“ The history of Halberstadt begins with the transfer to it, by Bishop Hildegrim I., in 820 of the see founded by Charlemagne at Seligenstadt. At the end of the 10th century the bishops were granted by the emperors the right to exercise temporal jurisdiction over their see, which became one of the most considerable of the ecclesiastical principalities of the Empire. ”

“ Remarkable among the other old buildings are the town-hall, of the 14th century and restored in the 17th century, with a crypt, and the Petershof, formerly the episcopal palace, but now utilized as law courts and a prison. The principal educational establishment is the gymnasium, with a library of 40,000 volumes. ”

“ As such it survived the introduction of the Reformation in 1542; but in 1566, on the death of Sigismund of Brandenburg (also archbishop of Madgeburg from 1552 to 1566) , the last Catholic bishop, the chapter from motives of economy elected the infant Henry Julius of Brunswick-Lüneburg. In 1589 he became duke of Brunswick, and two years later he abolished the Catholic rites in Halberstadt. The see was governed by lay bishops until 1648, when it was formally converted by the treaty of Westphalia into a secular principality for the elector of Brandenburg. ”