The document was written in Rome, but its address led to the Daugava Livonian settlement of Ikšķile. On 1 October 1188, Pope Clement III confirmed Meinard as bishop of Ikšķile and assigned the new bishopric to the Archbishopric of Bremen. Even before Riga was founded, this sheet from the papal chancery placed Latvia’s territory on the map of the Western Church—with a specific place, a specific office-holder, and a forewarning of later conflict, because the bishopric brought tithes and foreign power with it.
The bishopric of Ikšķile was an early institutional foothold of Western Christianity in the territory of present-day Latvia. Meinard’s mission began with a church and stone fortifications on the Daugava, but under his successors preaching was increasingly replaced by military subjugation.
Related events
- 1812On 1 October 1812, at Garoza by the Iecava River during Napoleon’s campaign, Prussian units in Napoleon’s army clashed with the Russian army; an earthwork redoubt remained there.
- 1985On 1 October 1985, Līvi first performed their new concert programme built around Ēriks Ķiģelis’s cycle “Kurzemei – saules ceļš”; the composer died in a car crash in the night before 3 October.
- 2022On 1 October 2022, Latvia held the 14th Saeima election; 916,368 citizens, or 59.41 percent of eligible voters, took part, and seven lists crossed the five percent threshold.