Reinhold von Buxhoeveden

Who was Reinhold von Buxhoeveden?

Reinhold von Buxhoeveden was bishop of the Bishopric of Saare-Lääne or Ösel–Wiek, a semi-independent Roman Catholic prince-bishopric in what is now Saare, Hiiu and Lääne counties of Estonia, from 1532 to 1541.

He was the second member of the Buxhoeveden family to serve as bishop of Saare-Lääne. Buxhoeveden is believed to have been born in the early 1480s and matriculated into Rostock University in 1501. In 1506 he was awarded a Master of Arts degree with canonical rights. He proceeded to prepare for a career in the religious ministry, and had the fortune of being accepted as a ministerial candidate in Rome. It is not known how long he was in Rome, but upon his departure he was named canon of Tartu and Saare-Lääne dioceses, and no later than 1519 he returned to Livonia. There he was named bishop of Tartu and became a close assistant to Johannes Blankenfeld, the future archbishop of Riga. On November 13, 1519 he was named archdeacon of the Saare-Lääne bishopric. In the following years he spent little time in Livonia, but rather became Blankenfeld’s ambassador to Pope Leo X. From 1520 on, he returned occasionally to Saaremaa and Tartu.