Johann Eberhard Neidhardt

Johann Eberhard Graf Neidhardt as Cardinal (oil painting by Alonso del Arco , 1674)

Johann Eberhard Graf Neidhardt (there are also spellings Neidarth, Neüthardt, Neidthardt, Nidhard and Neidhardt, he preferred to call himself Nidhard ) (* December 8, 1607 at Falkenstein Castle ( Upper Austria ); † February 1, 1681 in Rome ) was a Jesuit and as advisor to Queen Maria Anna of Spain at times essentially responsible for Spanish politics. He later became a cardinal of the Roman Church .

Live and act

Count Neidhardt joined the Jesuit order in Vienna in 1631 and was ordained priest at an unknown time . He later taught philosophy , ethics and canon law in Graz . In 1644 he was called to Vienna by Emperor Ferdinand , where he worked as court preacher at the imperial court, and he was also the teacher and confessor of Archduchess Maria Anna . Count Neidhardt accompanied them to Spain in 1649, where Maria Anna married King Philip IV . After his death in 1665, the queen became regent for the still underage Karl II. Maria Anna was supported by a council of state of which Neidhardt was a leading member. Among other things, he held the office of Grand Inquisitor and State Chancellor. From an ecclesiastical point of view, he was one of those who supported the Queen and Pope Alexander VII in enforcing the doctrine of the immaculate conception . Neidhardt also published a paper on this subject. The aristocracy began to criticize the growing influence of non-Spaniards. Also because Neidhardt had ensured in previous years that Philip's illegitimate son Juan José de Austria was excluded from political participation, he too began to join the critics. Neidhardt could no longer be stopped by the queen and had to leave Spain in 1669.

He went to Rome and was appointed envoy extraordinary with the title of first bishop of Agrigento and later titular archbishop of Edessa . He was ordained bishop on January 24, 1672 in the Church of Il Gesù in Rome by Cardinal Federico Sforza , Bishop of Tivoli ; Co- consecrators were Giacomo Altovitti , titular patriarch of Antioch , and Gilla Colonna , titular patriarch of Jerusalem . In 1672 Pope Clement X raised him to the rank of cardinal priest . On August 8, 1672 he received the titular church of San Bartolomeo all'Isola and on September 25, 1679 was cardinal priest of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme .

He died on February 1, 1681 in Rome and was buried in the local church of Il Gesù .

literature

• Josef Poeschl: Johann Eberhard Nidhard, a cardinal and statesman from Upper Austria. In: Contributions to the regional and folklore of the Mühlviertel. 4. Ribbon. Publishing house of the cath. Preßvereins-Buchdruckerei Rohrbach, Rohrbach 1914, pp. 1-40 ( digitized in the Upper Austrian regional library, call number I-14003 )
• Constantin von Wurzbach : Neidhart, Eberhard von . In: Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich . 20th part. Imperial-Royal Court and State Printing Office, Vienna 1869, p. 140 f. ( Digitized version ).
• Alfred A. Strnad:  Nidhard, Johann Eberhard. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 19, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-428-00200-8 , p. 212 f. ( Digitized version ).

Web links

Commons : Juan Everardo Nithard  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Nidhard, SJ, Johann Eberhard. In: Salvador Miranda : The Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church. ( Florida International University website), accessed December 7, 2016.
• biography