Ernst Adalbert von Harrach

Cardinal Ernst Adalbert von Harrach, painted by Frans Luycx

Ernst Adalbert von Harrach ( Czech Arnošt Vojtěch z Harrachu ) (born November 4, 1598 in Vienna ; † October 25, 1667 ibid) was an Austrian nobleman, archbishop of the Archbishopric of Prague and prince-bishop of the diocese of Trento and cardinal .

Life

Ernst Adalbert (Albrecht) von Harrach was the second son of the baron, since 1627 Count Karl von Harrach (1570–1627) and his wife Maria Elisabeth, née. Schrattenbach , born and was the uncle of Ferdinand Bonaventura (1637–1706).

After completing his studies in theology at the Jesuit college in Königgrätz and in Rome , he became canon in Trento. While he was still a student, the Pope at the time appointed him treasurer and later his secretary. At the age of twenty-seven, after the death of the Archbishop of Prague Jan Lohelius, he was appointed his successor and on January 19, 1626, Pope Urban VIII made him cardinal. It was not until 1632 that it received the title church Santa Maria degli Angeli , from 1644 its title church was Santa Prassede . In 1634 Wallenstein and his brother-in-law Trčka , whose wives were sisters of Cardinal Harrach, were murdered.

In 1637 he was the extraordinary ambassador to the papal court, and in 1648 he was taken prisoner during the occupation of Prague by Swedish Protestant troops and was exchanged. He was considered a benefactor of the poor; as archbishop he consecrated 600 churches and 10,000 priests, established the diocese of Leitmeritz in 1655 and the diocese of Königgrätz in 1660 . Ernst Adalbert crowned three kings and two queens of Bohemia and in 1665 became Prince-Bishop of the Diocese of Trento . Cardinal Harrach became cardinal priest of San Lorenzo in Lucina in 1667 . He wrote the Latin didactic poem: Symboleuticum .

meaning

Harrach was an educated, energetic, steadfast, and active representative of the Catholic Church. His view of the Counter-Reformation differed from that of the emperor and his believing brothers. He was against the expulsion of non-Catholics and wanted to eradicate Protestantism , but not Protestants. He wanted to retrain the Protestants and lead them back to the Catholic faith through cultural and artistic education. This should also increase the number of clergymen and spread the faith more widely.

For this purpose he founded the archbishop's seminar for the training of priests in 1631, the diocese of Leitmeritz in 1655 and the diocese of Königgrätz in 1660 and had numerous churches and parsonages built. To make up for the lack of Roman Catholic priests, he called several orders from Meissen to Bohemia, including the Hyberner , Piaristen , Paulaner and the Merciful Brothers .

Although he tried to solve the problem of the heretics peacefully, he had to claim secular power several times and also use violence with the help of the imperial army. As a result, he also supported the violent recatholicization in Bohemia during the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) .

literature

• Constantin von Wurzbach : Harrach, Ernst Albrecht Graf von . In: Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich . 7th part. Imperial and Royal Court and State Printing Office, Vienna 1861, p. 372 f. ( Digitized version ).
• Heribert Sturm : Biographical lexicon on the history of the Bohemian countries. Published on behalf of the Collegium Carolinum (Institute) . Volume IR Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich Vienna 1979, ISBN 3-486-49491-0 , p. 538 fsv Harrach, Ernst Albrecht, Graf v., Archbishop of Prague
• New German Biography (NDB) (1953 ff.), Volume 7.
• Anton Frind: History of the Bishops and Archbishops of Prague. 1873.
• Christian Gottlieb Jöcher: Jöchers General Scholars Lexicon. Volume 2.1750.
• Ernst Adalbert von Harrach: The diaries and daily notes of Cardinal Ernst Adalbert von Harrach (1598–1667) (= publications of the Commission for Modern History of Austria. Vol. 104). Edited by Katrin Keller and Alessandro Catalano. With the collaboration of Marion Romberg. Böhlau, Vienna et al. 2010, ISBN 978-3-205-78461-6 .
• Alessandro Catalano: La Boemia e la riconquista delle coscienze. Ernst Adalbert von Harrach e la Controriforma in Europa centrale (1620–1667) (= Temi e Testi. Vol. 55). Premessa di Adriano Prosperi. Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura, Roma 2005, ISBN 88-8498-255-3 .
• Václav Medek: Cesta ceské a moravské církve staletími. Česká Katolická Charita, Prague 1982.
• Katrin Keller: The Cardinal and the War: Ernst Adalbert von Harrach (1598–1667) in his personal reports . In: Katrin Keller u. a. (Ed.): The Habsburg Monarchy and the Thirty Years War , Vienna: Böhlau 2020 (publications by the Institute for Austrian Historical Research; 73), ISBN 978-3-205-20951-5 , pp. 261–282.

Web links

Commons : Ernst Adalbert von Harrach  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Harrach, Ernest Adalbert von. In: Salvador Miranda : The Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church. ( Florida International University website), accessed May 15, 2017.
• Entry on Ernst Adalbert von Harrach zu Rohrau on catholic-hierarchy.org ; accessed on May 15, 2017.
• biography

predecessor	Office	successor
Jan Lohelius	Archbishop of Prague 1623–1667	Johann Wilhelm Libštejnský von Kolowrat
Sigismund Franz of Tyrol	Bishop of Trento 1665–1667	Sigmund Alphons of Thun