In the

Holy Roman Empire The Holy Roman Empire was a political entity in Western, Central, and Southern Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its dissolution in 1806 during the Napoleonic Wars. From the accession of Otto I in 962 ...

and the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

, the German term (plural: ) referred to the territory ruled by a

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 c ...

as a

prince A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. T ...

(i.e. prince-bishop), as opposed to his

diocese 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 associa ...

, generally much larger and over which he exercised only spiritual authority. The terms prince-bishopric (, or simply ) and ecclesiastical principality are synonymous with . and referred respectively to the territory (prince-archbishopric) ruled by a prince-archbishop and an elector-archbishop while referred to the territory ruled by an imperial

abbot Abbot is an ecclesiastical title given to the male head of a monastery in various Western religious traditions, including Christianity. The office may also be given as an honorary title to a clergyman who is not the head of a monastery. The ...

or abbess, or a princely abbot or abbess. was also often used to refer to any type of ecclesiastical principality. The was made of land mostly acquired in the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

through donations by the king/emperor, bequests by local lords or through purchase. It was often made of non-contiguous parts, some of which could be located outside the bishop's diocese. While a diocese is a spiritual territorial jurisdiction, a prince-bishopric or was a

secular Secularity, also the secular or secularness (from Latin ''saeculum'', "worldly" or "of a generation"), is the state of being unrelated or neutral in regards to religion. Anything that does not have an explicit reference to religion, either negativ ...

territorial jurisdiction, a

fiefdom A fief (; la, feudum) was a central element in medieval contracts based on feudal law. It consisted of a form of property holding or other rights granted by an overlord to a vassal, who held it in fealty or "in fee" in return for a form of f ...

created and granted by the Holy Roman Emperor. Exercising a double function, an ecclesiastical and a secular one, the prince-bishops were thus subject to two different legal bases and two jurisdictions. The relationship between the two functions was governed in part by the Concordat of Worms of 1122. The prince-bishop, elected by the canons of the cathedral chapter and often belonging to the high nobility, enjoyed

imperial immediacy Imperial immediacy (german: Reichsfreiheit or ') was a privileged constitutional and political status rooted in German feudal law under which the Imperial estates of the Holy Roman Empire such as Imperial cities, prince-bishoprics and secular pri ...

; he wielded the same authority over his principality as any secular prince, such as a

duke Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, they are rank ...

or a

margrave Margrave was originally the medieval title for the military commander assigned to maintain the defence of one of the border provinces of the Holy Roman Empire or of a kingdom. That position became hereditary in certain feudal families in the Em ...

, over his. He had seat and vote at the Imperial Diet. From a high of approximately 40 in the

late Middle Ages The Late Middle Ages or Late Medieval Period was the period of European history lasting from AD 1300 to 1500. The Late Middle Ages followed the High Middle Ages and preceded the onset of the early modern period (and in much of Europe, the Renai ...

, the number of was down to 26 by the late 18th century. They had all been secularized and their territory absorbed by secular states by the time the Holy Roman Empire was dissolved in 1806.

Etymology and related and derived terms

''Das

Stift The term (; nl, sticht) is derived from the verb (to donate) and originally meant 'a donation'. Such donations usually comprised earning assets, originally landed estates with serfs defraying dues (originally often in kind) or with vassal tenan ...

'' lural: ''die Stifte'' or, in some regions, ''die Stifter''''het sticht''

n Dutch N, or n, is the fourteenth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''en'' (pronounced ), plural ''ens''. History ...

(literally, the "donation"), denotes in its original meaning the donated or else acquired fund of estates whose revenues are taken to maintain a

college A college (Latin: ''collegium'') is an educational institution or a constituent part of one. A college may be a degree-awarding tertiary educational institution, a part of a collegiate or federal university, an institution offerin ...

and the pertaining church (''Stiftskirche'', i.e. collegiate church) and its collegiate canons (''Stiftsherr n') or canonesses (''Stiftsfrau n').Victor Dollmayr, Friedrich Krüer, Heinrich Meyer and Walter Paetzel, '' Deutsches Wörterbuch'' (started by the

Brothers Grimm The Brothers Grimm ( or ), Jacob (1785–1863) and Wilhelm (1786–1859), were a brother duo of German academics, philologists, cultural researchers, lexicographers, and authors who together collected and published folklore. They are among the ...

): 33 vols. (1854–1971), vol. 18 'Stehung–Stitzig', Leipzig: Hirzel, 1941, cols. 2870seq., reprint: Munich: Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag (dtv; No. 5945), 1984. . If the ''Stift'' as a fund served to maintain the specific college of a cathedral (a so-called cathedral chapter) then the ''Stift'' was often called ''das Domstift'' (i.e. cathedral donation und. ''Hochstift'' is a compound with ''hoch'' ("high") used for a prince-bishopric, meaning literally a "high anking ecclesiasticaldonation und of estates. Whereas ''Erzstift'', a compound with ''Erz…'' ("arch ��"), was the corresponding expression for a prince-archbishopric. For the three

prince-elector The prince-electors (german: Kurfürst pl. , cz, Kurfiřt, la, Princeps Elector), or electors for short, were the members of the electoral college that elected the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. From the 13th century onwards, the prin ...

ates of Cologne (''Kurköln''), Mainz (''Kurmainz'') and Trier (''Kurtrier''), which were simultaneously archbishoprics the corresponding term is ''Kurerzstift'' (electorate-archbishopric). The adjective pertaining to ''Stift'' as a territory is ''stiftisch'' (of, pertaining to a prince-bishopric; prince-episcopal). As a compound, the term ''Stift'' today usually takes the copulative "s" when used as a preceding compound,Victor Dollmayr, Friedrich Krüer, Heinrich Meyer and Walter Paetzel, '' Deutsches Wörterbuch'' (started by the

): 33 vols. (1854–1971), vol. 18 'Stehung–Stitzig', Leipzig: Hirzel, 1941, col. 2874, reprint: Munich: Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag (dtv; No. 5945), 1984. . such as in ''Stiftsadel'' (vassal nobility of a prince-bishopric), ''Stiftsamtmann'' (=official of a ''Stift''), ''Stiftsmann'' (plural: ''Stiftsleute''; =vassal tenant of an estate of a StiftVictor Dollmayr, Friedrich Krüer, Heinrich Meyer and Walter Paetzel, '' Deutsches Wörterbuch'' (started by the

): 33 vols. (1854–1971), vol. 18 'Stehung–Stitzig', Leipzig: Hirzel, 1941, cols. 2897seq., reprint: Munich: Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag (dtv; No. 5945), 1984. .), ''Stiftssasse'' (=subject/inhabitant of a prince-bishopric), Stiftsstände (= estates of a prince-bishopric as a realmVictor Dollmayr, Friedrich Krüer, Heinrich Meyer and Walter Paetzel, '' Deutsches Wörterbuch'' (started by the

): 33 vols. (1854–1971), vol. 18 'Stehung–Stitzig', Leipzig: Hirzel, 1941, col. 2900, reprint: Munich: Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag (dtv; No. 5945), 1984. .), or ''Stiftstag'' (diet of the estates of a prince-bishopric). Specific prince-bishoprics were often called ''Hochstift/Erzstift X'', as in '' Hochstift Ermland'' or in '' Erzstift Bremen'', with ''stiftbremisch'' meaning of/pertaining to the Prince-Archbishopric of Bremen, as opposed to ''stadtbremisch'' (of/pertaining to the city of Bremen). By contrast, the spiritual entities, the dioceses, are called ''Bistum'' ("diocese") or ''Erzbistum'' ("archdiocese") in German. The difference between a ''Hochstift/Erzstift'' and a ''Bistum/Erzbistum'' is not always clear to authors so that non-scholarly texts often translate ''Hochstift'' or ''Erzstift'' incorrectly simply as diocese/bishopric or archdiocese/archbishopric, respectively.

Notes

{{Authority control Prince-bishoprics of the Holy Roman Empire Catholic Church and finance