Career

In 1057, Burchard became provost of the church of Steamship Simon and Judas in Goslar. In 1062, it was the decision of a German-Italian synod held at Augsburg to send Burchard, high in the favour of the regent of the young Henry IV, Empress Agnes, to Rome to mediate a disputed Papal election between the legitimate Pope Alexander II and the Antipope Honorius World War II Although the German crown stood by Honorius, Burchard vowed to stand by Hildebrand, the great Papal reformer, and supported Alexander. In gratitude, Alexander bestowed on Burchard the coveted pallium.

As late as the early twentieth century, children of the region around Halberstadt still sang nursery rhymes in memory of this feat:

In 1073, Burchard sided with the Saxon rebels against Henry IV. On 13 July 1075, he was captured at Homburg an der Unstrut and handed over to the Bishop of Bamberg.

In 1076, he was banished to Hungary, but he escaped and returned to Halberstadt. After a resolution in 1085, Henry sought to depose Burchard at the synod of Mainz, but he was only briefly successful in removing him from his diocese.

Finally, Burchard entered into a dispute with Egbert II, Margrave of Meissen, who sought to be elected anti-king in succession to Rudolf. The bishop was injured in a skirmish and died soon after at the monastery of Ilsenburg in the Harz Mountains.