Magdeburg, Prince-Archbishopric of
Substate | Defunct
1180 CE to 1680 CE
The Archbishopric of Magdeburg is a Roman Catholic archdiocese (969–1552) and Prince-Archbishopric (1180–1680) of the Holy Roman Empire centered on the city of Magdeburg on the Elbe River.Planned since 955 and established in 968, the Roman Catholic archdiocese de facto turns void in 1557, when the last papally confirmed prince-archbishop, the Lutheran Sigismund of Brandenburg, comes of age and ascends to the see and the Magdeburg cathedral chapter had adopted Lutheranism in 1567, with most parishioners having preceded in their conversion.
All his successors are only administrators of the prince-archbishopric and Lutheran too, except of the Catholic layman Leopold William of Austria (1631–1635).
In ecclesiastical respect, the remaining Catholics and their parishes and abbeys in the former archdiocese are put under supervision of the Archdiocese of Cologne in 1648 and under the jurisdiction of the Apostolic Vicariate of the Northern Missions in 1670.In political respect, the Erzstift, the archiepiscopal and capitular temporalities, gain imperial immediacy as a prince-archbishopric in 1180.
Its territory comprises only some parts of the archdiocesan area, such as the city of Magdeburg, the bulk of the Magdeburg Börde, and the Jerichow Land as an integral whole and exclaves comprising about the Saalkreis including Halle upon Saale, Oebisfelde and environs as well as Jüterbog and environs.
The prince-archbishopric maintains its statehood as an elective monarchy until 1680, when Brandenburg-Prussia acquires Magdeburg prince-archbishopric, and after being secularized, transforms it into the Duchy of Magdeburg, a hereditary monarchy in personal union with Brandenburg.The 1994-founded modern Diocese of Magdeburg is a diocese of the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic church located in the German states of Saxony-Anhalt (bulk), Brandenburg and Saxony (smaller fringes each).
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Peter Visscher the Elder creates a monumental effigy of Prince-Archbishop Ernest for Magdeburg Cathedral.
His chief early work, it is surrounded with statuettes of the Apostles under semi-Gothic canopies.
It is purer in style than his Shrine of Saint Sebald at Nuremburg, which he will complete between 1508 and 1519.
Magdeburg, which had become a member of the Hanseatic League, in the thirteenth century, is one of the largest cities in the Holy Roman Empire, with more than twenty thousand inhabitants.
The town has an active maritime commerce on the west (towards Flanders), with the countries of the North Sea, and maintains traffic and communication with the interior (for example Brunswick).
The citizens constantly struggle against the archbishop, becoming nearly independent from him by the end of the fifteenth century.
In about Easter 1497, the then twelve-year-old Martin Luther had attended school in Magdeburg, where he was exposed to the teachings of the Brethren of the Common Life.
In 1524, he was called to Magdeburg, where he preaches and causes the city's defection from Catholicism.
Margaret of Münsterberg, the fourth child of the Duke Henry the Elder of Münsterberg (1448–1498) and his wife Ursula of Brandenburg (1450–1508), had received a strictly religious education from her parents.
In 1494, she had married Prince Ernest I of Anhalt from the line of Anhalt-Zerbst.
After the other lines of the Anhalt family died out, Ernest had been able to reunite the Principality of Anhalt for the first time since 1252.
They took up their residence in Dessau.
Ernest died in 1516 and Margaret took up the regency of the principality for her underage sons John IV and George III.
Her regency is characterized by thrift and deep religiosity.
She strictly opposes the Reformation, which had started spreading from neighboring Wittenberg in 1517.
She has found an ally in her first cousin Albert, who is Archbishop of Magdeburg.
In 1525, Margaret launched the League of Dessau, an alliance of Catholic princes opposed to the Reformation.
Her oldest son, John V, who had been co-regent since 1522 and her second son George, who will later become co-ruler as George III, had already built up contacts with Martin Luther, but they will not lead their Principality into the Reformation until 1534 (with George III as the driving force), well after Margaret's death.
The League is founded in Dessau on July 19, a few weeks after the Battle of Frankenhausen in Thuringia, where the peasant revolutionaries had been overpowered.
This suggested to the Catholic sovereigns that a crackdown against Protestantism should be possible.
Although Margaret has a mostly friendly attitude towards Martin Luther himself, the princess fears a repeat of the peasant uprisings in her own country, so she convenes the League, against the wishes of her sons.
Its goals are to stop both the rebellion and the proliferation of Martin Luther's teachings.
Members of the alliance include Duke George of Saxony, Elector Joachim I Nestor of Brandenburg, Archbishop Albert of Mainz and Magdeburg, Duke Eric I of Brunswick-Calenberg-Göttingen, and Duke Henry V of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel.
The League of Dessau is limited within Anhalt to the Principality of Anhalt-Dessau, because …
…the neighboring principalities of Anhalt-Köthen and …
…Anhalt-Bernburg had converted to Lutheranism in 1525 and 1526, as the second and third countries in the world to do so, after the Electorate of Saxony.
The League of Dessau does not have much effect: it is unable to motivate the Catholic princes in the south of the Holy Roman Empire to join.
During the First Diet of Speyer in 1526, followers of both faiths attempt to agree on a political compromise.
The Edict of Worms is repealed.
A decision is taken to tolerate the new faith until a Synod can resolve the religious differences.