Antonio Spinelli

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Antonio Spinelli (* 1630 in Padua ; † 1706 in Munich ) was a Venetian lawyer , Theatine priest and, as confessor of the electoral family and privy councilor, an influential advisor at the Bavarian court .

Life

Spinelli studied jurisprudence , did a doctorate in civil law and practiced law in Venice . After joining the local Theatin order, his activity consisted of teaching novices for several years .

At the request of the Bavarian Electress Henriette Adelheid, Spinelli moved to Munich in June 1662 . Together with Fathers Stefano Pepe and Girolamo Meazza he was supposed to build the monastery of St. Kajetan of the Theatine order. By redeeming the couple's vows to introduce the order in Bavaria on the occasion of the birth of the long-awaited heir to the throne Max Emanuel , the Electress pursued the declared goal of reducing the influence of the Jesuits .

After Stefano Pepe's death in 1665, Spinelli succeeded him as Henriette Adelheid's confessor and held this position until the Electress's death in 1676. He was also the spiritual educator of the children of the electoral couple and their confessor.

The characteristic volute wreaths on the towers of Munich's Theatinerkirche can be traced back to an idea by Spinelli.

From 1665 to 1676 Spinelli, who was also interested in architecture and art history, was the construction manager of the Theatine Church after he was able to prove that the actual builder Agostino Barelli had a fatal error in the construction. In addition, Electress Henriette Adelheid commissioned him in 1670 to design and build the first high altar of the Theatine Church . This remarkable solution with two larger-than-life angels and a spherical tabernacle was completed by the inauguration of the church in 1675; it was not replaced by another high altar until the 1720s.

In 1668 Spinelli succeeded Agostino Bozomos as provost of the Munich Theatine monastery. He held this office until 1671 and then again from 1674 to 1680. He campaigned particularly for the canonization of the co-founder of the order, Kajetan von Thiene , which he achieved with the miracle of the liberation of Naples from the plague in 1556 and the birth of the Bavarian Heir to the throne. The canonization, which finally took place on April 12, 1671, was celebrated splendidly in Munich and the monumental painting "Intercession of St. Kajetan during the plague in Naples" by Joachim von Sandrart was shown for eight days in a triumphal gate in front of the residence , which in the end led to the escalation of the conflict with the Jesuits . On the occasion of the name day of the Jesuit saint Franz Xavier in December, the Jesuit priest Wilhelm Gumppenberg named him as well as the saints Maria , Januarius and Rosalia as the liberators of Naples from the plague. Spinelli understood the ostentatious omission of Kajetan in this list not only as a degradation of Kajetan, but also as an attack on the honor of God. With the support of the Electress, he had a protest note posted at the churches and squares in Munich, in which he described Gumppenberg as a "bad reporter". The matter came before the responsible bishop of Freising, the Wittelsbacher Albrecht Sigismund von Bayern , who was considered a partisan of the Jesuits and had put great difficulties in the way of the foundation of the Theatine order. The fact that the conflict ended in Spinelli's favor and that Gumppenberg was finally recalled from Munich to Salzburg shows the strong position Spinelli had built up in the meantime.

Although Ferdinand Maria lifetime had a Jesuit confessor, it was the Theatines Spinelli, who in 1679 in his castle Schleißheim the last rites handed, as the Jesuit Father Bernhard Frey had left a few hours before the death of the elector to Munich.

Spinelli also retained his influence under Ferdinand Maria's son and successor. When Henriette Adelheid's eldest daughter Maria Anna Christina married the French heir to the throne Ludwig , a son of Louis XIV , in 1680 , she wished that Spinelli would accompany her as a confessor in her future life. However, since this was indispensable at Max Emanuel's court and France did not want to allow the new Dauphine to have a Bavarian confessor anyway, hopes of gaining a foothold at the French court were dashed. Spinelli accompanied Max Emanuel on all of his Hungarian campaigns . In 1690 he received the title of Secret Real Spiritual Council .

Spinelli's polemic against Gumppenberg , published in print 1672

The monastery diary, which Spinelli kept with great accuracy from December 1673 to March 1705, is probably one of the most important sources on the history of the Theatine Monastery in Munich. Before him, his brother Girolamo Meazza had written such a diary (from 1662 to 1671) .

Fonts

  • Antonio Spinelli: Short excerpt from a report so you: Churfl: Durchl: the Churfürstin in Bavaria by Father D. Antonium Spinelli Regulated Priest of the Theatine Order and Ihro Churfl. Passed confessors . Johann Jäcklin, Munich ( books.google.de - Controversial theological pamphlet Spinellis against Gumppenberg ).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Roswitha von Bary: Henriette Adelaide. Electress of Bavaria . Unchanged reprint of the original edition Munich 1980. Pustet, Regensburg 2004, ISBN 3-7917-1873-8 , p. 194 .
  2. ↑ a b Ernest Geiss: The order of the parish and order boards of Munich from the founding time to the present, then the sovereign and city officials from the 13th to the 18th century. For the 700th anniversary of the city of Munich . Ed .: Historical Association for Upper Bavaria. C. Wolf et al. Sohn, Munich 1858, p. 30th f . ( Digitized version [accessed on May 24, 2013]).
  3. ↑ Carl Eduard Vehse: History of the Courts of the Houses of Baiern, Würtemberg, Baden and Hesse (=  history of the German courts since the Reformation . 1st part, no. 23 ). Hoffmann and Campe, Hamburg 1853, p. 177 ( digitized version [accessed May 24, 2013]).
  4. ^ From Bary: Henriette Adelaide . 2004, p. 197 .
  5. ^ Frank Purrmann: Agostino Barelli's double tower planning for the facade of the Theatinerkirche in Munich. To a newly discovered copperplate engraving by Jean Sauvé . Munich 2011, p. 24 .
  6. ^ Josef Hugo Biller, Hans-Peter Rasp: Munich Art & Culture. City guide and manual . 15th completely revised edition. Ludwig, Munich 2003, ISBN 3-7787-5125-5 , p. 421 .
  7. ^ Thomas Reiser: St. Kajetan's of Munich 'Main Altar of 1675' in the year 1675. In: Regnum Dei, Collectanea Theatina. 68 (2012), pp. 77-108.
  8. ^ From Bary: Henriette Adelaide . 2004, p. 205 .
  9. ↑ cf. the justification from the Jesuit side to the bishop: Christoph Schorrer: humble answer Your High Prince Highness Bishops zu Freysing most gracious letter of the recently humbled course because of a sermon so from the Neapolitan Miracle of St. Francisci Xaverii in St. Michaelis churches of the Society of Jesus all told . Lucas Straub, Munich 1672 ( books.google.de [accessed on May 26, 2013]).
  10. ^ Karl Heinrich von Lang: History of the Jesuits in Baiern . Riegel and Wießner, Nuremberg 1819, p. 165 , urn : nbn: de: bvb: 12-bsb10386968-1 .
  11. ^ From Bary: Henriette Adelaide . 2004, p. 323 .
  12. ^ Italo Michele Battafarano: Spee not with Drexel. On the strategy of knowing nothing about the Cautio Criminalis . In: Working group of the Friedrich Spee societies in Düsseldorf and Trier (ed.): Spee year book . 3rd year. Spee, 1996, ISSN  0947-0735 , pp. 112 ( historicum.net [PDF; 728 kB ; accessed on September 18, 2012]).
  13. ^ Udo Kindermann: Art monuments between Antwerp and Trento. Descriptions and evaluations by the Jesuit Daniel Papebroch from 1660 . First edition, translation and commentary. Böhlau, Cologne / Weimar 2002, ISBN 3-412-16701-0 , pp. 233 , footnote 6 ( books.google.de [accessed September 18, 2012]).
  14. ↑ Ludwig Hüttl: Max Emanuel. The Blue Elector, 1679–1726 . A political biography. 3. Edition. Süddeutscher Verlag, Munich 1976, ISBN 3-7991-5863-4 , p. 614 (footnote 662).
  15. ↑ A brief overview of the content, structure and authorship of the surviving volumes of the Diarium Italicum (from 1662 with gaps to 1801, today in the Bavarian Main State Archives ) is provided by Reiser, pp. 88–90.
personal data
SURNAME Spinelli, Antonio
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Theatine priest and privy councilor at the Bavarian court
DATE OF BIRTH 1630
PLACE OF BIRTH Padua
DATE OF DEATH 1706
Place of death Munich