Ferdinand August von Spiegel

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Ferdinand August von Spiegel in Legate purple and Cappa magna
Archbishop of Spiegel
Coat of arms of the Archbishop of Spiegel

Count Ferdinand August von Spiegel zum Desenberg and Canstein (born December 25, 1764 at Canstein Castle near Marsberg in Westphalia , † August 2, 1835 in Cologne ) was Archbishop of Cologne from 1824 to 1835 .

Life

Ferdinand August came from the old Westphalian noble family of the barons Spiegel zum Desenberg ( Prince Diocese of Paderborn ). He was the fifth child of his father Baron Theodor Hermann von Spiegel zum Desenberg and his second wife Adolphine Franziska von Landsberg zu Erwitte. He was a half-brother of Franz Wilhelm von Spiegel , the leading minister of the Cologne electoral state at the end of the 18th century. He had a largely carefree youth until his mother died in 1777 and his father in 1779 in quick succession.

With his brother Max, who was a year older than him, he then came to the prince-bishop's noble convent in Fulda , where he received theological, philosophical and legal training until 1783. From 1783 to 1785 he studied law and economics in Münster . Here he became canon in May 1783, after which he received the tonsure and minor orders. Rooted in the ideas of the Enlightenment , Spiegel in no way leaned towards the clerical status from which he only hoped for greater career opportunities, as did his half-brother Franz Wilhelm.

After he had applied in vain for the Land drostenamt , the highest administrative post in the then Duchy of Westphalia , in 1788 , he was able to obtain further cathedral canonicals in Osnabrück and Hildesheim in the following years . During his time in Münster he lived with an uncle who was the cathedral capitular in Münster. After his death on November 17, 1793, he was able to obtain the office of Vice-Dominus held by this, whereupon he was ordained a subdeacon on November 25, 1793 . In 1790 he accompanied the Cologne elector and Archbishop Maximilian Franz of Austria , who was also Bishop of Munster, to the coronation of Leopold II in Frankfurt am Main . Always striving for a leading position, the Archbishop appointed him a Privy Councilor in 1796 , especially since Spiegel had already demonstrated enormous talents in administration as Vice-Dominus.

When French troops threatened the bishopric of Münster in the summer of 1794 and most of the canons had left the city, he continued to run the chapter. On July 25, 1796, he was ordained diaconate from Auxiliary Bishop Kaspar Max Droste zu Vischering . In recognition of his services, he was elected dean of the cathedral on July 29, 1799 . But his attempt to combine this with the office of vicar general failed because of Archbishop Max Franz , who did not want such a concentration of power in one hand. The prescribed for Domdekanat ordination received mirror, which had only a general "belief in God" and saw in the Church an institution for public education, on 6 December 1799th

When the archbishop died in 1801, Spiegel took over the government of the bishopric and urged the cathedral chapters of Münster and Cologne to elect Anton Viktor of Austria , who also commissioned him to accept the election. However, his hope that the son of a powerful house could prevent the secularization of Münster was disappointed, especially since Anton Viktor soon renounced his election and the rights arising from it.

On August 3, 1802, Prussian troops occupied the city of Münster, so that Ferdinand August lost his secular offices. But soon he found himself on the best of terms with the Prussians and worked closely with them, especially as he hoped that this would give him a post in the secular administration. In February 1803 in Berlin, he succeeded in preventing the dissolution of the cathedral chapter of Münster. In the turmoil of the Napoleonic wars he largely withdrew from the public eye until 1810, especially since the French had abolished the cathedral chapter in 1811 and Spiegel did not want to enter a new chapter as a simple canon, in which the commoners now sat; he considered this to be beneath his dignity. But soon he was heard and respected by the French too, so that on April 14, 1813, Emperor Napoléon appointed him Bishop of Munster. However, since he had concerns about the legality of an appointment without papal confirmation, he had himself elected by the cathedral chapter as 2nd vicar capitular , to whom the actual vicar capitular, his eternal opponent Clemens August Droste zu Vischering , had to relinquish all powers. During these years, which were filled with enormous activity, an inner change took place at Spiegel, so that from 1815 he can be described as a truly religious Christian.

After the fall of Napoleon, he again managed to establish close ties with the Prussians, whose goodwill he immediately regained. Various offers, e.g. B. To become regional president, he turned down. In the hope of providing the Catholic Church in Prussia with its own trustee as minister of education, although he thought of himself, he renounced the diocese of Münster in 1815 , but before his resignation, on the orders of the Pope, he relinquished its administration to Droste-Vischering as vicar capitular passed over. From 1814 to 1815 he took part in the Congress of Vienna , where he campaigned for a German national church independent of Rome. But since there was in fact no settlement of church questions, he left again. Although he was denied a longed-for office at ministerial level, the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm III. his use on January 17, 1816 by being raised to the count status, which was also awarded to his youngest brother, the Austrian ambassador Caspar Philipp (1776-1837).

After his thinking had changed in the past few years and he had changed from a representative of the state church to an advocate of church freedom, he was given the longed-for role in the reorganization of the German Church and he became a sub-delegate of the executor of the bull De salute animarum (1821). The Prussian government was so impressed by the speedy and impartial completion of this work, which involved sensitive personnel issues, that he was approached with the offer to take over the Archdiocese of Cologne. He now apologized to Pope Pius VII for his uncanonical behavior from 1813, which not only earned him forgiveness, but also an otherwise unusual prior appointment as archbishop. After the king approached again personally with the request to take office, on December 20, 1824, Pope Leo XII appointed him archbishop .

After the mirror was solemn drafted in Cologne on 21 April 1825 he received on June 11, 1825 the Bishop of Trier Josef von Hommer the episcopal ordination in the Church of St. Assumption . The composer Maximilian-Friedrich von Droste zu Hülshoff , a friend of his from Münster , had composed and performed his third Te Deum for this purpose . In the following years, Spiegel worked tirelessly and carried out all the more important things in his diocese himself. He even wrote the Constitutions for the Neuss Alexians himself. Spiegel, who was not a comfortable man for the government, endeavored to safeguard the church's independence from the state in principle. In the conflict over raising children in mixed-denominational marriages, he reached an agreement with the Prussian government on the so-called Berlin Convention in 1834 .

Contrary to his hope, this agreement with the Prussian state did not find the necessary approval from Pope Gregory XVI. However, before the mixed marital dispute could openly break out, Ferdinand August, who had probably suffered from colon cancer since 1833, died on August 2, 1835 in Cologne. He found his final resting place in the archbishop's crypt of Cologne Cathedral .

literature

Web links

Commons : Ferdinand August von Spiegel  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Handbook of the Archdiocese of Cologne 1966, Vol. 1, p. 48
  2. ^ German biography
predecessor Office successor
Maximilian Franz of Austria Archbishop of Cologne
1824–1835 		Clemens August II of Droste zu Vischering
personal data
SURNAME Spiegel, Ferdinand August von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Spiegel zum Desenberg and Canstein, Ferdinand August von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Cologne
DATE OF BIRTH December 25, 1764
PLACE OF BIRTH Canstein Castle , Westphalia
DATE OF DEATH August 2, 1835
Place of death Cologne