The Forgeries of Lorch, also known as Lorch Forgeries, is a collection of forged papal bulls completed in the second half of the . It is attributed to the Bishop

Pilgrim of Passau Piligrim (Pilgrim of Passau, Pilegrinus, Peregrinus) (died 20 May 991) was Bishop of Passau. Piligrim was ambitious, but also concerned with the Christianization of Hungary. He was educated at the Benedictine Niederaltaich Abbey, and was made bis ...

in 971 to 991 and contained forged epistles that dealt with the definition of the bishopric's jurisdiction.

Background

Most specialists agree that the collection of documents, known as the ''Forgeries of Lorch'', was completed for Pilgrim, who was made

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.Archbishop of Salzburg The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Salzburg ( la, Archidioecesis Salisburgensis) is an archdiocese of the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church in Austria. The archdiocese is one of two Austrian archdioceses, serving alongside the Archdiocese of ...

for the ecclesiastic jurisdiction in Pannonia, Pilgrim forged the papal bulls. The earliest of the bulls was attributed to the 4th-century

Pope Symmachus Pope Symmachus (died 19 July 514) was the bishop of Rome from 22 November 498 to his death. His tenure was marked by a serious schism over who was elected pope by a majority of the Roman clergy. Early life He was born on the Mediterranean islan ...

. Pilgrim believed that

Lauriacum Map of the Danubeian Limes. Reconstruction of the camp and adjoining oppidium.Lauriacum was an important legionary Roman town on the Danube Limes in Austria. History Roman Era Where only a small Roman settlement was located at a ford over the ...

(now Lorch in Enns in Austria) was the

metropolitan see Metropolitan may refer to: * Metropolitan area, a region consisting of a densely populated urban core and its less-populated surrounding territories * Metropolitan borough, a form of local government district in England * Metropolitan county, a t ...

of the

Diocese of Pannonia The Diocese of Pannonia ( la, Dioecesis Pannoniarum, lit. "Diocese of the Pannonias"), from 395 known as the Diocese of Illyricum, was a diocese of the Late Roman Empire. The seat of the ''vicarius'' (governor of the diocese) was Sirmium. Hist ...

in the Roman Empire. He also thought that the

see See or SEE may refer to: * Sight - seeing Arts, entertainment, and media * Music: ** ''See'' (album), studio album by rock band The Rascals *** "See", song by The Rascals, on the album ''See'' ** "See" (Tycho song), song by Tycho * Television * ...

had been moved from Lauriacum to Passau.

Documents

Pilgrim's forgeries include six papal documents falsified or corrupted by Bishop

between 971 and 985 as scribes of the royal firm, a letter from the bishop to Pope Benedict VI or Benedict VII. There were also two alleged letters of Archbishop Hatto from Mainz to an unnamed Pope. A total of five papal bulls were forged and one of the letters from Hatto of Mainz to an unknown Pope, attempted to prove that Lorch was an archiepiscopal see before

Salzburg Salzburg (, ; literally "Salt-Castle"; bar, Soizbuag, label=Bavarian language, Austro-Bavarian) is the List of cities and towns in Austria, fourth-largest city in Austria. In 2020, it had a population of 156,872. The town is on the site of the ...

. Pilgrim's counterfeits, were to make the diocese of Passau the legal successor to the ancient archbishopric of

, thus establishing the rank of an

archbishopric In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associate ...

. This

late antique Late antiquity is the time of transition from classical antiquity to the Middle Ages, generally spanning the 3rd–7th century in Europe and adjacent areas bordering the Mediterranean Basin. The popularization of this periodization in English has ...

bishopric Lauriacum (

Lorch, Austria Lorch is a district of the city of Enns in the district of Linz-Land in Upper Austria.Otto Winkler, St.Laurenz-Basilika zu Enns-Lorch. Kirchenführer, Hrsg.: Pfarramt St. Laurenz, Enns. Kunstverlag Hofstetter, Ried im Innkreis, 1990. It is at 48° ...

) was mentioned in the

Vita Sancti Severini Vita or VITA (plural vitae) is Latin for "life", and may refer to: * ''Vita'', the usual start to the title of a biography in Latin, by which (in a known context) the work is often referred to; frequently of a saint, then called hagiography * Vita ...

. One of the specific contents involved the claim that

Saint Peter Saint Peter; he, שמעון בר יונה, Šimʿōn bar Yōnāh; ar, سِمعَان بُطرُس, translit=Simʿa̅n Buṭrus; grc-gre, Πέτρος, Petros; cop, Ⲡⲉⲧⲣⲟⲥ, Petros; lat, Petrus; ar, شمعون الصفـا, Sham'un ...

sent missionaries to convert Lorch in the year 47 and establish a see. Furthermore, the documents also indicated that Passau be endowed with a vast archdiocese, immense property, and no less than twenty-two suffragan bishoprics including Grado, Wurzburg, and

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

References

Sources

* * Document forgeries {{RC-stub