Diocese of Ratzeburg
| Prince-Bishopric of Ratzeburg | ||||||||||
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Hochstift Ratzeburg also: Fürstbistum Ratzeburg |
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| State of the Holy Roman Empire | ||||||||||
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 Coat of arms
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.svg) The Prince-Bishopric of Ratzeburg shown within Mecklenburg c. 1250
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| Capital | Ratzeburg | |||||||||
| Languages | Low Saxon, German | |||||||||
| Religion | Roman Catholic, Lutheran after 1554 | |||||||||
| Government | Elective monarchy, ruled by the bishop or administrator holding the episcopal see, elected by the chapter or, exceptionally, appointed by the Pope | |||||||||
| Historical era | Middle Ages | |||||||||
| • | Diocese founded | c. 1050 | ||||||||
| • | Pagan Wends destroyed bishopric -Diocese refounded |
July 15, 1066 1154 1236 |
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| • | Saxo-Bavarian Duke Henry the Lion defeated ensued by break-up of the Duchy of Saxony |
1180/1181 |
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| • | Acquired territory | 1236 | ||||||||
| • | Lutheran Reformation | 1554 | ||||||||
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Secularised to Mecklenburg-Güstrow |
1648 | ||||||||
| • | Became exclave of Mecklenburg-Strelitz |
1701 |
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The Bishopric of Ratzeburg (German: Bistum Ratzeburg), centered on Ratzeburg in Northern Germany, was originally a suffragan to the Archdiocese of Hamburg, which transformed into the Archdiocese of Bremen in 1072.
Ratzeburg was one of the dioceses formed c. 1050 by Archbishop Adalbert of Hamburg, who appointed St. Aristo, who had just returned from Jerusalem, to the new see. Aristo seems to have been but a wandering missionary bishop. In 1066, the pagan Wends rose against their German masters, and on 15 July 1066, St. Ansverus, Abbot of St. George's, Ratzeburg (not the later monastery bearing that name), and several of his monks are said to have been stoned to death. It was not until 1154, however, that Henry the Lion, Duke of Saxony, and Hartwich I, Archbishop of Hamburg, refounded the episcopal see of Ratzeburg, and Evermodus became its first bishop. A disciple of St Norbert and provost of the Monastery of Our Lady at Magdeburg, Evermodus was, like many of his successors, a Premonstratensian canon. In 1157, a chapter was attached to Ratzeburg cathedral by Pope Adrian IV.
In 1236 Bishop Peter was invested by Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, with temporal jurisdiction over the land of Butin and a number of villages outside it (the Principality of Ratzeburg), making the see a prince-bishopric. The succeeding prince-bishops retained this jurisdiction in spite of the frequent attempts which the dukes of Saxe-Lauenburg made to deprive them of it.
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Wikipedia