Conrad II (bishop of Hildesheim)

During his tenure, the Bishopric of Hildesheim was raised to an Imperial State (Hochstift), when Conrad was vested with secular rights of a prince-bishop by Emperor Frederick II in 1235.

Born into the noble family of Reifenberg or Reisenberg, he studied at the University of Paris, and is said to have taught theology there as well, and to have preached against the Albigenses.

Back in the Holy Roman Empire, Conrad was dean of the Speyer Cathedral from 1209 to 1216, and a scholastic at the Mainz Cathedral from 1216 to 1221, during which time he oversaw the recruitment in Germany for the Fifth Crusade.

[3] During his time as bishop, he engaged in a notable disputation with Heinrich Minneke, the provost of Neuwerk, and oversaw the canonization of the recently deceased Elizabeth of Hungary, which took place on 27 May 1235.

In the same year Hildesheim's episcopal and capitular temporalities (the Stift) was imperially recognized as a state of imperial immediacy, the Prince-Bishopric of Hildesheim.