Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 10.djvu/694

 MUNICH-FREISING

632

MUNICH-FREISING

nevertheless steadf^u-itly opposed the ecclesiastical in- novations which scciiu'il about to gain a footing in his diocese. Philipp was also administrator of the Dio- cese of Xauniburj;. ruder Bishop Leo (1552-r)9), a visitation of llieliislKipric took place. Moritzof Sandi- zell (loltO-liti), an admirable administrator, resigned in favour of Duke Krnest of Bavaria (1.55tJ-l(ilL3). The latter wa.s at the same time Bishop of Hildesheim, of Liege, Elector of Cologne, and Bishop of Munster. On account of his zealous activity in the North Ger- man sees, he Wiis unable to remain long at Freising. Nevertheless he introduced many reforms, established a ducal and ecclesiastical town council in Munich, and promulgated the first Bavarian concordat (1583). Under the pious \ilus .\dam von Gebeck (1618-51), the bishopric was shockingly devastated by the Thirty Years War. Emperor Ferdinand II conferred upon him and his successors the dignity of Prince-bishops.

Once more two princes of the house of Bavaria were elected to the See of Freising: Albert Sigismund (1652- 85), at the same time Bishop of Ratisbon and Provost of Ellwangen, an art-loving prince, who adorned the cathedral with a magnificent portal; and Joseph Klem- ens ( U)<S.")-'.t4 ), brother of the Elector Max Emanuel, an ostentatious and extravagant prince, also Bishop of Ratisbon, Elector of Cologne, and Bishop of Liege. Papal confirmation of his appointment to the last- named see was given only in the event that he should resign from the Sees of Freising and Ratisbon. In Freising he was succeeded by Johann von Kapfing (1695-1727), who caused the cathedral to be deco- rated by the Asam brothers, erected a number of schools and charitable institutions, made numerous visitations, and founded a lyceum at Freising, one of the profes.sors being the learned Benedictine ISIeichel- beck, who wrote the history of the bishops of Freising. Johann Theodor, Duke of Bavaria (1727-63), in whose hands were united the Dioceses of Ratisbon, Liege, and Freising, built an ecclesiastical seminary at Munich (1735). Klemens Wenceslaus of Saxony (1763-68), who from 1764 was also Bishop of Ratis- bon and coadjutor of Augsburg, resigned the See of Freising when, in 1768, he was chosen Elector of Trier. Ludwig Joseph von Welden (1769-88) was specially distinguished for his erection of schools for the people. During his episcopate, a papal nuncia- ture for the lands of Elector Karl Theodor was es- tablished in Munich (1786), which was the immediate cause of the convoking of the Congress of Ems. Max- imilian Prokop, Count of Torring-Jettenbach (1788- 89), was succeeded by the last Prince-Bishop of Frei- sing, Joseph Konrad von SchrofTenberg (1780-1803), the dissolution of the diocese taking place during his lifetime (d. 4 .\pril, 1803, at Berchtesgaden).

At the time of the secularization of church prop- erty, the prince-bishopric fell to Bavaria, the parts lying in Austria and the Tyrol being turned over to Salzburg. The reformers undertook the destruction of monasteries and diocese, numerous churches were sold for the material they contained, graves were dese- crated, the sacred vessels were sold at auction or melted down, and the most valuable libraries were de- spoiled of their treasures. Owing to the dissolution of the cathedral chapter by the Bavarian Govern- ment, the election of a vicar capitular was impossible, and the spiritual guidance of the diocese was entrusted to the vicar-general, Heckenstaller, appointed from Salzburg, who. in 1819, was named \ncar .Apostolic of the abandoned diocese, The most important episco- pal functions were performed by the coadjutor Bishop of Rati.sbon, .Johann Nepomuk von Wolf. After the concordat between Pius VII and King Max Joseph I (5 June, 1817), an orderly condition of affairs was again finally inaugurated. From the territory of the dissolved Sees of Freising and Chiemsec, and the for- mer Provostship of Berchtesgaden was created the Archdiocese of Munich-Freising, with the seat of the

archbishop and the cathedral chapter in Munich. The new archdiocese was also to comjjrise tho.se iiorlinns of the former Prince-Bishopric of Salzburg \^hi<'h lay on the left bank of the Inn. On the other hand, (ho.se parishes in the Tyrol, Carinthia, Carniola, etc., which were formerly under the bishops of Ireising and Chiemsec, were subjected to the Ordinaries of Salz- burg and Brixen. The church of Our Lady in Munich was made the cathedral. The Bishops of Augsburg, Pa.ssau, and Ratisbon became the suffragans of the new ecclesiastical province. The papal Bull of circum- scription, "Dei ac Domini nostri", bears the date of

I April, 1818.

Lothar Anselm, Freiherr von Gebsattel, dean of the cathedral of Wiirzburg and a personal friend of the king, W'as named the first archbishop (1817). As, at the same time as the publication of the concor- dat, a religious edict had been promulgated as part of the constitution, which again unfairly abrogated many of the stipulations of the concordat, Gebsattel refused to take the oath to abide by the constitution; and it was only after the Tegernsee proclamation of the king, 15 Sept., 1821, that he was consecrated in the cathedral of Munich (1821). He attained great distinction by his regulation of ecclesiastical affairs. Under his rule, a large number of monasteries were re-established or newly founded, and many churches and charitable institutions were erected. In Freising, on the site of the old episcopal residence, which Louis had restored to the bishop in 1826, an ecclesiastical seminary was established, to which were added later a lesser seminary, a gymnasium, and a lyceum.

His successor was Karl August, Count of Reisach, previously Bishop of Eichstiitt, and coadjutor of Munich. He became unpopular under Maximilian

II because of his efforts to uphold the rights of the Church. The king finally used his influence to have him withdrawn, and Pius IX in 1855 raised him to the cardinalat e and called him t o Rome. G regor von Scherr (1856-77), former Abbot of Metten, endeavoured to preserve the Catholic character of the schools. For the maintenance of the lesser seminaries of the diocese which had been obliged to receive an exceptionally large number of candidates to the priesthood, he founded St. Corbinian's Association, and erected a lesser seminary in Freising. He introduced into his diocese the devotion of the Perpetual Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, and in.stituted pastoral con- ferences of the clergj'. At the Vatican Council, he voted with the minority, but submitted at once to the decision of the council. The last years of his episco- pate were embittered by the support which the Ba- varian Government, under the leadership of Lutz, minister of worship, gave to the Old Catholic move- ment, whose founder (Dollinger) and most zealous champions were resident in Munich.

His successor, Anton von Steichele (1878-89), the learned church historian and historiographer of the Diocese of Augsburg, by the foundation of Church Building Associations kept pace with the ever-grow- ing City of Munich by the erection of new churches and parishes, and enlarged the seminary at Freising. In January, 1887, he summoned the bishops of Bavaria to a conference at Freising, which resulted in a resolu- tion to -send to the Government a joint memorandum in regard to the status of the Catholic Church in Bavaria, which when carried into ctTcct broughtabout a better arrangement of the relations between Church and State and guaranteed to the Church a greater in- fluence upon the intermediate and higher schools. Under Archbishop Antonius von Thoma (1889-97), the Old Catholic quesrion was finally settled in a manner favourable to the Catholic Church and to justice. Franz Joseph von Stein (1897-1909) fear- lessly espoused in the Bavarian Chamber of the Ojuncil of the Empire the cause of the Catholic Church regarding instruction, upholding Catholic