Background
The fourth son of Frederick, count of Wied (d 1487), Hermann was educated for the Church, and became elector and archbishop in 1515.
archbishop priest prince-elector
The fourth son of Frederick, count of Wied (d 1487), Hermann was educated for the Church, and became elector and archbishop in 1515.
He supported the claims of Charles V, whom he crowned at Aachen in 1520. At first, his attitude towards the reformers and their teaching was hostile. At the Diet of Worms, he endeavored to have Luther declared an outlaw.
A quarrel with the papacy turned, or helped to turn, his thoughts in the direction of church reform, but he hoped this would come from within rather than from without.
He was initially a proponent of the Erasmian agenda of reform, which recognized certain corrupt and infelicitous religious practices but proposed no serious doctrinal change. Over time, his program for change expanded, and his evangelical sympathies became more pronounced.
Summoned both before emperor and pope, Hermann was deposed and excommunicated by Pope Paul III in 1546. He resigned his office in February 1547, and retired to Wied.
Hermann was also prince-bishop of Paderborn from 1532 to 1547.