William of Modena - The Bishoprics of Prussia Question

The Bishoprics of Prussia Question

Even while William was negotiating in Livonia, the conflicts were brewing that would occupy him two decades later. In the Crusades to conquer and Christianize Prussia at swordpoint, William of Modena found himself required to mediate between the rival claims and conflicting programs of Christian, the evangelizing first Bishop of Prussia, who, if he had been more successful, would have been sainted, as an "Apostle to the Prussians," and the Knights of the Teutonic Order, to whom Christian and Duke Conrad of Masovia had pledged territorial properties. Before 1227, only Christian's own Cistercian order had assisted him in fortified eastern missions; but with the arrival of the Teutonic Knights, the Dominicans, who were favored by the order and by Pope Gregory IX, took a strong foothold in Prussia, while Christian and his Cistercians were thrown into the background. William of Modena, who had been appointed papal legate for Prussia, disregarded the rights of Christian, who had the misfortune to be captured by the pagan Prussians and held for ransom (1233–39), and proceeded in his absence to appoint another Bishop of Prussia. In 1236, Gregory IX, apparently giving up on Christian, empowered William of Modena to divide Prussia into three dioceses. The bishops for these new sees were, in accordance with the wish of the Teutonic Order, to be selected from the Dominican Order, while no provision whatsoever was made for the imprisoned Bishop Christian.

Finally, in the winter of 1239–40, Christian obtained his liberty. He was obliged to give hostages whom he afterwards ransomed for a sum stated as no less than eight hundred marks, which was granted to him by Gregory. Immediately upon his liberation, Christian complained to the pope that the Teutonic Order refused baptism to those who desired it and oppressed the newly converted. More concrete charges concerned episcopal rights that they claimed and properties they refused to restore. The confrontation had not been settled when Gregory died (22 August 1241). Christian and the Teutonic Order then agreed that two thirds of the conquered territory in Prussia should belong to the Order, to form a Teutonic Order state, and one-third to the bishop; that, moreover, the bishop should have the right to exercise ecclesiastical functions in the territory belonging to the Order.

William of Modena did not give up his plans of dividing Prussia into dioceses instead of empowering a vast territorial knightly order. He finally obtained from Pope Innocent IV permission to make a division, and on 29 July 1243, the Bishopric of Prussia was divided into four dioceses:

In 1243 the territorial possessions of the Teutonic Knights were divided into the Dioceses of Culm, Pomesanien, Ermland, and Samland.

• Bishopric of Culm Culm,
• Bishopric of Pomesania Pomesania,
• Bishopric of Ermland Warmia (Ermland), and
• Bishopric of Samland Sambia (Samland, now Kaliningrad),

under the archbishopric of Riga with Visby as mother city to Riga. Both cities joined the Hanseatic League. Christian received for his decades of apostolic labor the privilege to select for himself any one of the four new episcopal sees, a choice he refused.