anselm in 1130, later a monk of Lorsch. The buildings were granted to the Capuchins in 1624, who held them intermittently until their suppression in 1802.