Prince-Bishopric of Warmia
The Archbishopric of Warmia (formerly Bishopric of Warmia) (Polish: Archidiecezja warmińska, Latin: Archidioecesis Varmiensis, German: Erzbistum Ermland) is an archbishopric in Poland. Originally a bishopric created created by a papal legate in the 13th century in the newly conquered territory of Prussia, it was raised to an archbishopric in the 20th century. The name Warmia came from a tribe of Baltic Prussians.
History
Territory of the Teutonic Order, 1242-1266
Along with Culmland, Pomesania and Sambia, Warmia was one of four dioceses created in 1242 by the papal legate William of Modena. All four dioceses came under the rule of the Archbishop of Riga. Warmia later became an exempt bishopric, ruled by prince-bishops. Some of its most notable prince-bishops were Lucas Watzenrode, uncle of the Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus, and Enea Silvio Piccolomini, the later Pope Pius II.
As part of Poland
The Peace of Toruń in 1466 removed the bishopric from the protectorate of the Teutonic Knights and placed it under the sovereignty of the King of Poland. The bishopric was one of the administrative units on the borders of Royal Prussia. This was confirmed in the Treaty of Piotrkow (December 7, 1512), which conceded to the King of Poland a limited influence in the election of bishops. The bishopric became a part of a Polish province of the Catholic Church and bishops were usually Poles. By the late 18th century, the prince-bishop was an ex officio Senator of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
As part of East Prussia
As a result of the First Partition of Poland in 1772, Warmia was incorporated into the Kingdom of Prussia's province of East Prussia. The bishopric ceased to be a governmental unit, and King Frederick II confiscated its property. The last prince-bishop, the noted Polish author Ignacy Krasicki, though deprived of temporal authority, retained influence at the Prussian court before his reappointment as Archbishop of Gniezno in 1795.
Thereafter, the Bishops of Warmia were nominated by the Lutheran Prussian government and Catholic institutions were suppressed. Most bishops appointed after the Partitions of Poland were nationalist Germans who supported the Germanisation policy of the time.
In 1829 the diocese was extended to cover the areas lost during the Reformation, as well as the whole of the former Diocese of Sambia and five deaneries of the former Diocese of Pomesania. In 1854 the country surrounding Kwidzyn was also incorporated to the diocese.
In 1901 the population of the diocese was about 2,000,000, including 327,567 Catholics.
World War II and after
During the Second World War, Nazi Germany engaged in atrocities against the Polish population. Many Warmiaks and Polish intellectuals and activists were murdered, such as Seweryn Pieniężny and Leon Włodarczak.
Maximilian Kaller, the Bishop of Ermland (Warmia), was forced to leave his office by the Nazi Schutzstaffel in February 1945, as the Soviet Red Army advanced into Germany. After the Second World War, the Potsdam Agreement the southern portion of the diocese became Polish, while the northern part found itself in the Soviet Union as part of the Kaliningrad Oblast; the German population was subject to expulsion.
Kaller returned to the region to resume his office of bishop, but the Polish inhabitants were opposed to a German bishop. Cardinal August Hlond prevented Kaller from resuming his duties, and Kaller went to what would become West Germany. In 1946 he received "Special Authority as Bishop for the Deported Germans" from Pope Pius XII.
The office of Bishop of Warmia was left vacant until the appointment of Józef Drzazga in 1972. On March 25 1992, the Bishopric of Warmia was raised to an archbishopric. The current archbishop is Edmund Michał Piszcz.