Landesherrschaft und Kirche vor der Reformation
The Territorial Authorities and the Church before the Reformation

Summary/Abstract: To date there has not appeared a work that would comply with the present-day standards and – at the same time – exhaustively describe the relation between the pre-Reformation Church and the territorial authorities in Pomerania. The present concise review, based on the existing literature and on my own preliminary research, may be treated as an introductory outline of future research and its general guidelines. The text deals with the following aspects: (1) the relations between the territorial authorities and the papacy; (2) the relations with the Kamień (German: Cammin) Diocese; (3) the use of the Church staff and resources by territorial rulers; and (4) the importance of the sovereign reform of the Church and monasteries. As it will be demonstrated, the Pomeranian Dukes, especially Bogusław (Bogislaw) X, obtained the basic conditions to establish a territorially uniform Church and to gain control of the territorial churches, which was common in the Protestant areas after the Reformation, still before the 16th century, thanks to the cooperation with the General Curia, the Cammin Bishops and the Pomeranian clergy, and by determining the use of the monastic resources for their own purposes. As it will be demonstrated, still before the 16th century the Pomeranian Dukes, especially Bogislaw X, by cooperating with the Curia, the Cammin Bishops and the Pomeranian clergy and by effective use of the monastic resources obtained the basic conditions to establish a uniform territorial Church and to gain control of it, which was common in the Protestant areas after the Reformation.

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