Diocese of Ratzeburg

Following its suppression as part of the Protestant Reformation, the remaining Catholic adherents were only represented by the Apostolic Vicariate of Northern Germany.

Saint Ansverus — the Abbot of St. George's in Ratzeburg (not the later monastery bearing that name) — and several of his monks, are said to have been stoned to death.

In 1154, Henry the Lion, Duke of Saxony and Hartwich I, Archbishop of Bremen, refounded the diocese.

The geographic remit extended from the estuary of the Trave River on the Baltic Sea in the north; Wismar, a Baltic port in the east; Zarrentin on the Schaalsee in the south; Büchen in the south-west and Mölln in the west, both of which lie on the Elbe–Lübeck Canal.

The evangelization of the Wendish population was a primary goal of his episcopacy; he traveled around the diocese, preaching to the people in their native language.

In 1236 the Holy Roman Emperor, Frederick II, created a new prince-bishopric with Imperial immediacy which had temporal jurisdiction over the land of Butin and a number of villages outside it.

Succeeding prince-bishops retained this jurisdiction despite attempts by the dukes of Saxe-Lauenburg made to deprive them of it.

Prince-Bishop Georg von Blumenthal (1524–50), who feuded with Thomas Aderpul, was the last Catholic bishop.

They began to elect candidates who did not conform to canon law (i.e. they were not validly ordained or they failed to secure papal confirmation).

He was succeeded by four other Lutheran diocesan administrators from 1554 to 1648: In 1552, the cathedral was plundered by Count Volrad von Mansfeld.