Bistumswappen of Passau.Bernard von Prambach, also known as Wernhard (around 1220 – 27 July 1313) was the 42nd

Bishop of Passau The Diocese of Passau is a Roman Catholic diocese in Germany that is a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising.Pope Nicholas III Pope Nicholas III ( la, Nicolaus III; c. 1225 – 22 August 1280), born Giovanni Gaetano Orsini, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 25 November 1277 to his death on 22 August 1280. He was a Roman nobleman who ...

in a lawsuit between the abbot of Lilienfeld and the Provost of S. Pölten. Bernhard was elected

bishop A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ca ...

in May 1285, and held a

Synod A synod () is a council of a Christian denomination, usually convened to decide an issue of doctrine, administration or application. The word ''wikt:synod, synod'' comes from the meaning "assembly" or "meeting" and is analogous with the Latin ...

in in 1288. In the first week of July 1288, he consecrated the new abbot of the monastery of Osterhofen, Ulrich von Holzheim; previous to that, the monastery of canons regular had been governed by provosts. He also invited several diocesan controversies among them 1293 (according to which the

clergy Clergy are formal leaders within established religions. Their roles and functions vary in different religious traditions, but usually involve presiding over specific rituals and teaching their religion's doctrines and practices. Some of the ter ...

had to wear simple costumes), in March 1294 in St. Pölten (the plundering and firefights were debated), and again in Passau (1302) on whether St. Gotthard was compulsory for the whole bishopric. From the year 1293 Bernhard paid special attention to the

Cistercian The Cistercians, () officially the Order of Cistercians ( la, (Sacer) Ordo Cisterciensis, abbreviated as OCist or SOCist), are a Catholic religious order of monks and nuns that branched off from the Benedictines and follow the Rule of Saint ...

order. In Engelhartszell, on the estate inherited from his parents, he founded a new

penitentiary A prison, also known as a jail, gaol (dated, standard English, Australian, and historically in Canada), penitentiary (American English and Canadian English), detention center (or detention centre outside the US), correction center, correcti ...

: the Engelszell monastery. In May 1298 the Passau citizenship rose to an insurrection, the object of which was to press for Passau to a

Reichsstadt In the Holy Roman Empire, the collective term free and imperial cities (german: Freie und Reichsstädte), briefly worded free imperial city (', la, urbs imperialis libera), was used from the fifteenth century to denote a self-ruling city that ...

, with which the bishop would have lost his position as a ''Stadtherr''. At the end of November, at the Reichstag in

Münster Münster (; nds, Mönster) is an independent city (''Kreisfreie Stadt'') in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is in the northern part of the state and is considered to be the cultural centre of the Westphalia region. It is also a state distr ...

, the arbitration by

King Albert I Albert I (8 April 1875 – 17 February 1934) was King of the Belgians from 23 December 1909 until his death in 1934. Born in Brussels as the fifth child and second son of Prince Philippe, Count of Flanders and Princess Marie of Hohenzollern-S ...

took place, which caused the insurrection to fail and thus put an end to the aspirations of the Passau citizens to independence. The citizens accepted the conditions of peace - among other things, even the

town hall In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or a municipal building (in the Philippines), is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses ...

fell into the possession of the

- and Bernhard was once again the unqualified master of the city. Nevertheless, on 15 August 1299 he issued the so-called "Bernardine miunicipal charter", a new binding city law, which was very advanced and extended compared to the previous city charter. This new legal system lasted more than 500 years, until 1806. Bishop Bernhard died on 27 July 1313.Eubel I, p. 392. The conversion of the Romanesque

cathedral A cathedral is a church that contains the '' cathedra'' () of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually specific to those Christian denomination ...

, which was damaged by the city fire of 1181, is now largely

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

References

Sources

*
Archived
* Hansiz, Marcus. ''Germaniae sacræ: Metropolis Lauriacensis cum Episcopatu Pataviensi.''
Tomus I
(1727). Augusta Vindelicorum (Augsburg): Happach & Schlüter. {{Authority control 1313 deaths 13th-century Roman Catholic bishops in Bavaria Roman Catholic bishops of Passau 14th-century Roman Catholic bishops in Bavaria Year of birth uncertain