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William of Modena, Bishop of Modena in 1221, was frequently appointed a legate, or papal ambassador by the popes Honorius III and Gregory IX, especially in Livonia in the 1220s and in the Prussian questions of the 1240s. Eventually he resigned his see to devote himself to these diplomatic issues.1 In Livonia
As a young man, William the bishop of Modena, was sent as Papal legate to resolve differences that resulted from the outcome of the Northern Crusades in Livonia in 1225. The Prince Bishop Albert and the semi-monastic military Order, the Livonian Brothers of the Sword, the Teutonic crusaders and the Russians, all had claims, which were made more difficult by language barriers. William soon earned the confidence of all sides, arranging diplomatic compromises on boundaries, overlapping ecclesiastical and territorial jurisdictions, taxes, coinage, and other subjects, but he could not resolve the basic quarrel: who was to be master in Livonia. William sought to remove Estonia from contention by placing it directly under papal control, appointing his own vice-legate as governor, and by bringing in German knights as vassals. But the vice-legate subsequently turned the land over to the Brothers of the Sword. The Chronicle of Henry of Livonia one of the greatest medieval narratives, was written probably as a report for him, giving him the history of the Church in Livonia up to his time. It relates how in 1226, in another stronghold, called Tarwanpe, William of Modena successfully mediated peace between Germans, Danes and Estonians.
2 The bishoprics of Poland question
Even while William was negotiating in Livonia, the conflicts were bvrewing that would occupy him two decades later. In the division of Poland, so recently Christianized at swordpoint, William of Modena found himself required to mediate between the rival claims and conflicting programs of Christian, the evangelizing first Bishop of Prussia, who, if he had been more successful, would have been sainted, as an "Apostle to the Prussians," and the Knights of the Teutonic Order , to whom Christian and Duke Conrad of Masovia had pledged most of their territorial properties. Before 1227, only Christian's own Cistercian order had assisted Christian in his fortified eastern missions; but with the arrival of the Teutonic Knights, the Dominicans, who were favored by the order and by Pope Gregory IX, took a strong foothold in Prussia, while Christian and his Cistercians were thrown into the background. William of Modena, who had been appointed papal legate for Prussia, disregarded the rights of Christian, who had the misfortune to be captured by the pagan Prussians and held for ransom (1233-39), and proceeded in his absence as if there were no Bishop of Prussia. In 1236 Gregory IX, apparently giving up on Christian empowered William of Modena to divide Prussia into three dioceses. The bishops for these new sees were, in accordance with the wish of the Teutonic Order, to be selected from the Dominican Order, while no provision whatever was made for the imprisoned Bishop Christian.
Finally, in the winter of 1239-40, Christian obtained his liberty. He was obliged to give hostages whom he afterwards ransomed for a sum stated as no less than eight hundred marks, which was granted him by Gregory. Immediately upon his liberation, Christian complained to the pope that the Teutonic Order refused baptism to those who desired it and oppressed the newly converted. More concrete charges concerned episcopal rights that they claimed and properties they refused to restore. The confrontation had not been settled when Gregory died (22 August 22, 1241). Christian and the Teutonic Order then agreed that two thirds of the conquered territory in Prussia should belong to the Order, to form a Teutonic Order state, and one-third to the bishop; that, moreover, the bishop should have the right to exercise ecclesiastical functions in the territory belonging to the Order.
William of Modena did not give up his plans of dividing Prussia into dioceses instead of empowering a vast territorial knightly order. He finally obtained from Pope Innocent IV permission to make a division, and on July 29, 1243, Prussia was divided into the four dioceses: Culm, PomeraniaPomerania ( Polish: Pomorze German: Pommern and Pommerellen Pomeranian (Kashubian): Pomorze and Pomorsk Latin: Pomerania Pomorania is a geographical and historical region in northern Poland and Germany on the south coasts of the Baltic Sea between and on, WarmiaWarmia ( Polish: Warmia Latin Warmia or Varmia German Ermland or Ermeland is a region between Pomerania and Masuria in northern Poland. Together with Masuria it forms the Warminsko-Mazurskie Voivodship. It is located in a border area which has been under (Ermland), and Sambia (Samland, now KaliningradKaliningrad ( Russian: , seaport city, capital and main city of the Kaliningrad Oblast, a small Russian exclave between Poland and Lithuania with access to the Baltic Sea. As Konigsberg (Polish Krolewiec Lithuanian Karaliaucius Latin Regiomontium it was t), under the archbishopric of RigaRiga ( German: Riga, Estonian: Riia, Lithuanian: Ryga), situated on the Baltic Sea coast at the mouth of the Daugava river, is the capital of Latvia and a major regional port and industrial centre. Riga is the biggest city in the Baltic States. The city's. Christian received for his decades of apostolic labor the privilege to select for himself any one of the four new episcopal sees, a choice he refused.
