Johann Anton II of Freyberg

Johann Anton II of Freyberg

Johann Anton (Reichs-) Freiherr von Freyberg-Hopferau , also: Baron Johann Anton Freyberg zu Hopferau (born July 16, 1674 in Hopferau; † April 30, 1757 in Eichstätt ) was the 65th Bishop of Eichstätt and Prince-Bishop of the Eichstätt Monastery .

Life

He came from the old south German noble family of Freyberg . In 1694 he completed his high school studies at the Jesuit high school in Munich (today Wilhelmsgymnasium in Munich ). From 1695 to 1700 Johann Anton II von Freyberg studied theology at the Collegium Germanicum in Rome , where he was ordained a priest in 1699 . After that he was pastor of two parishes in Bavaria until 1711. In 1711 he became Canon of Eichstätt and in 1722 in the cathedral chapter . He lived pious and withdrawn.

In 1736, at the age of 62, he was the preferred candidate of Emperor Charles VI. and elected Prince-Bishop of Eichstätt as an opposing candidate by Provost Marquard Wilhelm von Schönborn and ordained bishop on September 8, 1737. He promoted the orders, such as the Jesuits , to whom he donated the high altar in the Guardian Angel Church in 1739 , the Benedictine Sisters of St. Walburg in Eichstätt, the sisters of the Notre-Dame du Sacré Cœur congregation , to whose church he donated a benefit of 12,000 guilders in 1755 , and the Franciscans , whom he gave permission to build a monastery in Ellingen in 1738 and where he personally consecrated the monastery church on April 24, 1740 . He donated the high altar to the parish church of St. Quirin in Ammerfeld around 1738. In the Upper Palatinate , which had become Bavarian again , he established the parishes of Sulzbürg and Pyrbaum . A major event during his tenure was the diocese's millennium celebration in September 1745, for which the Willibald altar in rococo style was installed in the cathedral . On the occasion of his 50th jubilee as a priest, he had Matthias Seybold erect a new high altar in the east choir (since 1883 in the Assumption of Mary in Deggendorf ). In 1748, Seybold was entrusted with the reconstruction and baroque transformation of the Allodium Cronheim, which had already burned down in 1632 . On the Frauenberg above Eichstätt, he had a stone Chapel of the Virgin Mary built by his court building director Gabriel de Gabrieli in place of the wooden chapel in 1739 . An important new building was started under the prince-bishop: In 1755, his new court building director Mauritio Pedetti took care of the new construction of the city parish church "Collegiata".

In the years 1736 to 1740 there were negotiations, protests and disputes between the Provost of Schönborn and the Cathedral Chapter on the one hand and the Prince-Bishop on the other. When the rights of the cathedral chapter were violated by officials of the prince-bishop, a process that lasted until 1753 came about, which went as far as Rome and ended with the victory of the cathedral chapter. The delimitation of ecclesiastical sovereignty and state authority in the Imperial District Court of Hirschberg and the temporary relocation of the University of Ingolstadt to Eichstätt, which was planned due to the War of the Austrian Succession in 1742 , led to conflicts.

Prince-Bishop Johann Anton died at the age of 83 one day after a stroke and was buried on May 4, 1757 in the Willibaldschor of Eichstätter Cathedral. The main heirs of the bishop were the Eichstätts orphans, as he left 40,000 guilders to build an orphanage.

literature

• Christian Probst : The death of the Prince-Bishop of Eichstätt and the doctors. Medical history and section report by Johann Anton von Freyberg (1757) . In: Journal for the Bavarian State History (ZBLG) . Volume 53. Commission for Bavarian State History at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences (ed.). Munich 1990. pp. 265-317.
• Julius Sax: The bishops and imperial princes of Eichstätt 745-1806. Attempt to interpret their role and work . Publisher Krüll. Landshut 1884/1885 (2 volumes).
• Collective sheet of the historical association Eichstätt 58 (1953–60), Eichstätt 1961, et al. P. 109.
• Andreas Bauch: Johann Anton II. Von Freyberg (1736/57) . In: Collective sheet of the Historical Association Eichstätt 65/66 (1972/73). Eichstätt 1973. pp. 24-28.
• Klaus Kreitmeir: The bishops of Eichstätt . Publishing house of the church newspaper. Eichstätt 1992. pp. 85f.
• Peter Zürcher: The bishopric elections in the prince-bishopric of Eichstätt from 1636 to 1790. Election stories in the mirror domkapitelscher, dynastic and imperial state and imperial church politics (= series of publications on Bavarian state history. Vol. 155). CH Beck, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-406-10770-2 (At the same time: Eichstätt, Ingolstadt, University, dissertation, 2004/2005: Bishops' elections and coadjutor efforts in the Eichstätt Monastery from 1636 to 1790. ).

Web links

Commons : Johann Anton II. Von Freyberg  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Entry on Johann Anton II von Freyberg on catholic-hierarchy.org

Individual evidence

1. ^ Max Leitschuh: The matriculations of the upper classes of the Wilhelmsgymnasium in Munich , 4 vol., Munich 1970–1976; Vol. 2, p. 69.

predecessor	Office	successor
Franz Ludwig Freiherr Schenk von Castell	Bishop of Eichstätt 1736–1757	Raymund Anton von Strasoldo