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Archbishopric of Mainz

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Between 780–82 and 1802 the Archbishop of Mainz was an influential ecclesiastic and secular prince in the Holy Roman Empire. His see was established in ancient Roman times, in the city of Mainz, which had been a Roman provincial capital called Moguntiacum, but the office really came to prominence upon its elevation to an archdiocese in 780/82. The first bishops before the 4th century have legendary names, beginning with Crescens. The first verifiable Bishop of Mainz was Mar(t)inus in 343. The ecclesiastical and secular importance of Mainz dates from the accession of St. Boniface to the see in 747. Boniface was previously an archbishop, but the honor did not immediately devolve upon the see itself until his successor Lullus.

This archbishopric was a substantial ecclesiastical principality of the Holy Roman Empire. It included lands near Mainz on the both the left and right banks of the Rhine, as well as territory along the Main above Frankfurt (including the district of Aschaffenburg), and territory around Erfurt in Thuringia. The Archbishop was also, traditionally, one of the Imperial Prince-Electors, the Arch-chancellor of Germany, and presiding officer of the electoral college technically from 1251 and permanently from 1263 until 1803.

In 1802, Mainz lost its archiepiscopal character. In the secularizations that accompanied the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss of 1803, the seat of the Elector, Karl Theodor von Dalberg, was moved to Regensburg, and the Electorate lost its left bank territories to France, its right bank areas along the Main below Frankfurt to Hesse-Darmstadt and the Nassau princes, and Erfurt to Prussia. Dalberg retained the Aschaffenberg area however, and when the Holy Roman Empire finally came to an end in 1806, this became the core of Dalberg's new Grand Duchy of Frankfurt. Dalberg resigned in 1813 and in 1815 the Congress of Vienna divided his territories between the King of Bavaria, the Elector of Hesse-Kassel, the Grand Duke of Hesse-Darmstadt and the Free City of Frankfurt.

The modern Diocese of Mainz was founded in 1802, within the territory of France and in 1814 its jurisdiction was extended over the territory of Hesse-Darmstadt. Since then the has had two cardinals and via various concordats was allowed to retain the mediæval tradition of the cathedral chapter electing a successor to the bishop.

Another specialty: Aside from Rome, the See of Mainz is the only other see referred to as a "Holy See", although this usage became rather less common.

Contents

Bishops of Moguntiacum, 80-745

Archbishops of Mainz, 745-1251

Archbishops-Electors of Mainz, 1251-1803

See also

External links

 

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