Hochstift Regensburg coat of arms.svg
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In the Holy Roman Empire and the Catholic Church, the
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...
term (plural: ) referred to the territory ruled by a bishop as a prince (i.e. prince-bishop), as opposed to his diocese, 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 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 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 territorial jurisdiction, a fiefdom created and granted by the
Holy Roman Emperor The Holy Roman Emperor, originally and officially the Emperor of the Romans ( la, Imperator Romanorum, german: Kaiser der Römer) during the Middle Ages, and also known as the Roman-German Emperor since the early modern period ( la, Imperat ...
. 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 The Concordat of Worms(; ) was an agreement between the Catholic Church and the Holy Roman Empire which regulated the procedure for the appointment of bishops and abbots in the Empire. Signed on 23 September 1122 in the German city of Worms by P ...
of 1122. The prince-bishop, elected by the canons of the
cathedral chapter According to both Catholic and Anglican canon law, a cathedral chapter is a college of clerics ( chapter) formed to advise a bishop and, in the case of a vacancy of the episcopal see in some countries, to govern the diocese during the vacancy. In ...
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 prin ...
; he wielded the same authority over his
principality A principality (or sometimes princedom) can either be a monarchical feudatory or a sovereign state, ruled or reigned over by a regnant-monarch with the title of prince and/or princess, or by a monarch with another title considered to fall under ...
as any secular prince, such as a duke or a margrave, over his. He had seat and vote at the Imperial Diet. From a high of approximately 40 in the late Middle Ages, 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'' lural: ''die Stifte'' or, in some regions, ''die Stifter''''het sticht'' n Dutch(literally, the "donation"), denotes in its original meaning the donated or else acquired fund of estates whose revenues are taken to maintain a college 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 The ''Deutsches Wörterbuch'' (; "The German Dictionary"), abbreviated ''DWB'', is the largest and most comprehensive dictionary of the German language in existence.Brothers Grimm): 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 According to both Catholic and Anglican canon law, a cathedral chapter is a college of clerics ( chapter) formed to advise a bishop and, in the case of a vacancy of the episcopal see in some countries, to govern the diocese during the vacancy. In ...
) 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 ecclesiastical Anqing (, also Nganking, formerly Hwaining, now the name of Huaining County) is a prefecture-level city in the southwest of Anhui province, People's Republic of China. Its population was 4,165,284 as of the 2020 census, with 804,493 living in the ...
donation und of estates. Whereas ''Erzstift'', a compound with ''Erz…'' ("arch €¦"), was the corresponding expression for a prince-archbishopric. For the three prince-electorates 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 The ''Deutsches Wörterbuch'' (; "The German Dictionary"), abbreviated ''DWB'', is the largest and most comprehensive dictionary of the German language in existence.Brothers Grimm): 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 The ''Deutsches Wörterbuch'' (; "The German Dictionary"), abbreviated ''DWB'', is the largest and most comprehensive dictionary of the German language in existence.Brothers Grimm): 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 The ''Deutsches Wörterbuch'' (; "The German Dictionary"), abbreviated ''DWB'', is the largest and most comprehensive dictionary of the German language in existence.Brothers Grimm): 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 The Prince-Bishopric of Warmia ( pl, Biskupie Księstwo Warmińskie; german: Fürstbistum Ermland) was a semi-independent ecclesiastical state, ruled by the incumbent ordinary of the Warmia see and comprising one third of the then diocesan are ...
'' or in ''
Erzstift Bremen The Prince-Archbishopric of Bremen (german: Fürsterzbistum 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 ...
'', 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