The Archbishopric of Salzburg was an ecclesiastical state of the Holy Roman Empire, consisting of roughly of the present_day state of Salzburg in Austria. After the secularization of the Archbishoprics of Bremen and Magdeburg, the Archbishop of Salzburg and the Archbishop of Besançon (whose territorial holdings were minuscule) were the only remaining Archbishops of the Holy Roman Empire who were not also electors.
In 1803, the Archbishopric was secularized and made an Electorate for the former Grand Duke Ferdinand III of Tuscany (brother of Emperor Francis II), who had lost his throne. The territory was annexed to Austria in 1806, then to Bavaria in 1809, and finally returned to Austria at the Congress of Vienna in 1815.
The Archbishop of Salzburg also bears the title "Primas Germaniae" (which means "First [Bishop] of the German-speaking"). The powers of this title - which are in no way jurisdictional - are limited to being the pope's first correspondent in the German-speaking world.
In Salzburg the noble tendencies and great principles of the age of Gregory VII and his immediate successors, aiming at the sanctification of the Church, the success of the Crusades, the fostering of religious life among the people, and the development of monastic life, were always encouraged.
The Renaissance epoch was for Salzburg an era of cultural decay, caused by the incompetence of the territorial princes and the bad conditions of Austria under Emperor Frederick IV.
The archbishops of Salzburg were deprived in the same year of their temporal sovereignty; Jerome, the last ecclesiastical sovereign of Salzburg, died at Vienna.
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