Pope Innocent II founded the diocese by a papal bull of 14 October 1140, and made the church of St. Adalbert at Wolin on Wolin island the see of the diocese.[14][17][18][19] 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.[14][18]Adalbert, a former chaplain of Saint Otto who had participated in Otto's mission as an interpreter and assistant, was consecrated bishop at Rome.[18][20] 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.[21]
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.[22][23] At the same time Wolin economically decayed and was devastated by Danish expeditions, which contributed to the move to Grobe.[23] The see was again moved to Cammin, now Kamień Pomorski, in 1175,[22][23][24] where a chapter was founded for the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist.[23][25] All this time, the question of subordinance of the Pomeranian diocese as suffragan to an archdiocese remained unsolved.[26] 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,[21] Pomeranian diocese.[27] The pope furthermore placed the bishopric as an exempt diocese directly under the Holy See.[28][29][30] Since 1208, the bishops held the title Caminensis episcopus.[31]
The area of the diocese resembled the area controlled by Wartislaw I and his brother and successor, Ratibor I.[24] The northern border was defined by the coastline and the border with the Principality of Rügen (Ryck river).[32] In the West, the diocese included Circipania up to Güstrow.[32] In the Southwest, the border of the diocese ran south to a line Güstrow-Ivenack-Altentreptow in a near straight west–east orientation, then took a sharp southward turn west of Ueckermünde to include Prenzlau.[32] The border then turned east to meet the Oder river south of Gartz and followed the Oder to the Warta confluence to include Cedynia.[32] In the South, the diocese border ran immediately north of the Warthe to include Gorzów and Myślibórz.[32] The southeastern border left the Warthe area with a sharp turn running straight north to Drawsko Pomorskie, then turned eastwards south of the town to include Czaplinek.[32] Then, after a southeast turn, it turned northeast towards Bytów.[32] The eastern border ran east of Bytów and west of Lębork to meet the seacoast east of Rowokół [pl].[32]
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 terraeStargard and Kolberg, leaving the bishops in charge of the latter.[1] In the following, the bishops extended their secular reign which soon comprised the Kolberg (now Kołobrzeg), Köslin (also Cöslin, now Koszalin) and Bublitz (now Bobolice) areas.[33] When in 1276 they became the sovereign of the town of Kolberg also, they moved their residence there.[1] Bishop Hermann von Gleichen granted town rights to Köslin (Koszalin) in 1266 and Massow (Maszewo) in 1278. The administration of the episcopal secular state was done from Köslin.[1]
In the early 13th century, the Słupsk and Sławno lands passed to the Archdiocese of Gniezno, only to return to the Diocese of Kamień in 1317.[34]
Prince-Bishopric
The bishops at multiple occasions tried to exclude their secular reign from ducal overlordship by applying for Imperial immediacy.[33] The Pomeranian dukes successfully forestalled these ambitions,[33] and immediacy was granted only temporarily in 1345.[1] The addition of secular territory would be the basis for later turning the status of the diocese into a prince-bishopric. The episcopal territory of secular reign remained a subfief of ducal Pomerania, and did not become an immediately imperial fief.
1521–1544: Erasmus von Manteuffel-Arnhausen, after 1532 he lost influence in the diocesan territory except of the episcopal secular area around Kolberg
^ abcdeGerhard Köbler, Historisches Lexikon der Deutschen Länder: die deutschen Territorien vom Mittelalter bis zur Gegenwart, 7th edition, Munich: C.H.Beck, 2007, p. 113, ISBN3-406-54986-1.
^Kyra Inachim, Die Geschichte Pommerns, Rostock: Hinstorff, 2008, p. 17, ISBN978-3-356-01044-2
^Norbert Buske, Pommern, Schwerin: Helms, 1997, p. 11, ISBN3-931185-07-9
^Jan M Piskorski, Pommern im Wandel der Zeiten, 1999, p. 47, ISBN83-906184-8-6OCLC43087092: "...gelang es ihm nicht, ein pommersches Bistum ins Leben zu rufen – vermutlich eine Folge der Kompetenzstreitigkeiten zwischen den Erzbistümern Gnesen und Magdeburg."
^ abcdKyra Inachim, Die Geschichte Pommerns, Rostock: Hinstorff, 2008, p. 15, ISBN978-3-356-01044-2: "Zunächst waren die kirchlichen Verhältnisse noch ungeordnet, da sowohl Gnesen als auch Magdeburg Ansprüche auf die neue Kirchenprovinz erhoben. Erst nach dem Tod des Pommernapostels Otto von Bamberg (1139) bestätigte Papst Innozenz II. 1140 das pommersche Landesbistum und unterstellte die Pomeraniae ecclesia dem Schutz des Heiligen Petrus. Es entstand ein unabhängiges pommersches Bistum mit Sitz in Wollin (Jumne)."
^Norbert Buske, Pommern, Schwerin: Helms, 1997, p. 14, ISBN3-931185-07-9: "...erhoben sowohl das Erzbistum Gnesen [...] als auch das Erzbistum Magdeburg [...] Ansprüche auf das pommersche Gebiet. Die pommersche Kirche blieb deshalb zunächst unter der unmittelbaren Aufsicht von Bamberg."
^André Vauchez, Richard Barrie Dobson, Michael Lapidge, Encyclopedia of the Middle Ages, p. 1061., Routledge, 2000, ISBN1-57958-282-6[1]
^Jan M Piskorski, Pommern im Wandel der Zeiten, 1999, p. 48, ISBN83-906184-8-6OCLC43087092: "Die Zugehörigkeit des pommerschen Bistums zu einer Erzdiozese blieb anscheinend weiter unentschieden."
^Norbert Buske, Pommern, Schwerin: Helms, 1997, p. 15, ISBN3-931185-07-9
^Jan M Piskorski, Pommern im Wandel der Zeiten, 1999, p. 49, ISBN83-906184-8-6OCLC43087092: "Schließlich entschied der Pabst die Frage der Zugehörigkeit und unterstellte das Bistum Cammin – sicherlich mit Zustimmung des pommerschen Klerus – direkt Rom."
^Kyra T. Inachin, Die Geschichte Pommerns, Rostock: Hinstorff, 2008, p. 16, ISBN978-3-356-01044-2: "1188 wurde schließlich Pommern als exemptes Bistum unmittelbar der römischen Kirche unterstellt und genoß damit eine außergewöhnliche rechtliche Selbstständigkeit. Damit waren die konkurrierenden Ansprüche der Erzbistümer Gnesen und Magdeburg beseitigt.
^Norbert Buske, Pommern, Schwerin: Helms, 1997, p. 15, ISBN3-931185-07-9: "Als 1188 die feierliche päpstliche Anerkennung der Verlegung des Bischofssitzes erfolgte, wurde die exempte Stellung des Bistums, die sich inzwischen herausgebildet hatte, bestätigt. Das in der Folgezeit als Bistum Kammin bezeichnete pommersche Bistum war damit unmittelbar dem Papst unterstellt und unabhängig gegenüber den benachbarten Erzbistümern. Es war ihnen unter diesem Gesichtspunkt etwa gleichgestellt."
^Heitz, Gerhard; Rischer, Henning (1995). Geschichte in Daten. Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (in German). Münster-Berlin: Koehler&Amelang. p. 163. ISBN3-7338-0195-4.
^Labuda, Gerard (1993). "Chrystianizacja Pomorza (X–XIII stulecie)". Studia Gdańskie (in Polish). Vol. IX. Gdańsk-Oliwa. p. 49.
^ One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Löffler, Klemens (1911). "Pomerania". In Herbermann, Charles (ed.). Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 12. New York: Robert Appleton Company.