Christianisation In 1000, the
Diocese of Kołobrzeg was founded by Polish monarch
Bolesław I the Brave, covering ecclesiastical authority over the region of
Pomerania. Later on, it was suppressed, and the ecclesiastical authority was held by the
Archdiocese of Gniezno. After Duke
Bolesław III Wrymouth of
Poland had
conquered Pomerania until 1121/22, Saint
Otto of Bamberg between 1124 and 1128
Christianised the area. Otto's first mission in 1124 followed a failed mission by eremite Bernard in 1122, and was initiated by Bolesław with the approval of both
Lothair III, Holy Roman Emperor, and
Pope Callixtus II. Otto's second mission in 1128 was initiated by Lothair after a pagan reaction.
Wartislaw I, Duke of Pomerania supported and aided both missions. Between the missions, he had
expanded his duchy westward, up to
Güstrow. These former
Lutician areas were not subject to Polish overlordship, but claimed by the
Holy Roman Empire. Otto during his lifetime did not succeed in founding a diocese, caused by a conflict of the archbishops of
Magdeburg and
Gniezno about ecclesiastical hegemony in the area. Otto died in 1139. In the bull, the new diocese was placed "under the protection of the see of the Holy Peter", thwarting ambitions of the archbishops of
Magdeburg and
Gniezno, who both wanted to incorporate the new diocese as
suffragan into their archdioceses. Adalbert and
Ratibor I founded
Stolpe Abbey at the side of Wartislaw I's assassination by a pagan in 1153, the first monastery in Pomerania. The bishops held the title of
Pomeranorum or
Pomeranorum et Leuticorum episcopus, referring to the tribal territories of the
Pomeranians and
Luticians merged in the
Duchy of Pomerania. In the late 12th century the territory of the
Griffin dukes was raided several times by
Saxon troops of
Henry the Lion and
Danish forces under King
Valdemar I. The initial see of in
Wolin was moved to
Grobe Abbey on the island of
Usedom after 1150. The see was again moved to Cammin, now Kamień Pomorski, in 1175, where a
chapter was founded for the Cathedral of
St. John the Baptist. All this time, the question of subordinance of the Pomeranian diocese as suffragan to an archdiocese remained unsolved. Since 1188, when the pope accepted the move of the see, the bishopric was referred to as "Roman Catholic Diocese of Cammin", while before it was addressed as
Pomeranensis ecclesia, The pope furthermore placed the bishopric as an
exempt diocese directly under the
Holy See. Since 1208, the bishops held the title
Caminensis episcopus. The area of the diocese resembled the area controlled by Wartislaw I and his brother and successor,
Ratibor I. When Emperor
Frederick I Barbarossa deposed Henry the Lion in 1180 he granted Pomerania under
Bogislaw I the status of an
Imperial duchy, but from 1185 it was a Danish fief until the 1227
Battle of Bornhöved. In 1248, the Cammin bishops and the
Pomeranian dukes had interchanged the
terrae Stargard and Kolberg, leaving the bishops in charge of the latter. In 1266 a Legate Synod was convened in
Magdeburg where the Apostolic Legate
Cardinal Guy of Burgundy had to call a dispute between the diocese of Cammin and that of Lübeck regarding the right for collecting tithes in neighboring lands. When in 1276 they became the sovereign of the town of Kolberg also, they moved their residence there.
Prince-Bishopric The bishops at multiple occasions tried to exclude their secular reign from ducal overlordship by applying for
Imperial immediacy. The area of the former principality was administered as
Fürstenthum county within the Prussian
Province of Pomerania until its division in 1872. ==Bishops==