Melchior Khlesl
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His Eminence the Most Reverend Melchior Cardinal Klesl |
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| Cardinal-Priest of Santa Maria della Pace | |
Melchior Klesl
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| Church | Catholic Church |
| In office | 1624–1630 |
| Predecessor | Alessandro d'Este |
| Successor | Fabrizio Verospi |
| Orders | |
| Consecration | 30 Mar 1614 by Placido della Marra |
Melchior Klesl (sometimes Khlesl, rarely Cleselius) (19 February 1552 – 18 September 1630) was an Austrian statesman and cardinal of the Roman Catholic church during the time of the Counter-Reformation. Klesl was appointed Bishop of Vienna in 1598 and elevated to cardinal in 1616.
Born in Vienna to Lutheran Protestant parents, with his father being a baker, Melchior Klesl studied philosophy at the University of Vienna, and was with his parents converted by the court chaplain, Father Georg Scherer, S.J. He received minor orders in 1577, when he was assigned a canonry, and, even while in minor orders, he preached and held conferences at Korneuburg and in the vicinity, making many conversions. In 1579 he became doctor of philosophy and provost of St. Stephen's in Vienna, which dignity carried with it the chancellorship of the university, and was finally ordained to the priesthood. As early as the following year he was appointed councillor of the Bishop of Passau for Lower Austria.
Rudolf II, impressed by the vigour and success of his campaign against Protestantism, entrusted him with the work of the Counter-Reformation, which became his life work. Klesl brought back into the fold the cities of Baden, Krems, and Stein, though not without great difficulty, nor indeed without actual risk of his life. In 1585 he was made imperial councillor by Rudolf II, who three years later appointed him court chaplain and administrator of the Diocese of Wiener Neustadt. It took him but a very short time to restore the Catholic rule in this thoroughly disorganized bishopric. He was compelled in doing so to be constantly on his guard against the monastic council, which, in a memorial on the subject, he calls, "the cause of all evil, the champion of godless prelates and priests against their bishop, a parasite".
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