e south of Speyer outside the town and, considering the time, was quite large (length: 19.7 m, width 15.5 m), but its purpose is not quite clear. Another church was St. Stephen on the site of the modern day state archives south of the cathedral, also outside the town. For some time it was the predecessor of the cathedral and the burial site of the bishops. A fourth church was St. Maximus of which the site is not known.
With the establishment of a bishopric and the construction of a bishops castle Speyer became a centre of worldly and spiritual power. Around 650 the Frankish king Sigebert III renewed the tithe from all royal estates in the district for the Speyer church under bishop Principus. The church was also freed of taxes to the county. In 664/666 Sigeberts son, Childeric II, granted ��immunity� to the church of Speyer under bishop Dagobert I. This included a number of income sources and was confirmed to bishop Freido on 25 June 782 by Charlemagne during the Saxon wars.
The granting of privileges was to become an important means of kings and emperors to create loyal supports across the country against the local nobility. The increasing power of the bishops in turn created growing tensions with the ascending bourgeoisie and the county nobility and the emperors. The resulting feuds would shape the history of Speyer for almost 6 centuries.
The Carolingians built an imperial palace in Speyer and Charlemagne came for several visits. In 838 Louis the Pious held court, starting a series of 50 imperial diets in Speyer.
Lord of the town was the district count (Gaugraf) commissioned by the king. But power gradually shifted to the bishops because of various rights and privileges granted by the king. In Carolingian times Speyer was of no great importance. The Kings only spent a short time there, e. g. Charlemagne in August 774, Lothair I in 841 or Louis the German in 842, but the power of the church in Speyer continued to grow. Apart from the
