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 GERMANY

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GERMIA

Germany, Vicariate Apostolic op Northern (Vicariate Apostolic op the Northern Missions). — Its jurisdiction covers the (!rand Duchies of Mecklen- burg-Scliwerin and Mecklenburg-Strehtz, the Princi- pality of Schaumburg-Lippe, the free Hanse towns, Hamburg, Liibeck, and Bremen, the Principahty of Liibeck (capital Eutin), belonging to the Grand Duchy of Oldenburg, and the Island of Helgoland. The Northern Missions, viewed in a wider sense, include also the Prefecture Apostolic of Schleswig-Holstein, coinciding with the Prussian province of that name, which was placed under a separate prelate in 1S6S. Both vicariate and prefecture are under the perma- nent jurisdiction of the Bishop of Osnabriick as admin- istrator Apostolic. In the vicariate Catholics number about 79,400 (.with 1,925,000 members of other con- gregations), under 47 secular priests having care of 17 parishes and 17 mission stations. The following reli- gious congregations have houses in the vicariate : Sisters of Mercy of St. Charles Borromeo, 1; Sisters of St. Eliza- beth (Grey Nuns), 5; Franciscan Sisters, 2; UrsuUnes, 2. The Prefecture Apostolic of Sehlesw'ig-Holstein contains (1909) 11 parishes, .31 mi.ssion stations, 34 secular priests, 3.5,900 Catholics, and 5.50,000 of other beliefs; 4 communities of Sisters of .St. Elizabeth, and 3 of Franciscan nuns. In siunmer the CathoUc popu- lation of the vicariate and prefecture is increased by 17,000 to 20,000 labourers (chiefly Poles) from other parts of Germany, who return to their homes at the beginning of the winter. The spiritual interests of the faithful are inadequately attended to owing to the extent of the parishes, the lack of priests, the poverty of the majority of the Catholics, and, in many places, owing to the intolerance of the Protestant state or municipal governments. A more encouraging picture is presented by the numerous Catholic societies, and by the maintenance of private Catholic schools, despite the fact that the Catholics are often oliliged to contribute also to the support of the state and parish schools. A very fruitful acti%'ity has been developed in these missions by the Boniface Association.

The Reformation in the sixteenth century caused the loss of almost all Northern Germany to the Church. In 15S2 the stray Catholics of Northern Germany, as well as of Sweden, Denmark, and Norway, were placed under the jurisdiction of a papal nuncio in Cologne. The Congregation de propaganda fide, on its establish- ment in 1022, took charge of the vast missonary field, which at its third session it divided among the nimcio of Brussels (Denmark and Norway), the nuncio of Cologne (North Germany), and the nuncio of Poland (Sweden). The scattered Catholics were chiefly con- fided to the Jesuits, Franciscans, and Dominicans. Catholics in many places had at their disposal only the chapels established in the houses of the diplomatic representatives of the emperor, and of the Catholic Powers, France and Spain. Sometimes admission even to these chapels was rendered difficult, or entirely prohibited to native Catholics.

In some districts the conversion of the princes. e. g. Duke Johann Friedrich of Brunswick-Liineburg (1651) and Duke Christian of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (1663), brought Catholics some measure of freedom. The number of Catholics ha\'ing increased in 1667, chiefly through the above-mentioned Duke of Bruns- wick, a ^'icariate .Apostolic was established for North- em Germany. The first vicar was Valerio Maccioni, titu- lar Bishop of Morocco, who resided at Hanover. He died in 1676, and was succeeded by the celebrated Danish convert, Nicolaus Steno, who in 1680 was obliged to leave Hanover, was made Auxiliary Bishop of Munster, and in 1683 returned to the Northern Mis- sions. He died at Schwerin in 1686, and was followed in the vicariate successively by Friedrich von Horde. Auxiliary Bishop of Hildesheim and titular Bishop of Joppe (1686-96), Jobst Edmund von Brabeck, Bishop VI.— 34

of Hildesheim (1697-1702), and Otto von Bronck- horst, Auxiliarj- Bishop of Osnabriick. Owing to its vast extent, the old vicariate .\postolic was di%ided by Pope Clement XI into two \icariates (1709): the Vicariate .\postolic of Hanover (or Upper and Lower Sa.xony), embracing the portions of the old vicariate situated in the Palatinate and Electorates of Branden- burg and Brunswick, which was placed in charge of Agostino Steffani, Bishop of Spiga and minister of the Elector Palatine. as vicar .\postolic; the rest of the orig- inal wariate (Denmark, Sweden, Liibeck, Hamburg, Altona, and Schwerin), which retained the title of Vicariate of the North and was placed under the Aux- iliary Bi.shop of Osnabriick. This di\-ision lasted until 1775. when Friedrich \\'ilhelm von Westfalen, Bishop of Hildesheim, reunited under his administra- tion the vicariates except Norway and Sweden.

The French Revolution and the Napoleonic regime brought great relief to Catholics in many cities and states; but the equality granted them by law in some countries was often merely theoretical. At the re- organization of Catholic affairs in Germany after the Napoleonic era. the Greater part of the Northern Mis- sions was added to adjacent bishoprics. The only dis- tricts remainmg mission territory were the Kingdom of Saxony, the Principality of Anhalt, constituted separate vicariates Apostolic in 1816 and 1825 respec- tively (see Anhalt and Saxony), and the North, which in 1826 was placed temporarily imder the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Paderborn. In 1839 Pope Ciregory XVI wished to entrust the vicariate to a bishop with his see at Hamburg. Johann Theodor Laurent was appointed vicar and consecrated bishop. Protestant opposition prevented the realization of the plan and Laurent was unable to reach Hamburg. The pope thereupon gave the administration of the vicariate to the Auxiliary Bishop of Osnabriick, Karl Anton Liippe (d. 1855). The Bishop of Osnabriick has since then been the regular Vicar Apostolic of the Northern Missions, and administrator of the Prefecture Aposto- lic of Schleswig-Holstein, separated from the vicariate in 1868. In 1869 Denmark was erected into a prefec- ture, and in 1892 into a vicariate.

KuN'KH.ARDT. H ist or is cfi c X'i':krit:hten von zu'ei a-posiolischen Vicarinten in Archi'' >:• /' ' < ' ' /( Vereins von Niedersachsen (1836); Mejer. DiV /', ', re Provinzen und ihr Rechl,

II (Gottingen, 1853 ; i ' ; i - ';■ hichte der katholischen Gfi- meinden zu Hamburg hmt A /,'i ; ■/ i :.'[Ki ed., Schaflhausen, 1866); WoKER, Geschiehie der Aonidfufschen franziskaner-Missioiien der Sdchsischen Ordens-Frovim vom hi. Krenz (Freiburg ini Br., ISSO): Hislorisch-Politische Blatter. XC (Munich, 1882); WoKER. Aus Xord'Jcuf.^rben Missionen des 17. und 18. Jahr- hund'-'. r'^l'L'TM-, 1^^! . li'V.M.Aus den Papieren des kurpfalz- isch'ii V 1 ^'';Jani, Bischofs von Spiga (Cologne.

l.SN." ' ; 1 I •, 1 ^ ni. Bischof von Hpiga i. p. i.,aposto-

lischcr I;... ,.-, Am ,',, irhland 1709-1728 (Cologne. 1886); PlEPER. L)u- I'rnpnganilii-t'ougregation und die nordischen Mis- sionen im 17. Jhdt. (Cologne, 1886); GoyAU, VAllemagne reli- gieuse: le protestanlisme (Paris, 1902), tr. (Einsiedeln, 1905).

Joseph Lins.

Germia, a titular see of Galatia Secunda, a suffra- gan of Pessinus; mentioned by Hierocles in the sixth century (Synec, 698, 4). About 650 it wasalready an autocephalous archdiocese directly dependent on Con- stantinople (Ecthesis pseudo-Epiphanii,ed. Gelzer, n. 51). Itscondition was the same in the ninth century (Georgii Cyprii Descriptio, ed. Gelzer, n. 51), under Emperor Leo the Wise (001-07) (ibid., n. 61); under Constantine PorphjTogenitus (ed. Gelzer, n. 59); and under Alexius I Comnenus after 1084 (ed. Parthey, n. 87). In the time of Michael Pateologus, about 1260, Germia must have been an autocephalous metropol- itan see, such as it was still under Andronicus II, about 1300, and under Andronicus III, about 1330 (ed. Gelzer, n. 80, 89). But the see was soon to disappear. Lequien (Oriens christ., I, 495) knows of four titular Bishops of Germia. From the time of Justinian I (527- 565) the city was entitled MjTiangeloi, on account of a church dedicated to St. Michael and the Holy Angels. Justinian went there to take the baths in 556 (Theo-