The
Diocese of Ikšķile was established in 1186 and designated a
suffragan of the
Metropolitan Archdiocese of Hamburg-Bremen by the
Roman Pope Clement III on 1 October 1188. Renamed as Diocese of Riga in 1202 and promoted as Metropolitan Archdiocese of Riga on 20 January 1255 The
Diocese of Wenden (
Cēsis) was established within the territory of the
Duchy of Livonia in 1582 by
Polish king
Stephen Báthory when this region came under the jurisdiction of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.
Jesuits accompanied the Polish troops to promote the
Counter-Reformation. Báthory's action of creating a new diocese was formally recognized by
Pope Sixtus V on 1 May 1585. In 1621 it was designated a suffragan of the
Metropolitan Archdiocese of Gniezno. The diocesan see was relocated from Wenden in Vidzeme to
Dünaburg after the
Swedish conquest of Vidzeme. On 19 September 1684 the name of the diocese was formally changed from Wenden to Inflanty by
Pope Innocent XI. From 1685 Catholic parishes in Semigallia (
Zemgale) and the Diocese of
Pilten in
Courland were administered by the bishop of Inflanty (Polish Livonia). The see was again moved to Pilten after the
first partition of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1772. At this time Latgalia became part of the newly created
Diocese of Mohilev in
Russia. Courland and Semigallia were joined to the
Diocese of Vilnius in 1798 when
Jan Nepomucen Kossakowski, the last bishop of Inflanty, became
bishop of Vilnius. == See also ==