The Prince-Bishopric of Constance, (german: Hochstift Konstanz, Fürstbistum Konstanz, Bistum Konstanz) was a small ecclesiastical principality of the

Holy Roman Empire The Holy Roman Empire was a political entity in Western, Central, and Southern Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its dissolution in 1806 during the Napoleonic Wars. From the accession of Otto I in 962 ...

from the mid-12th century until its

secularisation In sociology, secularization (or secularisation) is the transformation of a society from close identification with religious values and institutions toward non-religious values and secular institutions. The ''secularization thesis'' expresses the ...

in 1802–1803. In his dual capacity as prince and as bishop, the prince-bishop also governed the Diocese of Konstanz, which existed from about 585 until its dissolution in 1821, and whose territory extended over an area much larger than the principality."Diocese of Konstanz "
''

Catholic-Hierarchy.org ''Catholic-Hierarchy.org'' is an online database of bishops and dioceses of the Roman Catholic Church and Eastern Catholic Churches. The website is not officially sanctioned by the Church. It is run as a private project by David M. Cheney in ...

''. David M. Cheney. Retrieved February 29, 2016"Diocese of Konstanz"
''GCatholic.org''. Gabriel Chow. Retrieved February 29, 2016 It belonged to the

ecclesiastical province An ecclesiastical province is one of the basic forms of jurisdiction in Christian Churches with traditional hierarchical structure, including Western Christianity and Eastern Christianity. In general, an ecclesiastical province consists of seve ...

Mainz Mainz () is the capital and largest city of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Mainz is on the left bank of the Rhine, opposite to the place that the Main joins the Rhine. Downstream of the confluence, the Rhine flows to the north-west, with Ma ...

since 780/782.

Geography

The Imperial immediate territory of the prince-bishopric was scattered on both sides of western Lake Constance, stretching from the Höri peninsula and the

High Rhine The High Rhine (german: Hochrhein) is the name used for the part of the Rhine that flows westbound from Lake Constance to Basel. The High Rhine begins at the outflow of the Rhine from the Untersee in Stein am Rhein and turns into the Upper Rhine ...

in the west along Untersee with the Monastic Island of Reichenau, the

Bodanrück The Bodanrück is the peninsula that divides Lake Constance into Überlinger See and Gnadensee, which is part of Untersee. The cities of Konstanz, Radolfzell Radolfzell am Bodensee is a town in Germany at the western end of Lake Constance ...

peninsula, and

Lake Überlingen Lake Überlingene.g. see Kolumban Hutter, Yongqi Wang and Irina P. Chubarenko. "Trasverse Internal Wave Motion in Lake Überlingen" in ''Physics of Lakes: Volume 2: Lakes as Oscillators''. London: Springer, 2011, p. 179. (Standard German of ...

to the

Linzgau Linzgau is a historic region in Southern Germany, in the state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located north of Lake Constance and south of the Danube valley. Geography The region is bounded by the shore of Lake Constance on the south, the Hegau regi ...

region in the northeast. This did not include the Imperial City of Constance nor

Petershausen Abbey Petershausen Abbey (Kloster, Reichskloster, Reichsstift or Reichsabtei Petershausen) was a Benedictine imperial abbey at Petershausen, now a district of Konstanz in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. History It was founded as an exempt abbey named aft ...

. In the south, the bishop's territory bordered on the Landgraviate of

Thurgau Thurgau (; french: Thurgovie; it, Turgovia), anglicized as Thurgovia, more formally the Canton of Thurgau, is one of the 26 cantons forming the Swiss Confederation. It is composed of five districts and its capital is Frauenfeld. Thurgau is par ...

which was conquered by the

Swiss Confederacy The Old Swiss Confederacy or Swiss Confederacy ( Modern German: ; historically , after the Reformation also , "Confederation of the Swiss") was a loose confederation of independent small states (, German or In the charters of the 14th century ...

in 1460.

The Imperial state should not be confused with the

diocese In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associa ...

of the same name, which was considerably larger (see map), covering much of present-day

Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg (; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million inhabitants across a ...

, a large part of Switzerland all the way south to the

Gotthard Pass german: Gotthardpass , photo = File:Gotthardpass 2008.jpg , photo_caption = The area of the Gotthard Pass from the west , elevation_m = 2106 , elevation_ref = , traversed = National Road 2 Old paved road ( Tremola) Gotthard Rail Tunnel Go ...

, as well as a small part of

Vorarlberg Vorarlberg ( , ; gsw, label= Vorarlbergisch, Vorarlbearg, , or ) is the westernmost state () of Austria. It has the second-smallest geographical area after Vienna and, although it also has the second-smallest population, it is the state with the ...

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

. While the Prince-Bishop was the secular ruler in his prince-bishopric, his authority in his diocese was limited to the pastoral duties exercised by any bishop. MPano 07

History

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Constance, one of the largest dioceses of Germany, was founded in the late 6th century in the course of the Christianization of the Alamanni tribes around Lake Constance and the Upper Rhine. Originally subordinated to the Archdiocese of Besançon, Constance became suffragan to the

Archdiocese of Mainz The Electorate of Mainz (german: Kurfürstentum Mainz or ', la, Electoratus Moguntinus), previously known in English as Mentz and by its French name Mayence, was one of the most prestigious and influential states of the Holy Roman Empire. In the ...

in 782. A deed by Emperor

Frederick I Barbarossa Frederick Barbarossa (December 1122 – 10 June 1190), also known as Frederick I (german: link=no, Friedrich I, it, Federico I), was the Holy Roman Emperor from 1155 until his death 35 years later. He was elected King of Germany in Frankfurt o ...

in 1155 confirmed the princely status of the bishop and of his bishopric as an

Imperial Estate An Imperial State or Imperial Estate ( la, Status Imperii; german: Reichsstand, plural: ') was a part of the Holy Roman Empire with representation and the right to vote in the Imperial Diet ('). Rulers of these Estates were able to exercise si ...

. The territory of the prince-bishopric contracted during the following centuries under pressure from both the

and the

House of Habsburg The House of Habsburg (), alternatively spelled Hapsburg in Englishgerman: Haus Habsburg, ; es, Casa de Habsburgo; hu, Habsburg család, it, Casa di Asburgo, nl, Huis van Habsburg, pl, dom Habsburgów, pt, Casa de Habsburgo, la, Domus Hab ...

. Furthermore, the city of Constance was granted the status of a free imperial city and from then on the bishop's sovereignty in the city was restricted to a small area around the cathedral. In 1527, during the Protestant Reformation, the administrative seat of the Prince-Bishop was finally moved to Meersburg across Lake Constance. However, Constance fell to the Counter-Reformation promoted by the Habsburgs, who eventually abolished its status as a free imperial city and incorporated it into their

Further Austria Further Austria, Outer Austria or Anterior Austria (german: Vorderösterreich, formerly ''die Vorlande'' (pl.)) was the collective name for the early (and later) possessions of the House of Habsburg in the former Swabian stem duchy of south-wes ...

n possessions in 1548. The huge diocese of Constance suffered heavily during the Reformation and it lost several hundred parishes, convents and other Catholic foundations which were suppressed by the various states, free imperial cities and cantons in Swabia and Switzerland that had become Protestant. In the course of the

German Mediatisation German mediatisation (; german: deutsche Mediatisierung) was the major territorial restructuring that took place between 1802 and 1814 in Germany and the surrounding region by means of the mass mediatisation and secularisation of a large number ...

in 1803, the Prince-Bishopric was dissolved and its territory was annexed to the Margraviate of Baden. In turn, the diocese was dissolved by Pope Pius VII in 1821 after Vicar General Ignaz Heinrich von Wessenberg had been elected diocesan administrator upon the death of the last bishop Karl Theodor von Dalberg in 1817. While Wessenberg was supported by the government of Baden, the Pope never recognized his election on account of Wessenberg's liberal views. By a bull of 16 August 1821, the pope dissolved the diocese in order to prevent Wessenberg from becoming bishop. The area of the diocese in Baden became part of the newly established

Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Freiburg The Archdiocese of Freiburg im Breisgau (Latin ''Archidioecesis Friburgensis'') is a Roman Catholic diocese in Baden-Württemberg comprising the former states of Baden and Hohenzollern. The Archdiocese of Freiburg is led by an archbishop, who ...

in 1827 while the Swiss areas were incorporated in the Diocese of Basel. As a result of these changes, the cantons of Obwalden and Nidwalden, parts of Uri, Glarus and Zürich were assigned provisionally to the administration of the Diocese of Chur, an arrangement still enduring.

List of bishops

Konstanz Marquard Rudolph von Rodt mit Bistumskarte detail Bischof

Auxiliary bishops

*Jean (1430–1440)"Bishop Jean"
''

''. David M. Cheney. Retrieved July 23, 2016 * Johann von Blatten, O.F.M. (1441–1461)"Bishop Johann von Blatten, O.F.M."
''

''. David M. Cheney. Retrieved July 23, 2016 * Thomas Weldner, O.F.M. (1461–1470) *Caspar (1470–1481)"Bishop Caspar"
''

''. David M. Cheney. Retrieved July 23, 2016 * Burchard Tuberflug, O.P. (1471–)"Bishop Burchard Tuberflug, O.P."
''

''. David M. Cheney. Retrieved August 8, 2016 * Daniel Zehender, O.F.M. (1473–1500)"Bishop Daniel Zehender, O.F.M."
''

''. David M. Cheney. Retrieved August 9, 2016 * Balthasar Brennwald, O.P. (1500–1517) * Johann Spyser (1518) * Melchior Fattlin (1518–1548) * Jakob Eliner (1551–1574) * Balthasar Wurer (1574–1598) * Johann Jakob Mirgel (1598–1629) * Johann Anton Tritt von Wilderen (1619–1639) * Franz Johann von Vogt von Altensumerau und Prasberg (1641–1645) Appointed, Bishop of Konstanz"Bishop Franz Johann von Vogt von Altensumerau und Prasberg"
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''. David M. Cheney. Retrieved March 21, 2016 * Georg Sigismund Müller (1654–1686) *

Johannes Wolfgang von Bodman Johannes Wolfgang Reichsfreiherr von Bodman (January 19, 1651 – September 29, 1691) was auxiliary bishop of Konstanz (Germany) from 1686 until he died in 1691. Von Bodman came from the old Swabian noble family Bodman. He was the son of Hans Ada ...

(1686–1691) * Konrad Ferdinand Geist von Wildegg (1693–1722) *Johann Franz Anton von Sirgenstein (1722–1739) *Franz Karl Joseph von Fugger-Glött (1739–1768) *Johann Nepomuk Augustin von Hornstein zu Hohenstoffen (1768–1779) *Wilhelm Joseph Leopold Willibald von Baden (1779–1798) *Ernst Maria Ferdinand von Bissingen-Nieppenburg (1801–1813)

References

External links