The Forgeries of Lorch, also known as Lorch Forgeries, is a collection of forged

papal bulls A papal bull is a type of public decree, letters patent, or charter issued by the pope of the Catholic Church. It is named after the leaden seal ('' bulla'') traditionally appended to authenticate it. History Papal bulls have been in use at ...

completed in the second half of the . It is attributed to the Bishop

Pilgrim of Passau Pilgrim (or Piligrim, Pilegrinus, Peregrinus; died 20 May 991) was Bishop of Passau. Pilgrim was ambitious, but also concerned with the Christianization of Hungary. Life He was educated at the Benedictine Niederaltaich Abbey, and was made bisho ...

in 971 to 991 and contained forged epistles that dealt with the definition of the bishopric's jurisdiction.

Background

Most specialists agree that the collection of documents, known as the ''Forgeries of Lorch'', was completed for Pilgrim, who was made

Bishop of Passau The Diocese of Passau (; ) is a Latin diocese of the Catholic Church in Germany that is a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising.Archbishop of Salzburg The Archdiocese of Salzburg (; ) is a Latin Church, Latin rite archdiocese of the Catholic Church centered in Salzburg, Austria. It is also the principal diocese of the ecclesiastical province of Salzburg. The archdiocese is one of two Austrian ...

for the ecclesiastic jurisdiction in Pannonia, Pilgrim forged the papal bulls. The earliest of the bulls was attributed to the 4th-century

Pope Symmachus Pope Symmachus (died 19 July 514) was the bishop of Rome from 22 November 498 to his death on 19 July 514. His tenure was marked by a serious schism over who was elected pope by a majority of the Roman clergy. Early life He was born on the Medi ...

. Pilgrim believed that

Lauriacum Lauriacum (or Laureacum) was an important legionary Roman town on the Danube Limes in Austria. History Roman era Initially only a small Roman settlement was located at a ford over the Enns. The Legio II Italica built a legion camp around 200 ...

(now Lorch in Enns in Austria) was the

metropolitan see Metropolitan may refer to: Areas and governance (secular and ecclesiastical) * Metropolitan archdiocese, the jurisdiction of a metropolitan archbishop ** Metropolitan bishop or archbishop, leader of an ecclesiastical "mother see" * Metropolitan ...

of the

Diocese of Pannonia 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 associate ...

in the Roman Empire. He also thought that the

archdiocese of Lauriacum The archdiocese of Laureacum (or Lorch) existed in what is now northern Upper Austria. The town of Lorch is 76 miles or 123 kilometers down the Danube to the east from Passau. History When Laureacum was established, and became headquarters of L ...

had been moved from Lauriacum to Passau.

Documents

Pilgrim's forgeries include six papal documents falsified or corrupted by Bishop

between 971 and 985 as scribes of the royal firm, a letter from the bishop to Pope Benedict VI or Benedict VII. There were also two alleged letters of Archbishop Hatto from Mainz to an unnamed Pope. A total of five papal bulls were forged and one of the letters from Hatto of Mainz to an unknown Pope, attempted to prove that Lorch was an archiepiscopal see before

Salzburg Salzburg is the List of cities and towns in Austria, fourth-largest city in Austria. In 2020 its population was 156,852. The city lies on the Salzach, Salzach River, near the border with Germany and at the foot of the Austrian Alps, Alps moun ...

. Pilgrim's counterfeits, were to make the diocese of Passau the legal successor to the ancient archbishopric of

, thus establishing the rank of an

archbishopric 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 associated ...

. This

late antique Late antiquity marks the period that comes after the end of classical antiquity and stretches into the onset of the Early Middle Ages. Late antiquity as a period was popularized by Peter Brown in 1971, and this periodization has since been wide ...

bishopric Lauriacum was mentioned in the '' Vita Sancti Severini''. One of the specific contents involved the claim that

Saint Peter Saint Peter (born Shimon Bar Yonah; 1 BC – AD 64/68), also known as Peter the Apostle, Simon Peter, Simeon, Simon, or Cephas, was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus and one of the first leaders of the Jewish Christian#Jerusalem ekklēsia, e ...

sent missionaries to convert Lorch in the year 47 and establish a see. Furthermore, the documents also indicated that Passau be endowed with a vast archdiocese, immense property, and no less than twenty-two suffragan bishoprics including Grado,

Würzburg Würzburg (; Main-Franconian: ) is, after Nuremberg and Fürth, the Franconia#Towns and cities, third-largest city in Franconia located in the north of Bavaria. Würzburg is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Lower Franconia. It sp ...

, and

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

References

Sources

* * {{Refend Document forgeries