It is said that Christianity was introduced in the Val d'Adige circa 200 AD, where the Diocese of Trento was later established. The diocese, however, was a creation of the 4th century. It became a
suffragan of the Patriarchs of Aquileia-Grado. The original cathedral of S. Vigilius was founded , and restored and rebuilt several times during the Middle Ages. It was rededicated under Bishop Altmannus by the Patriarch of Aquileia, Peregrinus, in 1145. On 31 May 1027, the Emperor
Conrad II granted the bishops of Trent the County of Trent, and thereby beginning the history of the
Prince-Bishopric of Trent as a state of the
Holy Roman Empire. In 1786, it gained territory from the
Diocese of Feltre.
French occupation In August 1797, French invasion troops under
General Masséna occupied Trent. They were forced to retreat in the winter, due to the Austrian advance. But they returned in January 1801, and after the
Treaty of Lunéville on 9 February 1801, the prince-bishopric of Trent was abolished and its government secularized (1803); its territory was handed over to Austria and made a part of the
County of Tyrol. In 1805, Trent, Tyrol, and the city and territory of Roveredo were transferred to the
Kingdom of Bavaria. In 1810, the Emperor Napoleon transferred Trent to his new
Kingdom of Italy, declaring Trent to be the capital of the
Department of Alto Adige, and requiring it to be administered entirely by Italians.
Restoration From 1809 until 1814,
Pope Pius VII was a prisoner in France, and unable to deal with the changes being made by Napoleon. On his fall, however, the pope faced a chaos in the Churches which had suffered the intrusion of the French. New diplomatic and ecclesiastical arrangements (concordats) with the various restored powers were necessary. On 9 May 1818, therefore, Pius VII issued the bull , formalizing the agreements which had been reached with the Austrian Emperor Francis I concerning the provinces of Tyrol and Vorarlberg. The Pope noted that in a very large area there were only three dioceses (Salzburg, Trent, and Brixen) and one vicariate (Feldkirch). He announced his intention to elevate Feldkirch into a diocese. In the bull, he assigned new limits to each of the dioceses by listing the parishes; Trent gained a few parishes from Brixen. No metropolitan is named in the bull. Salzburg had been secularized at the same time as Trent, and the archbishop had died in 1812. At the time of the bull, the archbishopric of Salzburg was vacant; it was reconstituted in 1823. On 29 September 1822, in the bull , on a petition presented by
Count Antal Apponyi, ambassador of the Emperor Francis I to the Holy See,
Pope Pius VII granted the emperor the privilege of nominating the bishops of Trent and Brixen. The bull states that this was done with the consent of the Chapters of the two cathedrals (who thereby lost their right to free election of their bishop), as well as of the bishop of Brixen.
Metropolitan of Salzburg On 7 March 1825,
Pope Leo XII issued the bull , in which he named Salzburg as the metropolitan of the ecclesiastical province, and assigned as suffragans the dioceses of Trent, Brixen, Gurk, Seckau, and Lavant. In the same document he determined that the cathedral Chapter of Trent should have three dignities (the Dean, the Provost, and the Archdeacon) and four Canons. One of the Canons was to serve as Penitentiary, another as Theologus, "who, on stated days, should explain holy scripture."
Archdiocese of Trent On 14 June 1929, by the bull ,
Pope Pius XI raised diocese of Trent to the status of an archdiocese. On 6 July 1964, by the bull ,
Pope Paul VI removed territory from the diocese of Trent and assigned it to the
Diocese of Brixen (Bressanone). The archdiocese of Trent only became a
metropolitan see on 6 August 1964, when Pope Paul VI issued the bull , creating a new ecclesiastical province and naming the newly created
Diocese of Bolzano-Brixen as its only
suffragan.
Pope John Paul II visited in July 1988 and April 1995. On the latter occasion, on 30 April 1995, he beatified Bishop Johann Nepomuk von Tschiderer zu Gleifheim, a 19th-century bishop of Trent.
Diocesan synods A diocesan synod was an irregularly held, but important, meeting of the bishop of a diocese and his clergy. Its purpose was (1) to proclaim generally the various decrees already issued by the bishop; (2) to discuss and ratify measures on which the bishop chose to consult with his clergy; (3) to publish statutes and decrees of the diocesan synod, of the provincial synod, and of the Holy See. Bishop Fredericus von Wangen (1207–1218) presided over a diocesan synod in Trent in 1208, and issued Synodal Statutes concerning the election of church dignities. The Teutonic Knight, Fr. Henricus, O.T. (1274–1289), held a diocesan synod on 6 November 1276. Bishop Enrico di Metz (1310–1336) held a diocesan synod on 14 January 1336, the complete proceedings of which were published by Benedetto Bonelli. In 1344, Bishop Nicolò da Bruna (1338–1347) held a diocesan synod. A diocesan synod was held in the cathedral of Trent by Bishop Udalrich Frundsberg (1486–1493) on 17–18 March 1489. Bishop Uldarich von Liechtenstein (1486–1505) held a synod on 4–5 April 1497. Bishop Georg von Neideck (1506–1514) held a diocesan synod. Cardinal Bernhard von Cles (1514–1539) held a diocesan synod, in 1538. Cardinal Ludovico Madruzzo (1567–1600) held a diocesan synod in 1575, in which it was decreed that clerics should not grow mustaches, since it might interfere with drinking the blood of Christ from the communion cup. Madruzzo held another synod in 1593. == Bishops and archbishops ==