Bishopric of Merseburg

Bishopric of Merseburg was a former episcopal see in Saxony with the centre in Merseburg where Merseburg Cathedral was constructed. The see was founded at the same time in the same manner as those of Meissen and Zeitz, as part of a plan to bind the Wendish country on the right bank of the Saale more closely to the Holy Roman Empire (967).

The first bishop was Boso, a monk of Ratisbon, distinguished by his missionary labours among the Wends. His successor Gisiler procured the suppression of the see through Otto II's power over Pope Benedict VII in 981; but this step was so clearly against the interests of the Church that it was revoked in 998 or early in 999 at a Roman synod. The diocese did not, however, recover all its former territory, and was now almost exclusively a missionary jurisdiction among the Wends, who were not fully converted to Christianity until the middle of the 12th century.

The Protestant Reformation was enforced here during the episcopate of Sigismund von Lindenau who was driven out of office after his protector Duke Henry I of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel had been driven out of by the Schmalkaldic League in 1542. The electors of Saxony thereafter installed members of their own family as administrators, and from 1652 to 1738 with members of the family of Duke of Saxe-Merseburg.

At the Congress of Vienna, three-fourths of the diocesan territory was assigned to the Kingdom of Prussia, the rest remaining Saxon; the religious attitude of the people was by that time almost entirely Lutheran.

Bishops of Merseburg

Heinrich von Ammendorf 1283 -1300

Johannes von Bose 23 May 1431 - 3 Oct 1463

Johannes von Werder Jan 1464 - 11 Jul 1466

Thilo von Trotha 21 Jul 1466 - 5 Mar 1514

Adolf von Anhalt-Zerbst 5 Mar 1514 - 23 Mar 1526

Vinzenz von Schleinitz 9 Apr 1526 - 21 Mar 1535

Sigismund von Lindenau 3 Apr 1535 - 4 Jan 1544

Michael Helding 28 May 1549 - 30 Sep 1561

References

•  This article incorporates text from a publication in the public domain: Jackson, Samuel Macauley, ed. (1914). New Schaff–Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge (third ed.). London and New York: Funk and Wagnalls. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)