Paderborn

The first church at Paderborn was founded in 777, when Charlemagne held a diet there. It is certain that Paderborn was a bishopric in 805 or 806; the bishop was Hathumar, a Saxon (d. 815). Before this Paderborn was under the Diocese of Würzburg. The Diocese of Paderborn then included the larger part of Lippe, Waldeck, and nearly half of the former Countship of Ravensberg.

St. Badurad (815-62) completed the cathedral, encouraged the building of the cathedral school, and the establishment of several monasteries. He received from Louis the Pious special protection for his diocese, which was benefited financially, in that henceforward it received all the court fees. When the bishops received the countship is unknown, but this was confirmed to Bishop Liuthard (862-86) in 881 by King Louis. Otto II bestowed the right to a free election of bishops upon Bishop Folkmar in 974 (d. 981). In 1000 the cathedral was burnt; Rethgar (d. 1009) began a new cathedral, completed by his successor, Meinwerk. The latter established the Benedictine Monastery of Abdinghof at Paderborn, founded a diocesan college at Busdorf, and improved the cathedral school. During the Strife of Investitures, Poppo (1076-83) was first an adherent of the emperor, later of the pope. Heinrich I, Count of Assel, elected bishop under the protection of the opposing King Hermann, in 1090 was exiled by the Emperor Henry IV, and fled to Magdeburg, where in 1102 he was elected archbishop. The See of Paderborn was occupied by Heinrich II, Count of Werl-Arnsberg, who had had himself installed in 1084 at Rome as bishop by Henry IV, and who had helped in the expulsion of Heinrich I. He received the papal sanction in 1106. Bernhard II, Lord of Oesede (1127-60), restored the cathedral (burnt in 1133).

Siegfried (1178-80) lived to see the downfall of Henry the Lion, Duke of Saxony. The rights which the old dukedom had exercised over Paderborn were transferred to the Archbishop of Cologne. The claims of the archbishops of Cologne were settled in the thirteenth century, almost wholly in favor of Paderborn. Under Bernhard II of Ibbenbüren (1198-1204) the bailiwick over the diocese, which since the middle of the eleventh century had been held as a fief by the Counts of Arnsberg, returned to the bishops. This was an important advance in the development of the bishops' position as temporal sovereigns. From this time on the bishops did not grant the bailiwick as a fief, but managed it themselves, and had themselves represented in the government by one of their clergy. They strove successfully to obtain the bailiwicks over the abbeys and monasteries situated in their diocese. During the reign of Bernhard IV (1228-47). The Minorites settled in the diocese. Under him the community life of the cathedral canons ceased completely, and the canons, twenty-four in number, shared with the bishop the property, archdiaconates, and obediences (1231).

Simon I, Lord of Lippe (1247-77), was engaged in struggles with Cologne; Otto von Rietberg had also to contend with Cologne; in 1281, when only bishop-elect, he received the regalia from Rudolph of Habsburg, and full judicial power (except penal judicature); henceforward the bishops were actual sovereigns, though not over the whole of their diocese. Bernhard V of Lippe (1321-41) had to acknowledge the city of Paderborn as free from his judicial supremacy. Heinrich III Spiegel zum Desenberg (1361-80), also Abbot of Corvey, left his spiritual functions to a suffragan; in 1371 he rebuilt the Burg Neuhaus at Paderborn. Simon II, Count of Sternberg (1380-89), involved the bishopric in feuds with the nobility, who after his death devastated the country. Wilhelm Heinrich van Berg, elected 1399, sought to remedy the evils which had crept in during the foregoing feuds, but when in 1414 he interested himself in the vacancy in the Archbishopric of Cologne, the cathedral chapter in his absence chose Dietrich von Mörs (1415-63). The wars of Dietrich, also Archbishop of Cologne, brought heavy debts upon the bishopric; during the feuds of the bishop with the city of Soest (1444-49) Paderborn was devastated. The reign of Simon III of Lippe (1463-89) was occupied with the correction of Church discipline. Herman I, Landgrave of Hesse (1495-1508), was an excellent ruler.

Under Erich, Duke of Brunswick-Grubenhagen (1502-32), the Reformation obtained a foothold in the diocese, although the bishop remained loyal to the Church. Hermann von Wied (1532-47), also Archbishop of Cologne, sought to introduce the new teaching at Paderborn as well as Cologne, but he was opposed by all classes. The countships of Lippe, Waldeck, and Pyrmont, the part of the diocese in the Countship of Ravensberg, and most of the parishes on the right bank of the Weser became protestant. After the removal of Hermann von Wied, Paderborn had three active Catholic bishops: Rembert von Kerrsenbrock (1547-68), Johann II von Hoya (1568-1574) published the Tridentine Decrees, and Salentin, Count of Isenberg (1574-77), also archbishop of Cologne. Heinrich IV, Duke of Saxe-Lauenburg (1577-85), was a Lutheran; he permitted the adoption of the Augsberg Confession by his subjects. Apostasy from the Church made such advances that in the city of Paderborn only the cathedral and the Monastery of Abdinghof remained faithful. To save the Catholic cause, the cathedral chapter summoned the Jesuits to Paderborn in 1580. Theodor von Fürstenberg (1585-1618) restored the practice of the Catholic religion, built a gymnasium for the Jesuits, and founded the University of Paderborn in 1614.

Ferdinand I of Bavaria (1618-50) was not able to save the bishopric from the horrors of the Thirty Years' Was. Theodor Adolf von der Reck (1650-91) tried to repair the damages of the war. Ferdinand II von Fürstenberg (1661-83), poet, historian, scholar, and promoter of the arts and sciences, founded the "Ferdinandea", for the support of thirteen missionaries for the northern Vicariate. Hermann Werner (1683-1704) and his nephew Franz Arnold (1704-18) were admirable prelates. Under Klemens August of Bavaria (1719-61), the Seven Years' War wrought great damage. Wilhelm Anton von der Asseberg (1763-82) founded a seminary for priests in 1777. Franz Egon von Fürstenberg (1789-1825) lived to see the secularization of nearly all the chapters and monasteries in his diocese. The territory of the diocese went to Prussia, the bishop became a prince of the empire; but his spiritual jurisdiction was untouched. He saw the enlargement of his diocese, resulting from the Bull "De Salute Animarium", 16 July, 1821, which extended Paderborn, and placed it under Cologne.

Friedrich Klemens von Ledebur-Wicheln (1826-41) divided the diocese into deaneries. Konrad Martin (1856-79) held a diocesan synod in 1867, and took part in the Vatican Council. In the Kulturkampf he stood firmly for the freedom of the Church, suffered many penalties, and died an exile in Belgium. Franz Kaspar Drobe (1882-91) revived the institutions for the education of priests. Hubertus Simar (1891-1900) rebuilt the theological seminary in 1895 and became Archbishop of Cologne in 1900; Wilhelm Schneider (1900-09) was a philosopher and theologian; Karl Joseph Schulte, formerly Professor of Apologetics and Canon Law in Paderborn, was elected in 1909, and consecrated 19 March, 1910.