Bruno of Cologne

BRUNO OF COLOGNE: Archbishop of Cologne 953–965; b. in the spring of 925, the youngest son of Henry I., the Fowler; d. at Reims Oct. 11, 965. He was educated from his fourth to his fourteenth year in the cathedral school of 285 Utrecht. His brother Otto I. recalled him in 939 to the court. As early as 940 he was invested with the functions of chancellor, and ordained deacon a year or two later. In 951 he was made archicapellanus and thus exercised a great influence on the administration of the whole kingdom. In 947 he took part in the Synod of Verdun, where German ecclesiastics settled the question of the archbishopric of Reims, important to the later history of France. In 951 he went with Otto to Italy, and supported his brother faithfully in the disturbances of the next year. Otto had him chosen archbishop of Cologne in 953, and added to his spiritual sovereignty the government of Lorraine. He was consecrated Sept. 25. Lorraine was a very troublesome possession; it was not until after the banishment of Count Raginar of Hainault in 958 that he succeeded in establishing peace and order there. The relations with France often offered difficult problems, too. After the death of King Louis d’Outremer and Duke Hugh the Great, Bruno was made a sort of supreme judicial arbiter for France in his brother's name. Peace was his constant aim, together with the assertion of Carolingian sovereignty. On Otto's second absence in Italy (961), the administration of the empire was confided to Bruno and William of Mainz. Bruno's importance is mainly political, as a representative of the close alliance of the episcopate and the crown which marked Otto's policy. As a bishop, however, he did much to promote a real and living piety and to encourage education.

(A. Hauck.)

Bibliography: The Vita Brunonis, by Ruotger, ed. G. H. Pertz, is in MGM, Script., iv. 252–275, Hanover, 1841; and another Vita by an unknown author, ib., pp. 275–279. Consult: Pieler, Erzbischof Bruno I. von Köln, Arnsberg, 1851; E. Meyer, De Brunons I. archiepiscopo Coloniensi, Berlin, 1867; C. Martin, Beiträge zur Geschichte Bruno I. von Köln, Jena, 1878; Hauck, KD iii. 40 sqq.