The Archdiocese of Salzburg () is a Latin Church archdiocese of the Catholic Church in Austria. The archdiocese is one of two Austrian archdioceses, serving alongside the Archdiocese of Vienna.
The Archbishopric of Salzburg was a prince-bishopric of the Holy Roman Empire until 1803, when it was secularized as the Electorate of Salzburg. The archdiocese was reestablished in 1818 without temporal power.
History
The earliest evidence for Christianity in the area of Salzburg is the establishment of a religious community at or near Juvavia by a follower of Severinus of Noricum, a priest named Maximus. He and his followers were killed by invading Herulians in 477. The only contemporary notice of him occurs in the "Life of Saint Severinus" by Eugippius, who calls him a priest, not a bishop. The notion that he was a bishop derives from a Renaissance inscription in the crypt of the cathedral.
Establishment of the diocese
In 739, Boniface, the "Apostle to the Germans," divided Bavaria into four dioceses, one of which was situated at Salzburg. Boniface appointed the abbot Joannes of S. Peter's monastery in Salzburg as its bishop. The "Liber confraternitatum" of S. Peter's gives a list of Joannes' predecessors as abbot: the first was Hrodpertus, who was bishop and abbot; then Anzogolus, who was abbot; Vitalis, who was bishop and abbot; Savolus; who was abbot; Izzo, who was abbot; Florbrigis, who was bishop and abbot; and Joannes.
After the creation of the diocese, the bishops continued to live in the monastery of S. Peter, until the 12th century. On 24 September 774, Bishop Vigilius (745–784) dedicated a new church, dedicated to Bishop Hrodpertus, as his cathedral, and transferred the remains of the saint to it. The monks of S. Peter performed the religious services in S. Hrodpertus as though they were canons of the cathedral. Archbishop Conrad created a separate Chapter of canons for the cathedral of S. Hrodpertus in 1122; the archbishop's arrangements were confirmed by Pope Calixtus II on 19 February 1123, and by Pope Honorius II on 30 April 1125, who ordered the use of the Rule of S. Augustine.
On 20 April 798, at the order of Charlemagne, Pope Leo III named Salzburg a metropolitan archdiocese, with the suffragan diocenses Passau, Ratisbon, Freising, Säben-Brixen, and Neuburg. He sent Bishop Arno the pallium.
In 1070–1072, Archbishop Gebhard created the diocese of Gurk out of part of Carinthia. In 1075, Pope Gregory VII pointed out that the archbishop had not yet assigned appropriate decimae to the new diocese. The boundaries of the diocese of Gurk were finally delimited in 1131 by Archbishop Conrad, and the decima tax assigned in 1144.
On 28 February 1163, Pope Alexander III appointed Archbishop Eberhard of Salzburg his legate for the German kingdom (Legatum in regno Teutonico).
Archbishop Adalbert and Frederick Barbarossa
Archbishop Adalbert (Vojtěch) was the third son of Vladislaus II, Duke and King of Bohemia, and Gertrude of Babenberg, Duchess of Bohemia,the daughter of Leopold III, Margrave of Austria. Elected in the autumn of 1168, he was enthroned on 1 November, and on 16 March 1169 consecrated a bishop by the Patriarch of Aquileia, and on 23 March Cardinal Conrad von Wittelsbach presented him with the pallium which had been sent by Pope Alexander. In the schism which had begun at the papal election of 1159, Adalbert took the side of Alexander III against the minority of imperialist cardinals who elected Cardinal John of Struma as antipope Calixtus III (1168–1178). When the archbishop appeared as summoned at the diet of Babenberg on 8 June 1169, the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa refused to receive him, and at the beginning of August invaded the territory of Salzburg. On 28 January 1171, Pope Alexander wrote to the king of Bohemia and to the archduke of Austria, urging them to come to the aid of the archbishop, who was being harassed by the schismatics. In 1172, on 20 February, the emperor held a diet at Salzburg, to which the archbishop was not invited; he appeared anyway, but did not receive a friendly welcome from the emperor. The bishop of Gurk and the Provost, Dean and Chapter of Salzburg informed the pope that Frederick was pressuring them to elect a different archbishop of Salzburg. In 1773, Barbarossa attacked both Austria and Bohemia, and deposed Archbishop Adelbert's father and uncle Henry II, Duke of Austria.