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Franz Wilhelm von Wartenberg


Franz Wilhelm, Count von Wartenberg (born at Munich, 1 March 1593; died at Ratisbon, 1 December 1661) was a Bavarian Catholic Bishop of Osnabrück, expelled from his see in the Thirty Years' War and later restored, and at the end of his life a Cardinal.

He was the eldest son of Ferdinand of Bavaria and his morganatic wife Maria Pettenbeckin. He was educated by the Jesuits at Ingolstadt (1601-8), and at the Germanicum in Rome (1608–14).

In 1621 Franz Wilhelm became manager of the governmental affairs of the Elector Ferdinand of Cologne, who appointed him president of his council and brought him to the Diet of Ratisbon in 1622. On 26 October 1625, he was elected Bishop of Osnabrück, receiving papal approbation 25 April 1626.

The three preceding bishops had been Protestants and had replaced most of the Catholic priests by Protestant preachers. Cardinal Eitel Friedrich, who succeeded them, endeavoured to restore the Catholic religion but soon died. With the help of Johann Tserclaes, Count of Tilly, Franz Wilhelm took possession of his see on 12 March 1628, which had been occupied by Danish soldiers. He began the work of Counter-Reformation, drove the Protestant preachers from the city and restored the churches to the Catholics. Franz Wilhelm eliminated the anti-Catholic element from the city council; took the system of education into his own hands; turned the former Augustinian convent over to the Jesuits whom he engaged as teachers at the Gymnasium Carolinum; restored various religious communities and established new ones; held synods and visitations, and enforced the Tridentine decrees where possible. In 1631, he founded a university which, however, was destroyed by the Swedes in 1633.


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