Wilhelm of Welsperg

Wilhelm von Welsperg (born February 16, 1585 in Rovereto ; † March 27, 1641 in Bruneck ) was Prince-Bishop of Brixen from 1629 to 1641 .

Origin and education

Wilhelm von Welsperg was born on February 16, 1585 at Rovereto Castle . His parents were the castle captain Christoph von Welsperg and Albertina Fugger zu Kirchberg and Weißenhorn . The Lords of Welsperg were in the service of the Counts of Görz in the 12th century and later became ministers of the Counts of Tyrol . The Welsperg were hereditary marshals of the Brixen monastery around 1500 and were raised to the rank of imperial count in 1593.

Wilhelm's family moved to Bruneck , where his father became castle captain. He attended the University of Dillingen in 1601 and studied at the Collegium Germanicum in Rome from 1602 .

Wolfgang became a canon in Regensburg and Salzburg in 1600 , received another canon in Brixen in 1604, but was excluded from the cathedral chapters there after disputes. He was ordained a priest in Salzburg in 1614 and was canon in Trento from 1613 until his resignation in 1616 . In Salzburg he became dean of the cathedral in 1627 and made it president of the royal court councilor and governor in Salzburg.

bishop

Welsperg was elected Bishop of Brixen on November 22, 1628, confirmed by the Pope on May 28, 1629, and consecrated bishop on October 28, 1629 by Auxiliary Bishop Anton Crosini von Bonporto .

Wilhelm resided mainly in Bruneck. 1630 he visitierte in the Krain located Valdes that was pledged long and where the Lutheran faith had spread. Arbitrariness of the vicar general Christoph Seemann led to a reform of the diocesan administration. The vicariate general was replaced by a collegial consistory based on the model of the Archdiocese of Salzburg .

The Hochstift raised a tax to finance the national defense of the County of Tyrol. Under the reign of Claudia de 'Medici , the Tyrolean demands increased, whereupon the bishop refused to pay further subsidies for keeping the court. Welsperg turned to the Roman Curia, the Viennese court and the Electoral College in Regensburg for support against the Tyrolean demands. Rome and the electors support Brixen, while Vienna sided with the regent who confiscated the Brixen property in Tyrol. It was not until 1639 that the bishop got his goods back after he had agreed to make a voluntary payment.

A Capuchin monastery was founded in Bruneck . Wilhelm carried out several visitations in the northern Tyrolean areas of the diocese. The already precarious financial position of the diocese was made worse by an increase in debt.

Welsperg died on March 27, 1641 in the Theisegg residence in Bruneck and was buried in the local parish church.

literature

• Josef Gelmi : Welsperg, Wilhelm von. In: Erwin Gatz (Ed.): The Bishops of the Holy Roman Empire. 1448 to 1648. Dunker and Humblot, Berlin 1996, ISBN 3-428-08422-5 . P. 746.
• Constantin von Wurzbach : Welsperg, Wilhelm Freiherr von . In: Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich . 54th part. Imperial-Royal Court and State Printing Office, Vienna 1886, p. 250 f. ( Digitized version ).

Web links

• Entry on Wilhelm von Welsberg on catholic-hierarchy.org

predecessor	Office	successor
Daniel Zen	Prince-Bishop of Brixen 1629–1641	Johann Platzgummer