A Diocesan Administrator (also known as archdiocesan administrator, archiepiscopal administrator and eparchial administrator for the case, respectively, of an archdiocese, archeparchy, and eparchy) is a provisional ordinary of a Catholic particular church.
The college of consultors elects an administrator within eight days after the see is known to be vacant. [1] The college must elect as administrator a priest, bishop, or archbishop at least 35 years old. [2] If the college of consultors fails to elect a priest of the required minimum age within the time allotted, the choice of an administrator passes to the metropolitan archbishop or, if the metropolitan see is vacant, to the senior by appointment of the suffragan bishops of the ecclesiastical province. [3]
If a diocese has a coadjutor bishop, the coadjutor succeeds immediately to the episcopal see upon the previous (arch)bishop's death or resignation, and there is no vacancy of the see. The see also does not become vacant if the Pope appoints an apostolic administrator.
Before the election of the administrator of a vacant see, the governance of the see is entrusted, with the powers of a vicar general, to the auxiliary bishop, if there is one, or to the senior among them, if there are several, otherwise to the college of consultors as a whole. The administrator has greater powers, essentially those of a bishop or archbishop except for matters excepted by the nature of the matter or expressly by law. [4] Canon law subjects his activity to various legal restrictions and to special supervision by the college of consultors (as for example canons 272 and 485). The administrator remains in charge until a new bishop or archbishop is installed into office ending the sede vacante period or until he presents his resignation to the college of consultors. [5]
Some (arch)bishops ruled more than one (arch)bishopric for long. In any beside their primary (arch)bishopric, they would have to be called an administrator. Nevertheless, in local tradition often they are called (arch)bishops in all their (arch)bishoprics.
An episcopal conference can transfer the functions of the consultors to the cathedral chapter. [6] In those countries in which the episcopal conference has transferred the functions, the cathedral chapter, and not the consultors, elect the administrator. [7] Capitular election was the default rule before the adoption of the 1983 Code of Canon Law; [8] this old default rule is reflected in the term for the equivalent of an administrator in the 1917 code: vicar capitular.
Since the Investiture Controversy in 11th and 12th centuries the cathedral chapters used to elect the Catholic bishops in the Holy Roman Empire. Prince-bishoprics were elective monarchies of imperial immediacy within the Empire, with the monarch being the respective bishop usually elected by the chapter and confirmed by the Holy See, or exceptionally only appointed by the Holy See. Papally confirmed bishops were then invested by the emperor with the princely regalia, thus the title prince-bishop. However, sometimes the respective incumbent of the see never gained a papal confirmation, but was still invested with the princely power. Also the opposite occurred with a papally confirmed bishop, never invested as prince.
Candidates elected, who lacked canon law prerequisites and/or papal confirmation, would officially only hold the title diocesan/archdiocesan administrator (but nevertheless colloquially be referred to as prince-bishop). This was the case with Catholic candidates, who were elected for an episcopal see with its revenues as a mere appanage and with all Protestant candidates, who all lacked either the necessary vocational training or the papal confirmation.
With many capitulars converting to Lutheranism or Calvinism during the Reformation, the majorities in many chapters consisted of Protestant capitulars. So they then also elected Protestants as bishops, who usually were denied papal confirmation. However, in the early years of Reformation, with the schism not yet fully implemented, it was not always obvious, who tended to Protestantism, so that some candidates only turned out to be Protestants after they had been papally confirmed as bishop and imperially invested as prince. Later, when Protestants were usually denied papal confirmation, the emperors nevertheless invested the unconfirmed candidates as princes - by a so-called liege indult (German : Lehnsindult) - due to political coalitions and conflicts within the empire, in order to gain candidates as imperial partisans.
Many Protestant candidates, elected by the capitulars, neither achieved papal confirmation nor a liege indult, but nevertheless, as a matter of fact held de facto princely power. This was because the emperor would have to use force to bar the candidates from ruling, with the emperors lacking the respective power or pursuing other goals. A similar situation was in a number of imperially immediate abbeys with their prince-abbots and princess-abbesses.
Unconfirmed incumbents of the sees were called Elected Bishops or Elected Archbishops. The information that Protestant clerical rulers would generally have been called administrators, as written in several encyclopedias, does not fit historically documented practice. [9] In their dioceses as well as in their territories, they had almost the same power as Catholic prince-bishops. However, one common restriction was that administered prince-bishoprics were denied to emit their deputies to the diets of the Empire or of the imperial circles (German : Reichstag, or Kreistag, respectively). This restriction was abandoned by the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, when the emperor accepted Protestant administrators as fully empowered rulers. However, the Peace also secularised many of the prior Protestant prince-bishoprics and transformed them into hereditary monarchies.
Prince-bishoprics, which were ruled by Protestants, were the following:
The Prince-Archbishopric of Bremen — not to be confused with the modern Archdiocese of Hamburg, founded in 1994 — was an ecclesiastical principality (787–1566/1648) of the Holy Roman Empire and the Catholic Church that after its definitive secularization in 1648 became the hereditary Duchy of Bremen. The prince-archbishopric, which was under the secular rule of the archbishop, consisted of about a third of the diocesan territory. The city of Bremen was de facto and de jure not part of the prince-archbishopric. Most of the prince-archbishopric lay rather in the area to the north of the city of Bremen, between the Weser and Elbe rivers. Even more confusingly, parts of the prince-archbishopric belonged in religious respect to the neighbouring Diocese of Verden, making up 10% of its diocesan territory.
The Archbishopric of Magdeburg was a Latin Catholic archdiocese (969–1552) and Prince-Archbishopric (1180–1680) of the Holy Roman Empire centered on the city of Magdeburg on the Elbe River.
Sede vacante refers, in the Canon Law of the Catholic Church, to the state during which a diocese or archdiocese is without a prelate installed in office, with the prelate's office being the cathedral. The term is used frequently in reference to papal vacancies occurring upon the Pope's death or resignation.
Karl Theodor Anton Maria von Dalberg was a Catholic German bishop and statesman. In various capacities, he served as Prince-Archbishop of Regensburg, Arch-Chancellor of the Holy Roman Empire, Bishop of Constance and Worms, Prince-Primate of the Confederation of the Rhine and Grand Duke of Frankfurt. Dalberg was the last Archbishop-Elector of Mainz.
The term Stift is derived from the verb stiften and originally meant 'a donation'. Such donations usually comprised earning assets, originally landed estates with serfs defraying dues or with vassal tenants of noble rank providing military services and forwarding dues collected from serfs. In modern times the earning assets could also be financial assets donated to form a fund to maintain an endowment, especially a charitable foundation. When landed estates, donated as a Stift to maintain the college of a monastery, the chapter of a collegiate church or the cathedral chapter of a diocese, formed a territory enjoying the status of an imperial state within the Holy Roman Empire then the term Stift often also denotes the territory itself. In order to specify this territorial meaning the term Stift is then composed with hoch as the compound Hochstift, denoting a prince-bishopric, or Erzstift for a prince-archbishopric.
The Diocese of Halberstadt was a Roman Catholic diocese from 804 until 1648. From 1180, the bishops or administrators of Halberstadt ruled a state within the Holy Roman Empire, the prince-bishopric of Halberstadt. The diocesan seat and secular capital was Halberstadt in present-day Saxony-Anhalt.
The Archdiocese of Wrocław is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or archdiocese of the Catholic Church centered in the city of Wrocław in Poland. From its founding as a bishopric in 1000 until 1821, it was under the Archbishopric of Gniezno in Greater Poland. From 1821 to 1930 it was subjected directly to the Apostolic See. Between 1821 and 1972 it was officially known as (Arch)Diocese of Breslau.
The Diocese of Ratzeburg is a former diocese of the Catholic Church. It was erected from the Diocese of Oldenburg c. 1050 and was suppressed in 1554. The diocese was originally a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Hamburg; in 1072 it became a suffragan of the merged entity — the "Archdiocese of Hamburg and the Diocese of Bremen". The territory of the diocese was located in what is today the states of Schleswig-Holstein and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in Germany. The cathedral church of the diocese — dedicated to Ss. Mary and John — is still extant in the city of Ratzeburg. Following its suppression as part of the Protestant Reformation, the remaining Catholic adherents were only represented by the Apostolic Vicariate of Northern Germany. The whole territory of the diocese is today included in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Hamburg.
The Prince-Bishopric of Osnabrück was an ecclesiastical principality of the Holy Roman Empire from 1225 until 1803. It should not be confused with the Diocese of Osnabrück, which was larger and over which the prince-bishop exercised only the spiritual authority of an ordinary bishop. It was named after its capital, Osnabrück.
The Prince-Bishopric of Ratzeburg was an ecclesiastical principality of the Holy Roman Empire that was located in what is today the states of Schleswig-Holstein and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in Germany. It was established in 1236 and disestablished following the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. The state capital was the city of Ratzeburg. The Diocese of Ratzeburg had originally been established as a diocese of the Catholic Church in the 11th century but had fallen into abeyance; as a result of the Wendish Crusade, the diocese was re-created in the middle of the 12th century. The territory of the prince-bishopric was managed by secular lords on behalf of the Bishop of Ratzeburg. As a Prince-Bishopric of the Empire, the territory of the state was not identical with that of the bishopric, but was located within its boundaries and made up about a quarter of the diocesan area. When the Prince-Bishopric was disestablished, a new entity was established — the Principality of Ratzeburg. The principality became an exclave of the Duchy of Mecklenburg-Strelitz.
The Prince-Bishopric of Lübeck, was an ecclesiastical principality of the Holy Roman Empire until 1803. Originally ruled by Roman-Catholic bishops, after 1586 it was ruled by lay administrators and bishops who were members of the Protestant Holstein-Gottorp line of the House of Oldenburg. The prince-bishops had seat and vote on the Ecclesiastical Bench of the College of Ruling Princes of the Imperial Diet.
The Diocese of Görlitz is a Latin Church diocese of the Catholic church in Germany. The current ordinary is Wolfgang Ipolt
The Prince-Bishopric of Verden was an ecclesiastical principality of the Holy Roman Empire that was located in what is today the state of Lower Saxony in Germany. Verden had been a diocese of the Catholic Church since the middle of the 8th century. The state was disestablished in 1648. The territory was managed by secular lords on behalf of the Bishop of Verden. As a Prince-Bishopric of the Empire, the territory of the state was not identical with that of the bishopric, but was located within its boundaries and made up about a quarter of the diocesan area. By the terms of the Peace of Westphalia, the Prince-Bishopric was disestablished and a new entity was established, the Duchies of Bremen and Verden.
Henry of Saxe-Lauenburg was a Prince-Archbishop of Bremen, then Prince-Bishop of Osnabrück, then Prince-Bishop of Paderborn.
The Diocese and Prince-bishopric of Schwerin was a Catholic diocese in Schwerin, Mecklenburg, in Germany. The first registered bishop was ordained in the diocese in 1053, and the diocese ceased to exist in 1994.
The Diocese of Verden was a diocese of the Catholic Church. It was founded around AD 768 as a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Mainz. It was suppressed in 1648 as part of the Peace of Westphalia. The diocese was centered on the city of Verden an der Aller in what is today the state of Lower Saxony, Germany. The cathedral church of the diocese was dedicated to Ss Mary and Cecilia in 1028 but the building was only completed in 1490. The Bishop of Verden was also, ex officio, the ruler of a principality of the Holy Roman Empire — the Prince-Bishopric of Verden. The territory of the diocese was not identical with that of the prince-bishopric; while the state was located within the boundaries of the diocese, it amounted to less than a quarter of the diocesan territory. Its last bishop was Franz Wilhelm, Count von Wartenberg. Following the Thirty Years' War, Verden, along with the neighbouring sees of Minden and Bremen, fell into the hands of Protestants. Wartenberg was only able to retain the See of Osnabrück.
