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."Diocese of Passau" Catholic-Hierarchy.org. David M. Cheney. Retrieved February 29, 2016."Diocese of Passau" GCatholic.org. Gabriel Chow. Retrieved February 29, 2016. The Prince-Bishopric of Passau was an ecclesiastical principality that existed for centuries until it was secularized in 1803. The diocese covers an area of 5,442 km².
History Lorch The Diocese of Passau may be considered the successor of the ancient Diocese of Lorch (Laureacum). At Lorch, a Roman station and an important stronghold at the confluence of the rivers Enns and Danube, Christianity found a foothold in the third century, during a period of Roman domination, and a Bishop of Lorch certainly existed in the fourth. The letter of Pope Symmachus (498–514) to Archbishop Theodore of Lorch is a forgery of Bishop Pilgrim.Brackmann, pp. 159-160. no. 1: "Spurium, confectum ab ipso Piligrimo ep. Pataviensi, eo consilio, ut sibi et successoribus suis pallium acquireret." During the great migrations, Christianity on the Danube was completely rooted out, and the Celtic and Roman population was annihilated or enslaved.
Foundation of the diocese of Passau In the region between the rivers Lech and Enns, the wandering Baiuvarii were converted to Christianity in the seventh century, while the Avari, to the east, remained pagan. The ecclesiastical organization of Bavaria was brought about in 739 by the papal legate St. Boniface, who, with the support of Duke Odilo or at least enacting an earlier design of the duke, erected the four sees of Freising, Ratisbon, Passau, and Salzburg.Brackmann, p. 160, no. 4. He confirmed as incumbent of Passau Bishop Vivilo, or Vivolus, who had been ordained in Rome by Pope Gregory III (731–741). From that time, Vivilo resided permanently at Passau, on the site of the old Roman colony of Batavis. Here there existed a church established by a founder now unknown, which was dedicated to St. Stephen. Bishop Vivilo's diocese received by annexation the ancient Lorch, which meanwhile had become a small place of little importance. Thanks to the duke, a cathedral was soon erected near the Passau church of St. Stephen, and there the bishop lived in common with his clergy.
The ecclesiastical province of Bavaria was created on 20 April 798, at the request of Charlemagne. Pope Leo III named Salzburg its metropolitan archdiocese, assigning as its suffragan dioceses Passau, Ratisbon, Freising, Säben-Brixen, and Neuburg and sending Bishop Arno of Salzburg the pallium.Brackmann, Germania pontificia, pp. 4; 8 nos. 7 and 8; 161, no. 8. Hansiz, Germania sacra Vol. 2, pp. 6-7. The diocese of Passau was subject to Salzburg until 1728; from 1728 until 1817 it was directly subject to the Holy See (Papacy); from 1826, it became subject to the archdiocese of Munich-Freising.Brachmann, p. 157.
Diocesan boundaries The boundaries of the Passau diocese extended westwards to the river Isar, and eastwards to the Enns. In ecclesiastical affairs Passau was probably, from the beginning, suffragan to Salzburg. Through the favour of Dukes Odilo and Tassilo, the diocese received many grants and endowments, and several monasteries were established, including Niederaltaich Abbey, Niedernburg Abbey, Mattsee Abbey, Kremsmünster Abbey, these being richly endowed over time. In the late 8th century came the conquest of the Avari, who had assisted the rebellious Duke Tassilo. Subsequently, under Bishop Waltreich (774–804), the district between the Enns and the Raab was added to the diocese, which thus included the whole eastern part (Ostmark) of Southern Bavaria and part of what is now Hungary.
Troubles with Moravia Pope Eugenius II (824–827) was said to have sent a letter to four bishops in Moravia and Hungary (Pannonia), informing them that he had created Bishop Urolfus of Passau an archbishop, and made him metropolitan of an ecclesiastical province, which included the dioceses of Favianensis, Speculiiuliensis (also known as Ouguturensis), Nitravensis, and Vetuarensis.Brackmann, p. 162, no. †10. Hansiz, pp. 146-150. Only two of the diocesan names are known. The document, however, is a forgery.Brackmann: "Spurium, confectum a Piligrimo ep. Pataviensi." Ernst Ludwig Dümmler, Piligrim von Passau und das Erzbisthum Lorch, , Leipzig: S. Hirzel 1854, pp. 18-21, 115-117 (complete text). It was invented by Bishop Pilgrim, to advance his claim that the diocese of Passau was the successor of the (arch)diocese of Lorch, and was entitled to the pallium.Brackmann, p. 157: "Piligrimus ille, qui, ut pallium sibi acquireret simulque totam Pannoniam tunc recuperatam ecclesiae suae adiungeret, se successorem Lauriacensium archiepiscoporum esse privilegiis spuriis contendit." Neither the German kings nor the popes ever acknowledged validity of the claim.Brackmann: "Quamquam reges et summi pontifices haec privilegia minime confirmaverunt, fabulae tamen Lauriacensium archiepiscoporum non interierunt."
On 24 September 860, at the request of Bishop Hartwig of Passau, King Louis II granted a number of mansiones to Hartwig's chorepiscopusEric Knibbs, Ansgar, Rimbert and the Forged Foundations of Hamburg-Bremen, London: Routledge, 2016), pp. 39-41. Johann Friedrich, Die vocati episcopi Erchanfried und Otkar der Passauer und der Oadalhart episcopus der Freisinger Urkunden, , München: Franz i.Komm., 1882 [Sitzungsberichte der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Philosophisch-Philologische und Historische Klasse], p. 320-322. Alberic.Hansiz I, p. 158. But in May 864,Philippus Jaffé, Regesta pontificum Romanorum, , second edition (Leipzig: Veit 1885), pp. 352-353, no. 2758. Pope Nicholas I, writing to King Louis, noted that Bishop Hartwig of Passau had been paralysed for the previous four years (abhinc quattuor annos), but that he could not simply be deposed or set aside; he could, however, resign the diocese, if he were able to execute the proper documents.Brackmann, p. 162, no. 11.
The first missionaries to the pagan Hungarians went out from Passau, and in 866 the Church sent missionaries to Bulgaria.Hansiz I, p. 161.
Before the spring 873, a three year long struggle on the part of several German bishops attempted to unseat Bishop Methodius, the "Apostle to the Slavs."Methodius had been consecrated in Rome by Pope Adrian I (867–872). Gustav Friedrich, Kristen Zdeněk, Codex diplomaticus et epistolaris regni Bohemiae, . Volume 1 (Prague: Sumptibus Comitiorum Regni Bohemiae, 1907), p. 17, no. 22: "Quia vero audivimus, quia Methodius vester archiepiscopus, ab antecessore nostro, Adriano scilicet papa, ordinatus vobisque directus, aliter doceat, quam coram sede apostolica se credere verbis et litteris professus est, valde miramur...." Pope John VIII (872–882) wrote to his legate in Germany and Pannonia, Bishop Paul of Ancona, ordering him to advise King Louis that Pannonia was directly subject to the Holy See (Papacy), and that he should inform Archbishop Alvinus of Salzburg and Bishop Ermericus of Passau that if they should deprive Bishop Methodius of his sacred ministry, the pope would do the same to them.Brackmann, pp. 162-163, no. 12. Friedrich & Zdeněk, Codex diplomaticus et epistolaris regni Bohemiae,, pp. 12-14, no. 18. Ermericus captured Methodius, kept him in prison during the bitter winter, held a meeting of bishops, and would have had Methodius beaten in public, were it not for the intervention of others. Pope John suspended Emericus, and summoned him, along with Bishop Paul and Bishop Methodius, to Rome for trial.Friedrich, & Zdeněk, Codex diplomaticus et epistolaris regni Bohemiae,, p. 15, no. 19: "fratrem et coepiscopum nostrum Methodium carceralibus penis afficiens et sub divo diutius acerrima hiemis et nimborum immanitate castigans atque ab ecclesię sibi commisse regimine subtrahens, et adeo in insaniam veniens, ut in episcoporum concilium tractum equino flagello percuteres, nisi prohiberetur ab aliis." He died on 2 January 874.Hansiz I, p. 162.
The Magyars made their first incursions into northern Italy in 899; in 900, they made their first raids into Bavaria.R.E.Dupuy & T.N. Dupuy, The Encyclopedia of Military History, second revised edition (New York: Harper & Row 1985), p. 254. In July 900, Archbishop Dietmar of Salzburg, Bishops Waldo of Frising, Erchanbald of Eichstatt, Zacharias of Säben-Brixen, Tuto of Ratisbon, and Richarius of Passau, sent a letter of complaint to Pope John IX.Pope John had died in January 900. J.N.D. Kelly & M.J. Walsh, Oxford Dictionary of Popes, second edition (Oxford: OUO 2010), p. 116. They wrote that three bishops had come into the diocese of Passau from Moravia, Archbishop John and Bishops Benedict and Daniel, and had consecrated an archbishop and three bishops without the knowledge of the archbishop of Salzburg or the consent of the bishop of Passau. They reminded the pope of the good deeds of the kings of the Franks toward his predecessors; they refuted the charges of the Slavs; and they advised the pope not to believe the lies that they were telling about the Bavarian bishops.Brackmann, p. 163, no. 14. Hansiz I, p. 174.Ernst Dümmler, Geschichte des ostfränkischen Reiches: Bd. Die Letzten Karolinger. Konrad I, (Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot, 1888), pp. 511-515.
Passau, the outermost eastern bulwark of the Germans, suffered most from the incursions of the Hungarians. At that time many churches and monasteries were destroyed. The canons of Passau suffered especially great losses. On 12 August 903, therefore, at the request of Counts Arbo and Engilmar, vassals of the Church of Passau, and with the consent of Bishop Burchard, King Louis IV agreed to the transfer of loca in Innveiertel, along with their decima and other appurtenances, which had previously been given as benefices by the bishop, to the power of the canons.Erich Trinks, Urkundenbuch Des Landes Ob Der Enns, , Volume 2 (Vienna 1856), pp. 47-48, no. XXXV. This is the earliest clear mention of the canons of Passau as a single body.Brackmann, p. 174. Johann Doll, Die Anfänge der altbayerischen Domkapitel , (München: J. Lindauer'sche Buchhandlung (Schöpping), 1907), pp. 52-56. Additional invasions by Hungarians, usually damaging Passau, occurred in the incursion into Alemannia in 915 and 917, when Basel was destroyed and Alsace devastated; 921, centered on Thuringia and Saxony; 924, in which Franconia suffered; 925 in which Bavaria and Alemannia were attacked; and 926, when incursions reached Gallia.Hansiz I, p. 187.
When, after the victory the Battle of Lechfeld, the Germans pressed forward and regained the old Ostmark, Bishop Adalbert (946-971) hoped to extend his spiritual jurisdiction over Hungary. He was present at the Council of Ingelheim in 948, and his title is given as "bishop", not "archbishop."Hansiz I, p. 200.
Bishop Pilgrim His successor, Bishop Piligrim (971-991), who worked successfully for the Christianization of Pannonia, aspired to free Passau from the metropolitan authority of Salzburg, but was completely frustrated in this, as well as in his attempt to assert the metropolitan claims which Passau was supposed to have inherited from Lorch, and to include all Hungary in his diocese. By founding many monasteries in his diocese he prepared the way for the princely power of later bishops. He also built many new churches and restored others from ruins.Hansiz I, pp. 203-229.
Princes of the Empire