Michael Friedrich von Althann

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Michael Friedrich Cardinal von Althann (around 1722)

Michael Friedrich Graf von Althann , Hungarian also Mihály Frigyes Althan (born July 12, 1680 in Glatz ; † June 20, 1734 in Waitzen ( Hungary )) was a cardinal , bishop of Waitzen and viceroy of the Kingdom of Naples and Sicily .

Origin and education

Michael Friedrich Graf von Althann was the youngest son of Count Michael Wenzel von Althann (1630–1686), Governor of the County of Glatz , and Countess Anna Maria Elisabeth, née. by Aspremont-Lynden (1646-1723). He attended the Jesuit college in Glatz, studied theology in Olomouc , Breslau and at the Collegium Germanicum et Hungaricum in Rome, was ordained a priest in 1709 and received his theological doctorate in 1710 and a few years later his legal doctorate. After the death of his mother, he inherited the allodial rule Seitenberg .

Spiritual offices

Michael Friedrich von Althann held numerous spiritual offices. Before he was ordained a priest, he became a canon of Olomouc . He had other benefits in Prague , Breslau , Altbunzlau and in Tapolca, Hungary . In 1714 he became an Austrian auditor at the papal court in Rome, where he was also rector of the German priestly college Santa Maria dell'Anima on several occasions . In 1718 he was appointed Bishop of Waitzen in Hungary and a year later he became cardinal, whereupon the Pope awarded him the Roman titular church of Santa Sabina on the Aventine in 1720 .

Political offices

Althann was the imperial envoy to the Holy See from 1720 to 1722 . In this position he had the full confidence of the imperial court. He tried to improve relations between the Roman Curia and the Imperial Court in Vienna and carried out a complete reorganization of the imperial embassy offices. The elevation of the diocese of Vienna to an archbishopric in 1722 can be traced back to his negotiating skills.

In 1722 Emperor Charles VI appointed him . to the Viceroy of Naples and Sicily, which came to the Austrian Habsburgs in the Peace of Utrecht in 1713 as a result of the War of the Spanish Succession . As a representative of the emperor, he took the feudal oath . Through a clever personnel policy, he was able to consolidate his authority in this office. He promoted art, theater, music and science.

Soon he had to find resigned that he could not eliminate the political intrigues and the prevailing corruption. Due to his double function as a member of the college of cardinals and representative of the imperial interests, there were also several tensions with the imperial court, which in part on the anti-clerical policy of Charles VI. can be traced back. Because of this loyalty conflict, his reign ended in 1728 and he returned to his diocese of Waitzen disappointed.

Jokes

Immediately after his appointment as Bishop of Waitzen, Althann initiated the rebuilding of his diocese, which had been badly affected by the Turkish rule and whose administration had largely collapsed. He had a new land register created and began the canonically prescribed visitation of his diocese. He promoted the establishment of ecclesiastical orders and recruited new settlers for his largely deserted and depopulated diocese, who had to be Catholic and came mainly from the German-speaking area.

Even after his return from Naples in 1728, Althann devoted himself to his diocese with all his might. With modest means, he built the episcopal residence and the seminary in Waitzen and founded the hospital. Due to several disputes that arose from the struggle for political power in the construction of the diocese, however, he remained one of the sharpest critics of the imperial court, whose state church aspirations he rejected. He was one of the bitterest opponents of Charles VI. Resolutio Carolina passed in 1731 . Probably for this reason his Hungarian goods were confiscated in 1732. He died in 1734 and was buried in Waitzen Cathedral . His nephew Michael Karl von Althann succeeded him in the office of bishop.

literature

  • Joachim Bahlcke : Michael Friedrich Count von Althann. In: Arno Herzig (Hrsg.): Silesians from the 14th to the 20th century (= Schlesische Lebensbilder Bd. 8). Degener, Neustadt an der Aisch 2004, ISBN 3-7686-3501-5 , pp. 129-140.
  • Joachim Bahlcke: Between Vienna and Rome. Social advancement and self-image of the Bishop of Waitzen, Cardinal Michael Friedrich Graf von Althann (1680–1734). In: Archives for Silesian Church History. Vol. 55, 1997, ISSN  0066-6491 , pp. 181-196.
  • Heinrich Benedikt :  Althann, Michael Friedrich Graf von. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 1, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1953, ISBN 3-428-00182-6 , p. 220 ( digitized version ).
  • Karl Schindler: Michael Friedrich Graf von Althann from Glatz. In: Karl Schindler: That was their life. Important counters from four centuries. Marx-Verlag, Leimen / Heidelberg 1975, pp. 27-41.
  • Claudia A. Zonta: Silesian students at Italian universities. A prosopographical study on the early modern history of education (= New Research on Silesian History. Vol. 10). Böhlau, Cologne et al. 2004, ISBN 3-412-12404-4 .

Web links

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Joachim Bahlcke: Aristocrats from the empire on Hungarian bishoprics in the early modern period. To instrumentalize a spiritual elite . In: Hungary Yearbook , vol. 23 (1997). Pp. 81–103, here p. 90.
predecessor Office successor
Sigismund von Kollonitz Bishop of Waitzen
1718–1734 		Michael Karl von Althann
personal data
SURNAME Althann, Michael Friedrich von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Althann, Michael Friedrich Count of
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Bishop and Cardinal von Waitzen; Viceroy of Naples and Sicily
DATE OF BIRTH July 12, 1680
PLACE OF BIRTH Bald
DATE OF DEATH June 20, 1734
Place of death Waitzen , Hungary