Victim of Church Politics.
Since the Church in Livonia, Finland, Estonia, Selonia, Courland, and other surrounding newly christened provinces and islands is still young … we have personally entrusted to you the spiritual care of Revala, Vironia, and other dioceses in Livonia, Finland, and Estonia, until further notice, during the time when they are vacant or their bishops are away.
Pope Gregory IX entrusted the Diocese of Vironia or Viru with this order to his legate, Baudouin of Aulne. The first bishop of the diocese, Ostrad, had ruled it for approximately seven years. By 1232, when the pope instructed his legate, the diocese had probably been without a spiritual head for five years.
Yet, a new head of the Virumaa diocese was appointed only in 1240 – administrator Thorkill, Bishop of Tallinn. He remained the last separate Danish head of the church in Viru appointed by the Danes. However, a new bishop, Dietrich, was also appointed though he never arrived there – precisely because he was not favoured by the Danes.
This work focuses on the relatively short-lived Diocese of Viru. The political history of the diocese is accompanied by maps of Virumaa in 1227, 1240, and 1253, highlighting the rapid development of the region.
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