Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 5.djvu/592

 ERLAU

522

ERMLAND

(Gotha. 1860): Huber, Johannes Scotus Brigena (Munich, 1861): Draske, Johannes Scotus Erigena, etc. {Leipzig, 1902): ScHMiTT. Zwei noch unbcnittztc Handschriflen des J. S. E. (Bam- berg, 1900): NoACK, Johannes Scotus Erigena (I.,eipzig, 1876): Saixt-Rexe T.ullandier, Scot Erigene et la phU. scot. (Stras- burg. 1S43); jACqrix, Le neo-platonisme de Jean Scot in Rev. des sciences phil. et thiol., Oct. 1907; Turxeb, Hist, of Phil. (Boston, 1903), 246 sqq.

'U'iLLL\M Turner. Erlau. See Agria.

Ennland, or Ermel.\nd (VAEinENsis, Warmi.^), a district of East Prussia and an exempt bishopric. St. Adalbert of Prague (d. 997) and St. Bruno of Querfurt (d. 1009) converted the early inhabitants of this re- gion, the heathen Prussians, to Christianity and two centuries later Teutonic Knights and members of the Cistercian Order introduced civilization also into the land. Among these latter was the saintly Bishop Christian of OUva (d. 1245). In 1243 the territorial possessions of the Teutonic Ivnights were divided into the Dioceses of Culm, Pomesanien, Ermland, and Sam- land. Albert Suerber, who came from Cologne, and who had been .Archbishop of Armagh, Ireland, was appointed -Archbishop of Prussia. In 1251 he took Riga for his see, a choice which was confirmed by Alexander IV, who in 1255 made Riga the metropoli- tan of the four dioceses just mentioned. A priest of the Order of Teutontic Knights, Heinrich of Strateieh, was selected as the first Bishop of Ermland, but he was not able to enter upon his office. It was not until 28 August, 1251, that the first actual Bishop of Erm- land, Anselm of Meissen, who was also a priest belong- ing to the Order of Teutonic Knights, was consecrated at \'alenciennes by the papal legate Pietro of Albano. The diocese included the whole of the old Prussian dis- tricts of Warmien, Xatangen, Barten, and Galindien, the northern half of Pomesanien and the southern halves of Xadrauen and Sudauen. The bishop was given one-third of tliis territory as personal property for his support, and in this district he was the secular ruler and a prince of the Holy Roman Empire; these rights of the bishop were confirmed in the (jolden Bull of the Emperor Charles IV. In 1260 Bishop Anselm founded a chapter of sixteen canons attached to the cathedral of St. Andreas at Braunsberg and trans- ferred to the chapter the ri,ght of electing the bishop. But Braun.sberg was ravaged by the heathen Prussians in 1262,and the second bishop, Heinrich I (1278-1300), was obliged in 1280 to transfer the chapter to Frauen- burg where it has remained ever since.

From the thirteenth century to the fifteenth the history of Ermland was one of constant wars. Re- peated rebellions of the native Prussians, incursions of the Lithuanians, and frequent wars with Poland, in which the bishop was always the faithful ally of the Teutonic Order, checked the development of Chris- tianity and the cultivation of the soil. To these dis- orders were added the constant encroachments and violence of the Teutonic Knights who sought to bring Ermland, like the other Prussian dioceses, under the dominion of the order. Ermland, however, defended its rights with great determination against such ef- forts, and would not allow the order to influence in any way the election of the bishops and the chapter. Yet in everj'thing else the bishops held faithfully to the order, even when its star began to decline, and the whole territory ruled by the knights revolted in the so-called War of the Cities (1454-(>6). It was in this period that the celebrated Cardinal Enea Silvio de' Piccolomini (^Eneas Silvius) was elected (1457) Bishop of Ermlantl; in the following year, however, he ascended the papal throne as Pius II. The Peace of Thorn (14(ili) removed the diocese from the protector- ate of the Teutonic Knights and placed it under the sovereignty of the King of Poland. This transfer caused the discord to break out afresh, for tlie King of Poland claimed for himself in Ermland the same right he exercised in the rest of his kingdom, that of

naming the bishop. Bishop Xikolaus of Tungen (1467-89) and especially the determined Lukas Wat- zelrode (1489-1512) energetically opposed these un- just claims and guarded the right of a free election of the bishop. In 1512 the latter bishop obtained from Pope Julius II the release of his diocese from its suf- fragan connexion, always a loose one, with the metro- politan See of Riga. When tins relationship was dis- solved Ermland was declared an exempt bishopric and has remained such ever since. Bishop Watzelrode was equally successful in regulating the internal af- fairs of his diocese. On 20 February, 1497, he held a diocesan sj-nod at Heilsberg, where the bishops resided until 1800; in 1503 he made new laws for his domain, reorganized the cathedral school at Frauenburg, se- lecting for it excellent teachers, among whom was his celeljrated nephew Copernicus, published the Breviary (Xuremberg, 1494) and the Missal (Strasburg, 1497), etc. His weak successor Fabian of Lozainen (1512- 23), however, in the Treaty of Piotrkow (7 December, 1512), conceded to the King of Poland a limited influ- ence in the election of bishops. Existing conditions were, however, entirely changed by the defection to Protestantism of Albrecht of Brandenburg, Grand Master of the Teutonic ICnights, and the two bishops of the order who ruled Samland and Pomesanien, and the secularization of the domiii.on of the order by the Peace of Cracow (1525). Two-tliirds of the former 220 parishes of Ermland went to the two apostate bishops. In these troubled times excellent episcopal rulers saved the diocese from complete defection; among these bishops was the energetic iloriz Ferber (1523-37), who by the ordinances Issued in 1526 re- stored order to his desolated territory; another such bishop was Joannes Dantiscus (1537-48), a noted poet and diplomat, who conscientiously fulfilled his duties as bishop and raised the intellectual life of his clergy (concerning Dantiscus cf. Czaplicki, De vita et carminibus J. de Curiis Dantisci. Brcslau, 1855; Geist- liche Gedichte des Dantiscus ubersetzt und heraus- gegeben von Franz Hipler, Miinster, 1857).

But the bishops who deserve the greatest praise for holding the diocese to the Catholic Faith when threat- ened by the surrounding Protestantism were Stanis- laus Hosius (1551-79), later a cardinal, who was distin- guished for learning and virtue, and Martin Ivromer (1579-89), a noted historian. Among the means suc- cessfully used for the maintenance of the Faith were the assembling of various diocesan ST,mods, of which the most important was the one held by Hosius in 1565 for the purpose of carrying out the decisions of the Council of Trent ; yearly visitations, and above all the founding of the Jesuit College at Braunsberg in 1565 [cf. Duhr, Geschichte der Jesuiten in den Liindern deutscher Zunge (Freiburg im Br.. 1907), I, 179 sqq., 307 sqq.]. In addition to these the Congregation of St. Catherine (Katharinerinnen), founded at Brauns- berg in 1571 by Regina Prothmann, did effective work in the instruction and training of girls; since the an- nulment of the right of teaching at tlie time of the Kultiirkampf the congregation has devoted itself almost entirely to the nursing of the sick. In the seventeenth century (1626-30, 165.5-56), and at the beginning of the eighteenth century (1703-09), the diocese was repeatedlj' ravaged by the Swedes, who forcibly suppressed the Catholic Church services and carried away its literary and artistic treasures. At the time of the First Partition of Poland (1772) the whole of Ermland fell to the share of the Kingdom of Prussia. In the Treaty of Warsaw (18 September, 1773), King Friedrich II, it is true, guaranteed the statwi quo and the free exercise of religion for the Cath- olics of the annexed provinces, nevertheless all schools and institutions for education and training under re- ligious control were gradually suppressed, and the landed property of the Church secularized.

The Bull "De salute animarum", of 16 July, 1820,