Irish monks under Frankish patronage, most notably Saint Columban and Saint Gall, had pioneered the Christian evangelization of southeastern Germany in the seventh and eighth centuries.

Their work had given rise to important monasteries whose agricultural activities on the frontiers of the Carolingian Empire help open the region's primeval forests to wider settlement.

Eventually integrated into the feudal political structure, the abbots of these monasteries will vie with bishops and secular lords for religious and political influence well into the modern era.

Bishoprics are established in four major Bavarian towns in the 730s.

Salzburg, the only one of these to lie within modern Austria, is raised to the status of an archbishopric in 798 and is given jurisdiction over the other bishoprics.

Salzburg becomes the center of the Christian evangelization efforts in the Slavic territories, which are instrumental in spreading the political reach of the Carolingian Empire.