Adolphus von Dalberg, born into a long-established noble family of southern Germany, after holding the office of provost at Celle in Hanover for some years, was elected prince-abbot of the Benedictine Fulda Abbey in 1724.
[1] Though not a bishop, Dalberg had quasi-episcopal jurisdiction on the territory belonging to the abbey and held a diocesan synod in 1729.
Its once famous school, which had suffered severely during the religious upheaval of the sixteenth century, had regained some of its ancient prestige by the united efforts of the Jesuits and Benedictines.
Dalberg hoped to restore in all its splendour the ancient seat of learning which had made Fulda world-renowned during the Middle Ages.
After the suppression of the Jesuit Order by Pope Clement XIV in 1773 the university came entirely into the hands of the Benedictines, who were finally obliged to discontinue it in 1805, in consequence of the Napoleonic secularization of Fulda Abbey in 1802.