Bishopric of Cammin The Bishopric of Cammin ( also Kammin , Kamień Pomorski ) was both a former Roman Catholic diocese in the Duchy of Pomerania from 1140 to 1544 , and a secular territory ( Prince - Bishopric ) in the Kolberg ( Kołobrzeg ) area from 1248 to 1650 . The diocese comprised the areas controlled by the House of Pomerania in the 12th century , thus differing from the later territory of the Duchy of Pomerania by the exclusion of the Principality of Rügen and inclusion of Circipania , Mecklenburg - Strelitz , and the northern Uckermark and New March . The diocese was rooted in the Conversion of Pomerania by Otto of Bamberg in 1124 and 1128 , and was dissolved during the Protestant Reformation , when the Pomeranian nobility adapted Lutheranism in 1534 and the last pre - reformatory bishop died in 1544 . The Catholic diocese was succeeded by the Pomeranian Evangelical Church . The secular territory of the former diocese continued to exist as a prince - bishop ric and principality within the Duchy of Pomerania , and was dissolved in 1650 when it fell to Brandenburg - Prussia , becoming part of Brandenburgian Pomerania . The area of the former principality was administered as " Fürstenthum county " within the Prussian Province of Pomerania until its division in 1872 . History . After Duke Bolesław III Wrymouth of Poland had conquered Pomerania until 1121 / 22 , Saint Otto of Bamberg between 1124 and 1128 Christianised the area . Otto ' s first mission in 1124 followed a failed mission by eremite Bernard in 1122 , and was initiated by Bolesław with the approval of both Lothair III , Holy Roman Emperor , and Pope Callixtus II . Otto ' s second mission in 1128 was initiated by Lothair after a pagan reaction . Wartislaw I , Duke of Pomerania supported and aided both missions . Between the missions , he had expanded his duchy westward , up to Güstrow . These former Lutician areas were not subject to Polish overlordship , but claimed by the Holy Roman Empire . Otto during his lifetime did not succeed in founding a diocese , caused by a conflict of the archbishops of Magdeburg and Gniezno about ecclesiastical hegemony in the area . Otto died in 1139 . Pope Innocent II founded the diocese by a papal bull of 14 October 1140 , and made the church of St . Adalbert at ( Julin ( Wollin / Wolin ) on Wollin / Wolin island the see of the diocese . 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 . Adalbert , a former chaplain of Saint Otto who had participated in Otto ' s mission as an interpreter and assistant , was consecrated bishop at Rome . 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 . 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 Wollin was moved to Grobe Abbey on the island of Usedom after 1150 . At the same time Wollin economically decayed and was devastated by Danish expeditions , which contributed to the move to Grobe . The see was again moved to Cammin , now Kamień Pomorski , in 1175 , where a chapter was founded for the Cathedral of " St . John the Baptist " . All this time , the question of subordinance of the Pomeranian diocese as suffragan to an archdiocese remained unsolved . 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 " , Pomeranian diocese . The pope furthermore placed the bishopric as an exempt diocese directly under the Holy See . Since 1208 , the bishops held the title " Caminensis episcopus " . The area of the diocese resembled the area controlled by Wartislaw I and his brother and successor , Ratibor I . The northern border was defined by the coastline and the border with the Principality of Rügen ( Ryck river ) . In the West , the diocese included Circipania up to Güstrow . 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 . The border then turned east to meet the Oder river south of Gartz and followed the Oder to the Warta ( Warthe ) confluence to include Zehden . In the South , the diocese border ran immediately north of the Warthe to include Landsberg and Soldin . The southeastern border left the Warthe area with a sharp turn running straight north to Dramburg , then turned eastwards south of the town to include Tempelburg . Then , after a southeast turn , it turned northeast towards Bütow . The eastern border ran east of Bütow and west of Lauenburg in Pomerania to meet the seacost east of Revekol . 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 " terrae " Stargard and Kolberg , leaving the bishops in charge of the latter . 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 . When in 1276 they became the sovereign of the town of Kolberg also , they moved their residence there . Bishop Hermann von Gleichen founded the towns of Köslin ( Koszalin ) in 1266 and Massow ( Maszewo ) in 1278 . The administration of the episcopal secular state was done from Köslin . The bishops at multiple occasions tried to exclude their secular reign from ducal overlordship by applying for Imperial immediacy ( " Reichsunmittelbarkeit " ) . The Pomeranian dukes successfully forestalled these ambitions , and immediacy was granted only temporarily in 1345 . The addition of profane territory would be the basis for later turning the status of the diocese into a prince - bishop ric . The episcopal territory of secular reign remained a subfief of ducal Pomerania , and did not become an immediately imperial fief . The Protestant Reformation reached Pomerania in the early 16th century , mostly starting from the cities , and Lutheranism was made the Duchy of Pomerania ' s religion in 1534 by the diet of Treptow upo Rega ( Trzebiatów ) . The Pomeranian reformator Johannes Bugenhagen , appointed bishop of Cammin by 1544 , did not assume the office , the cathedral chapter elected instead Bartholomaeus Swawe , the former chancellor of Duke Barnim XI of Pomerania - Stettin , who promptly renounced Cammin ' s imperial immediacy . From 1556 on the Griffin dukes held also the office of a titular bishop ruling in Cammin ' s secular territory . In 1650 the last bishop Ernst Bogislaw von Croÿ resigned and the diocese was secularised . With Farther Pomerania it fell to Brandenburg - Prussia forming its Province of Pomerania .