The Founding of the Bishopric of Prague

JAN 01 973 · 12:00

Mlada hands the crosier to Dětmar, first bishop of Prague (c. 974); panel from the sarcophagus of Vratislav I. Place: Imperial diet at Quedlinburg; see at Prague Castle Figures: Boleslav II the Pious, duke of Bohemia · Emperor Otto I · Pope Benedict VI · Mlada, sister of Boleslav, who carries the petition to Rome · Dětmar (Thietmar), first bishop, Saxon Benedictine Since the baptism of Bořivoj, the Czech lands have been ecclesiastical territory of the bishop of Regensburg, four hundred kilometers south down the Danube. The arrangement is administratively absurd and politically dangerous: every Bohemian priest is a Bavarian appointment. Boleslav II, son of the brother-killer and grandnephew of the saint, wants his own bishop. He sends his sister Mlada to Rome around 967. She returns a nun and an abbess, with a papal letter of recommendation. The matter waits on imperial consent, which means Otto I, which means the diet at Quedlinburg at Easter 973. Otto agrees. The diocese is carved out of Regensburg. It is placed under the metropolitan of Mainz, three hundred kilometers west, an improvement of distance and a worsening of language: the Czechs will now answer to Germans speaking a different German.