Primas Germaniae

While Mainz, Trier and Magdeburg lost the primatial dignity upon the 1648 Peace of Westphalia and the Napoleonic Secularisation in 1802, the Salzburg archbishops bear the title up to today.

A first Concilium Germanicum synod, in order to reform the Germanic bishoprics in the Frankish Kingdom, was summoned by the Anglo-Saxon missionary Boniface in AD 742.

The Mainz bishopric was not elevated to an archdiocese until about 780; nevertheless, Boniface's successors ruled over the largest ecclesiastical province in Germany by far, held the office of a German archchancellor, and also were members of the electoral college voting for the King of the Romans and Emperor-to-be.

Since about 900 the Primas Germaniae title is documented, held by the Archbishops of Mainz as the most important metropolitan bishop and most noble Prince-elector of the Holy Roman Empire, though it was never awarded officially.

With the German mediatisation and the Final Recess of the Imperial Deputation (Reichsdeputationshauptschluss) of 1803, the Mainz electorate was abolished and its historic dignities were transferred to the newly established Principality of Regensburg, created for the former archbishop Karl Theodor von Dalberg, who retained the Primas Germaniae title until his death in 1817.