Frode, King of Jutland, built the church of the Holy Trinity at Aarhus in about 900. In 948 Archbishop Adaldag of Hamburg consecrated Reginbrand as missionary Bishop of Aarhus. Jutland was consolidated into a single diocese after Reginbrand's death in 988, with Viborg or Ribe as its centre. The diocese, then a suffragan of Hamburg-Bremen, was redivided in 1060, and Bishop Christian was ordained by Adalbert I, Archbishop of Hamburg.[1] In 1104 the diocese became a suffragan of the then newly elevated Archdiocese of Lund.
Bishop Ulfketil built a wooden church in 1102 to contain the relics of Saint Clement. Around 1150, Niels, Prince of Denmark was buried in the churchyard. The offerings at his tomb facilitated the commencement of a new stone cathedral. Peder Vognsen, Svend Udsson's successor, began the construction of the brick Cathedral of Saint Clement in 1201, which was finished around 1263. In 1330, the greater part of it burned down. Peder Jensen Lodehat (1386–1395) and Bo Magnussen (1395–1423) were the prelates mainly concerned with the erection of the present building, Aarhus Cathedral.[1]
In the 16th century, the last Catholic bishop, Ove Bille resisted the Reformation along with Poul Helgesen, prior of the Carmelite monastery at Elsinore. Like the other Catholic bishops in Denmark, Ove Bille was imprisoned in 1536. The Diocese and its infrastructure were seized by the crown in 1536, and later reinstated as the Protestant Diocese of Aarhus within the Church of Denmark.[1]
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Taylor, Arthur Whitcombe (1913). "Ancient See of Aarhus". In Herbermann, Charles (ed.). Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 16. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
