Joseph Franz Anton von Auersperg

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Cardinal Joseph Franz Auersperg
(1734–1795)
Coat of arms of the prince-bishop in the Passau city theater

Cardinal Josef Franz Anton von Auersperg (born January 31, 1734 in Vienna , † August 21, 1795 in Passau ) was an Austrian bishop , prince-bishop of Passau and cardinal .

Life

Joseph Franz Anton von Auersperg was born in Vienna as the son of Heinrich Joseph 4th Prince of Auersperg , Duke of Münsterberg and Frankenstein in Silesia, and Maria Franziska von Trautson and Falkenstein. His father was an imperial councilor and head stable master. In his youth he received canonicals in Salzburg and Passau as well as the Ardagger provost .

At the instigation of Salzburg's Archbishop Schrattenbach , he was only 28 years old when he became Bishop of Lavant in 1763 and was ordained bishop in Salzburg on May 20, 1763, and in 1773 he was also given the St. Mauritzen Provost in Friesach. He had the bishop's court in St. Andrä im Lavanttal, which was badly damaged by an earthquake, partly restored from his own fortune.

On January 31, 1773 he was confirmed bishop of Gurk , on May 1 he was enthroned in Gurk Cathedral and ruled in the spirit of the enlightened state church until 1783. He passed on the imperial tolerance patent to his clergy in a pastoral letter in 1782. For mixed confessional marriages, reverses about the Catholic upbringing of children should no longer be required, the use of the rosary and holy water would only be permitted with great caution, and the wearing of pennies and other customs that might strengthen the superstition of the people would be prohibited . For this he received the greatest praise from Emperor Joseph II . However, the bishop met with great protest from a large number of the faithful. Through numerous ecclesiastical reforms, he made his diocese the model of a state church diocesan administration. Here he had Pöckstein Castle built by Johann Georg von Hagenauer . When working on a new diocesan regulation for Inner Austria, Auersperg's proposal to raise the diocese of Gurk to an archdiocese was not accepted. On the occasion of the Pope's first visit to Austria by Pope Pius VI. Auersperg traveled to Ljubljana to greet the guest there on March 16, 1782 on his journey to Vienna.

The Passau cathedral chapter elected the enlightened church prince Auersperg as bishop on May 19, 1783, after Emperor Joseph II separated the Austrian parts from the diocese of Passau immediately after the death of Cardinal Leopold Ernst von Firmian . The new prince-bishop could not change the mind of the emperor and renounced all diocesan rights in the Austrian territories.

Burial place of Prince Bishop Auersperg in Passau

Supported by his brother Count Johann von Auersperg, whom he made vicar general , he carried out radical reforms in the spirit of Josefinism in the following years . He fought against various forms of popular piety , had images of saints objected to during visitations removed, banned the weather bells and banned sermons against Protestants. He promoted the poor and sick care and at the same time had begging forbidden under penalty. Theater and opera, which he saw as educational institutions, flourished under him. On 30 March 1789 Pope appointed him Pius VI. to the cardinal.

Under Auersperg, in addition to the court theater with the Redoutenhaus, school houses, hospitals, administration buildings, roads and bridges, especially the Inn promenade in Passau, were built. For himself, like all other buildings before, he had Freudenhain Castle built as a summer residence by the lordly court architect and lifelong friend Johann Georg von Hagenauer , which included an important park. In his villa in the Holländerdörferl , an artificial village in the middle of the park, he died unexpectedly at the age of 61. He was buried in the crypt of Passau Cathedral .

literature

  • Erwin Gatz (Ed.): The Bishops of the Holy Roman Empire 1648–1803. A biographical lexicon. Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1990, ISBN 3-428-06763-0 .
  • Jakob Obersteiner: The bishops of Gurk. 1072–1822 (= From Research and Art. 5, ISSN  0067-0642 ). Verlag des Geschichtsverein für Kärnten, Klagenfurt 1969, pp. 475–493.
  • August Graf Preysing : Dying Rococo. In: Alois Fink (ed.): Unknown Bavaria. Volume 5: Castles - Palaces - Residences. Photomechanical reprint. Süddeutscher Verlag, Munich 1975, ISBN 3-7991-5839-1 , pp. 52-62.

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personal data
SURNAME Auersperg, Joseph Franz Anton von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Auersperg, Count Joseph Franz Anton von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian prince-bishop and cardinal
DATE OF BIRTH January 31, 1734
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH August 21, 1795
Place of death Passau