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This paper addresses the early years of the Westphalian bishopric of Minden. Kölzer's edition of Louis the Pious's diplomas has shed new light on the founding era of the Saxon and Westphalian bishoprics, and the coming years will see a new understanding of the emergence of dioceses in these regions. Minden presents a special case in this respect, because early diplomatic evidence is lacking. This paper argues that the earliest royal diploma goes back to Charles III (876-887), and must have been nearly identical to his diploma for the bishopric of Paderborn from 887 September 21. The evidence of the necrologies is concentrated on the monastery of Fulda, and attestations of early bishops of Minden there are extremely meagre. Only Bishop Dietrich (853-880) is mentioned repeatedly during his lifetime as an attendee of royal meetings and synods. This paper also studies Louis the German's visit to Minden in 852, before turning to the problem of the alleged first bishop of Minden, Erkanbert († 830), who obviously did not act as a bishop 'of' Minden but rather as a (missionary) bishop 'in' Minden during the decades prior to the establishment of a geographically fixed bishopric of Minden. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to examine the use of charters during the early modern period. The Cistercian monastery of Mariental near Helmstedt, which became part of the principality (Fürstentum) of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel in 1571, has been chosen to serve as a case study. Due to its valuable assets in the eastern parts of the Holy Roman Empire, i.e. in the Hochstift Halberstadt and the Prince-Archbishopric (Erzstift) of Magdeburg, it was constantly involved in legal disputes with these territories throughout the early modern period. These disputes must be considered in the context of the state-building process of the time. Charters were the most important evidence which could be provided to prove rights of possession and were therefore studied by archivists and lawyers. Specialised methods of handling these sources were developed and refined in the 17th century. When studying a document, the decisive goal was not so much to determine its authenticity, but rather to collect and arrange the relevant information in order to provide proof of the monastery's rights. In addition to the legal appraisal of the Mariental documents, they were used as sources for historiographical texts by scholars of the University of Helmstedt as early as the 16th century. While these two approaches - the historiographical and the jurisprudential - both had a mutual influence on each other, it was mostly the historiographical approach which was informed by the jurisprudential one. The latter went on to have a marked influence on how information was presented in historiographical writings in the 19th century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the early years of the Westphalian bishopric of Osnabrueck (today: Federal State of Lower Saxony). Following the results of Kölzer's edition of Louis the Pious' diplomas it attempts to show that the early Carolingian diplomas due to their falsification without any exception do not allow any reasonable reconstruction of Osnabrueck's first decades. The lack of any historiography prior to the years of bishop Benno II (1068-1088) and the very few references to Osnabrueck's bishops outside of the bishopric during the 9th century do not allow a reconstruction of an episcopal succession either. Recent archaeological excavations in and around the cathedral building and the adjacent cloister add some new light on building activities since the late 8th century. So, the recent study of Mehdorn on missionaries and missionary bishops in Saxony up to the middle of the 9th century offers a reliable explanatory model even for the Osnabrueck case: The supposed first bishops Wiho and Meingoz obviously did not exist at all, since their only mentions derive from falsifications of the 11th century. Gefwin (since 829 or slightly earlier) appears to have been the first missionary bishop acting ,in' Osnabrueck and Gauzbert (845-c.859) obviously is the first bishop ,of' Osnabrueck who in 848 obtained the first diploma of immunity by Louis the German. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]