Archbishopric of Trier

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Coat of arms of Archbishopric of Trier.
Coat of arms of Archbishopric of Trier.

The Bishopric and Archbishopric of Trier was one of the important ecclesiastical principalities of the Holy Roman Empire. Unlike the other Rhenish archbishoprics — Mainz and Cologne — Trier, as the important Roman provincial capital of Augusta Treverorum, had been the seat of a bishop since Roman times. It was raised to archiepiscopal status during the reign of Charlemagne, whose will mentions the bishoprics of Metz, Toul and Verdun as its suffragans.

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[edit] History

The bishops of Trier were already virtually independent territorial magnates in Merovingian times. In 772 Charlemagne granted Bishop Wiomad complete immunity from the jurisdiction of the ruling count for all the churches and monasteries, as well as villages and castles that belonged to the Church of St. Peter at Trier. In 816 Louis the Pious confirmed to Archbishop Hetto the privileges of protection and immunity granted by his father.

At the partition of the Carolingian empire at Verdun in 843, Trier fell to Lothair; at the partition of Lotharingia at Mersen in 870, it fell to the East Frankish kingdom, which developed into Germany. Archbishop Radbod received in 898 complete immunity from all taxes for the entire episcopal territory, granted by Zwentibold, the natural son of Emperor Arnulf of Carinthia, who reigned briefly as King of Lotharingia and, under great pressure from his independent nobles, desperately needed a powerful ally. The gift cemented the position of the archbishops as territorial lords in their own right. Following Zwentibold's assassination in 900, the handlers of the child-king Louis courted Radbold in their turn, granting him the district and city of Trier outright, and the right to have a mint—as much a symbol of independent authority as an economic tool— and to impose customs-duties. From the court of Charles the Simple he obtained the final right, that of election of the Bishop of Trier by the chapter, free of Imperial interference.

In Early Modern times, the archdiocese of Trier still encompassed territory along the Moselle River between Trier, near the French border, and Koblenz on the Rhine. The Archbishop of Trier, as holder of an imperial office was traditionally an Imperial Elector of the German king. The purely honorary office of Archchancellor of Gaul arose in the 13th century. In this context that was taken to mean the Kingdom of Arles, or Burgundy, technically from 1242 and permanently from 1263, and nominally until 1803. Arles along with Germany and Italy was one of the three component kingdoms of the Empire.

The last elector removed to Koblenz in 1786. From 1795, the territories of the Archbishopric on the left bank of the Rhine—which is to say almost all of them—were under French occupation, and were annexed in 1801 and a separate bishopric established (later assuming control of the whole diocese in 1803). In 1803, what was left of the Archbishopric was secularized and annexed by the Princes of Nassau.

[edit] Bishops and Archbishops of Augusta Treverorum, 50–791

The early bishops in this list are strictly legendary. The earliest authenticated bishop, according to the Catholic Encyclopedia (1908), was Agricius, who took part in the Council of Arles in 314, but who does not appear among the traditional list.

[edit] Archbishops of Trier, 791-1242

[edit] Archbishop-Electors of Trier, 1242-1803

[edit] Modern Bishops of Trier, 1801-present

[edit] References


Members of the Electoral College following the Golden Bull of 1356 The seven members of the Electoral College
Ecclesiastic electors: Mainz, Trier, Cologne | Secular electors: Bohemia, Palatinate, Saxony, Brandenburg

Later electors: Bavaria (1623) | Hanover (1692) | Hesse-Kassel (1803)
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