Prince - Bishopric of Warmia The Prince - Bishopric of Warmia ( , ) was a semi independent ecclesiastical state , ruled by the incumbent ordinary of the Ermland / Warmia see and comprising one third of the then diocesan area . The other two thirds of the diocese were under the secular rule of Monastic state of the Teutonic Knights ( Teutonic Prussia ) ( till 1525 , and Ducal Prussia thereafter ) . The Ermland / Warmia see was a Prussian diocese under the jurisdiction of the Archbishopric of Riga that was a protectorate of Teutonic Prussia ( 1243 – 1466 ) and a protectorate of Kingdom of Poland , later part of the Polish - Lithuanian Commonwealth after the Peace of Thorn ( 1466 - 1772 ) Originally founded as the Bishopric of Ermland , it was created by William of Modena in 1243 in the territory of Prussia after its conquest by the Teutonic Knights during the Northern Crusades . The diocesan cathedral chapter constituted in 1260 . While in the 1280s the Teutonic Order succeeded to impose the simultaneous membership of all capitular canons in the Order in the other three Prussian bishoprics , Ermland ' s chapter maintained its independence . So Ermland ' s chapter could repel outside influence when electing its bishops . Thus the Golden Bull of Emperor Charles IV names the bishops as prince - bishop s , a rank not awarded to the other three Prussian bishops ( Culm , Pomesania , and Samland ) . By the Second Peace of Thorn ( 1466 ) the prince - bishopric - like other western areas of Teutonic Prussia - seceded and formed a part of Royal Prussia , which adopted the King of Poland as sovereign in a personal union . After in 1569 Royal Prussia joint the Polish - Lithuanian Commonwealth Ermland ' s autonomy gradually faded . After the First Partition of Poland in 1772 , the annexing Kingdom of Prussia secularised the prince - bishopric as a state . Its territory , Warmia ( ) , was incorporated into the Prussian province of East Prussia . King Frederick II of Prussia confiscated the landed property of the prince - bishopric and assigned it to the " Kriegs - und Domänenkammer " in Königsberg . In return he made up for the enormous debts of then Prince - Bishop Ignacy Krasicki . By the Treaty of Warsaw ( 18 September 1773 ) , King Frederick II guaranteed the free exercise of religion for the Catholics , so the religious body of the Roman Catholic diocese continued to exist , known since 1992 as the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Warmia . Within the State of the Teutonic Order . Along with Culm , Pomesania , and Samland ( Sambia ) , Warmia was one of four dioceses in Prussia created in 1243 by the papal legate William of Modena . All four dioceses came under the rule of the appointed Archbishop of Prussia Albert Suerbeer who came from Cologne and was the former Archbishop of Armagh in Ireland . He choose Riga as his residence in 1251 , which was confirmed by Pope Alexander IV in 1255 . Heinrich of Strateich , the first elected Bishop of Warmia , was unable to claim his office , but in 1251 Anselm of Meissen entered the see of Warmia , which resided at Braunsberg ( Braniewo ) until it moved to Frauenburg ( Frombork ) in 1280 after attacks by heathen Old Prussians . The bishop ruled one - third of the bishopric as a secular ruler which was confirmed by the Golden Bull of 1356 . The other two third of the diocese were under the secular rule of the Teutonic Order . The Bishops of Warmia generally defended their privileges and tried to put down all attempts to cut the prerogatives and the autonomy the bishopric enjoyed . After the Battle of Grunwald in 1410 , both the Sambian and Warmian bishops paid homage to Jogaila of Poland and Lithuania , a maneuver to protect the territory from complete destruction . When in the 1460s it became clear that the Teutonic Order would negotiate the Second Peace of Thorn , Bishop Paul of Lengendorf ( 1458 – 1467 ) joined the seceding Prussian Confederation . Within the Territory of Polish - Lithuanian Commonwealth . The Second Peace of Thorn ( 1466 ) removed the bishopric from the protectorate of the Teutonic Knights and , along with rest of Royal Prussia , placed it under the sovereignty of the King of Poland . So the third of its diocesan territory forming the prince - episcopal temporalities was disentangled from Teutonic Prussia , while the other two thirds of the diocese proper remained within the Order State . The bishops insisted on keeping their imperial privileges and ruled the territory as " de facto " prince - bishop s although the Polish king did not share this point of view . This led to conflict when the Polish king claimed the right to name the bishops , as he did in the Kingdom of Poland . The chapter did not accept this and elected Nicolaus von Tüngen as bishop , which led to the War of the Priests ( 1467 – 1479 ) between King Casimir IV Jagiellon ( 1447 – 1492 ) and Nikolaus von Tüngen ( 1467 – 89 ) who was supported by the Teutonic Order and King Matthias Corvinus of Hungary . The Polish king accepted Tüngen as prince - bishop in the First Treaty of Piotrków Trybunalski , while Tüngen inversely accepted the Polish king as sovereign and obliged the chapter to elect only candidates approved by the Polish king . However , when Tüngen died in 1489 , the chapter elected Lucas Watzenrode as bishop and Pope Innocent VIII supported Watzenrode against the wishes of Casimir IV Jagiellon , who preferred his son Frederic . This problem finally led to the Exempt Status of the bishopric in 1512 by Pope Julius II . In the Second Treaty of Piotrków Trybunalski ( December 7 , 1512 ) Warmia conceded to King Alexander Jagiellon a limited right to propose four candidates to the chapter for the election , who however had to be native Prussians . The Diocese of Warmia lost the two thirds of its diocese within Teutonic Prussia after 1525 when the Order ' s Grand Master Albert of Brandenburg - Ansbach converted the monastic state into Ducal Prussia , himself ruling as duke . On 10 December 1525 , at their session in Königsberg , the Prussian estates established the Lutheran Church in Ducal Prussia by deciding the Church Order . Thus Bishop Georg von Polenz of Pomesania and Samland , who had converted to Lutheranism in 1523 , took over and introduced the Protestant Reformation also in the ducal two thirds of Warmia diocese , territorially surrounding the actual prince - episcopal third . With the formal abolition of the now Lutheran bishopric of Samland in 1587 the now Lutheran Warmian parishes became subject to the Sambian Consistory ( later moved to Königsberg ) . As a result , even within ducal Warmia , the vast majority of burghers had become Lutherans . After the Council of Trent the later cardinal Stanislaus Hosius ( 1551 – 79 ) held a diocesan synode ( 1565 ) and the same year the Jesuits came to Braunsberg . While nearly all of Ducal Prussia took on Lutheranism , the prince - bishops Hosius and Cromer and the Jesuits were instrumental in keeping much of the prince - episcopal Warmians Catholic . The Congregation of St . Catherine , founded at Braniewo by Regina Protmann , engaged in education , especially schooling for girls . In this period the cathedral chapter mostly elected bishops of Polish nationality . The faithful in the northern part of the diocese were by large majority ethnic Germans . Following King Sigismund III ' s contract on regency in Ducal Prussia ( 1605 ) with Joachim Frederick of Brandenburg , and his Treaty of Warsaw ( 1611 ) with John Sigismund of Brandenburg , confirming the co - enfeoffment of the Berlin Hohenzollern with Ducal Prussia , these two rulers guaranteed free practice of Catholic religion in all of prevailingly Lutheran Ducal Prussia . Some churches were reconsecrated to or newly built for Catholic worship ( e . g . St . Nicholas , Elbing , Propsteikirche , Königsberg ) . Those new Catholic churches located in the ducal two thirds of Warmia diocese and in diocesan territory of the suppressed Samland see were then subordinated to the Warmian Frombork see . This development was recognised by the Holy See in 1617 by de jure extending Warmia ' s jurisdiction over Samland ' s former diocesan territory , only containing few immigrated Catholics . In practice the ducal government obstructed Catholic exercise in many ways . Until the late 18th century , the prince - bishop was also a " Ober - President " of all of Prussia combined as part of the Senate " Conventus generalus Terrarum Prussiae " . As a result of the First Partition of Poland in 1772 , Warmia was incorporated into the Kingdom of Prussia ' s province of East Prussia as bishopric of Ermland . Aftermath . As part of East Prussia . At the time of the break - up of the Polish - Lithuanian multi - state - kingdom , referred to as First Partition of Poland in 1772 , Ermland was incorporated into the Kingdom of Prussia ' s province of East Prussia . The bishopric ceased to be an independend governmental unit , and King Frederick II confiscated its property . The prince - bishop , a personal friend of Frederick the Great , the noted Polish author Ignacy Krasicki , though deprived of temporal authority , retained influence at the Prussian court before his reappointment as Archbishop of Gniezno in 1795 . Although the population of the bishopric Ermland remained largely Roman Catholic , religious schools were suppressed . Although there had been schools teaching in the Lithuanian and Polish languages since the 16th century , those languages were forbidden in all schools in East Prussia by decree in 1873 . By the bull " De salute animum " ( July 16 , 1820 ) the Catholic Church in Prussia was reorganised . The diocesan territory of the former Diocese of Samland ( Sambia ) and part of the former Diocese of Pomesania , both with few remaining Catholics there since Reformation , were added to the Diocese of Warmia . In 1901 , the total population in the area of the diocese was about 2 , 000 , 000 , with 327 , 567 being Catholic . In 1925 , Marienwerder ( Kwidzyn ) and surroundings , before part of Culm Diocese , were attached to Ermland , while the Klaipėda Region was dissected in 1926 as territorial prelature of its own . The diocese of Ermland remained an exempt see until 1930 , when it became suffragan to the Breslau See within the Eastern German Ecclesiastical Province . World War II and after . Bishop Maximilian Kaller was forced to leave his office by the Nazi Schutzstaffel for his safety in February 1945 during World War II , as the Soviet Red Army advanced into East Prussia . During the last months of the Second World War , the Potsdam Agreement went along with the Soviet conquests and the southern portion of the diocese was administered by Poland , while the northern part found itself in the Soviet Union as part of the Kaliningrad Oblast ; the German population was subject to expulsion along with the last Ermland bishop Maximilian Kaller . Kaller had returned from Halle upon Saale to his see in August 1945 to resume his office as bishop , but by then a Polish administration and population had moved in . Cardinal August Hlond prevented Kaller from resuming his duties , and Kaller was deported and took refuge in what would become West Germany but never resigned . In 1946 he received " Special Authority as Bishop for the Deported Germans " from Pope Pius XII . The office of Bishop of Warmia , traditionally at the cathedral of Frauenburg ( Frombork ) , was left vacant after 1945 . A new Polish bishopric was installed with the appointment of Józef Drzazga in 1972 , who relocated the office to Olsztyn . On March 25 , 1992 , the Bishopric of Warmia was raised to an archbishopric . Its suffragan s are the dioceses Elbląg and Ełk belonging also to the 12 , 000 km² area and its 703 , 000 Catholics , 33 deans , 253 church districts , 446 diocese priests , 117 order priests , and 231 order nuns . The current archbishop is Wojciech Ziemba , supported by an auxiliary bishop .