ERMLAND, ernelant. or ERMELAND, i.seme-lAnt. A diocese in East Prussia. now in the District of Kiinigsherg. After Prussia had been occupied for Christianity by the Teutonic Order (1230). the Papal legates di vided it into four bishoprics, of which Ermland was one. When Riga was confirmed by Alex ander IV. in 1255 as the metropolitan see of those regions, Ermland sat very loose to its au thority by virtue of its political independence, and was finally acknowledged to be exempt from its jurisdiction; nor could the later archbishops of tinesen succeed in drawing it into their power. Even the pallium and the archbishop's miss were conceded to its prelates by Benedict HIV. in 1742. The early bishops of Ermland were sovereigns in their own district, and as such primes of the Empire from 13.57, under a certain feudal rela tion to the grand master of the Teutonic. Knights and from the Peace of Thorn (1466) to the King of Poland. When the latter, however, wished to nominate to the bishopric, as in the rest of his dominions, the chapter vindicated its rights under the earlier concordat of a free election.
The most distinguished bishops were -Eneas Syl vius Piecolomini. afterwards Pope Pius 11. (1457 58), and Stanislans Hosias (1551-79), who held his subjects to their allegiance to the Catholic Church when the Reformation spread through all the surrounding territory. From 1525 to 1772 the diocese shared the political fortunes of Po land, and in the partition of the latter year was assigned to Prussia. Consult: Zeitsehrift fiir Gesehichte and Alterthumshunde Ermlands (7 Braunsberg, I558, sqq.) ; llipler, A nalecta Warmiensia 1872).
ERN, or ERNE (AS. earn, ONorthum., 011G. ern, eagle; connected with Gk. Claws. urn is, bird). The sea-eagle. The word is rarely heard now except in poetry, though occasionally used in or nithology as a designation of a group differing from true eagles in having naked tarsi and in other minor features. See EAGLE.