Count Leopold Anton von Firmian

Leopold Anton Eleutherius baron of Firmian ( born May 27, 1679 in Munich, † October 22, 1744 in Salzburg ) was elected in 1727 to the Prince Archbishop of Salzburg ( princeps et archiepiscopus Salisburgensis ), having previously been Bishop of Lavant, Seckau and Ljubljana had been.

Family

Leopold Anton von Firmian came from a Tyrolean noble family based in Formigar, today Sigmundskron. He was the son of the imperial envoy Franz Wilhelm Freiherr von Firmian, and Maria Victoria Countess of Thun. His uncle was Johann Ernst Graf von Thun und Hohenstein, Bishop of Seckau 1679 to 1687 and Archbishop of Salzburg from 1687 to 1709.

Life

He attended the Tyrolean Jesuit High School, was in 1694 Domschüler ( " Domicellar " ) in Trento and Salzburg, later a student at the College of St. Apollinar in Rome, where he received the priesthood in 1707, and again from 1709 in Salzburg. In 1713 he became provost in Salzburg, Salzburg 1714 dean.

In 1718 he was called by Pope Clement XI. appointed Bishop of Lavant. The Episcopal ordination on May 22, 1718 donated it to the Archbishop of Salzburg, Franz Anton von Harrach to Rorau. Benedict XIII. ordered him in 1724 in addition to the bishop of the diocese Seckau (Graz -Seckau ). 1727 he was appointed imperial secret and in addition to the Bishop of Ljubljana, selected short time as archbishop of the Archdiocese of Salzburg later. After two polls on September 30 and October 2, 1727 and an hour of prayer on October 3, 1727 Firmian received the required number of votes on October 4, 1727. In 1738 he was called by Pope Clement XII. honored with the title " Excelsus " ( " sovereignty "), but the hoped dignity of a cardinal, he was not given.

Archbishop Firmian was buried on November 4, 1744 in the crypt of Salzburg Cathedral.

Work

He saw it as his goal, the Catholic Church to reproduce the "old power and glory ". Accordingly, he tried to convert the Archbishopric in (especially in the Pongau ) live Protestant minority to the Catholic faith - he was preaching Jesuits in the village squares, where all the villagers had to appear on pain of heavy penalties. As if this was not successful, he had expelled from the country within three months on the advice of his Hofkanzlers Jerome Cristani of Rall 1731/32 all Protestants. ( Servants were mostly arrested without immediate warning on the spot and immediately taken out of the country. ) To enforce its arrangement took Firmian over 6000 Austrian soldiers to Salzburg.

About 20,000 people here had to give up their home for their faith (Salzburger exiles ). Most of them found a new home in Prussia. More than a fifth of the deportees, however, did not survive the travails of the emigration. For Salzburg expulsion had disastrous economic consequences. After the expulsion of Protestants Firmian divided the territory into four mission areas Salzburg: Augustinians, Capuchins, Benedictines and Franciscans.

Firmian let finish Klessheim, he let the Kapitelschwemme and the Marstall glut of new precise and more prompted for his nephew Franz Lactantius Firmian the construction of the castle Leopoldskron, the expansion of the great Meier court and the plant the palace gardens including the large, associated pond and this pond surrounding Horse Chestnut avenues.

507476
de