Josef Franz Anton Graf von Auersperg (31 January 1734,

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

– 21 August 1795,

Passau Passau (; ) is a city in Lower Bavaria, Germany. It is also known as the ("City of Three Rivers"), as the river Danube is joined by the Inn (river), Inn from the south and the Ilz from the north. Passau's population is about 50,000, of whom ...

) was an Austrian bishop,

prince bishop A prince-bishop is a bishop who is also the civil ruler of some secular principality and sovereignty, as opposed to ''Prince of the Church'' itself, a title associated with cardinals. Since 1951, the sole extant prince-bishop has been the Bis ...

and cardinal. He was a member of the

House of Auersperg The House of Auersperg ( or ''Turjaški'') is an Austrian princely family and formerly one of the most prominent European noble houses. The family originates from the comital line of Auersperg in the Duchy of Carniola during the Middle Ages and b ...

Life

Joseph Franz Anton von Auersperg was born in Vienna, the son of Heinrich Joseph 4th Prince von Auersperg, Duke of Münsterberg and Frankenstein in Silesia, and Maria Franziska von Trautson und Falkenstein.Metnitz, Gustav Adolf, "Auersperg, Joseph Franz Anton Graf von und zu", ''Neue Deutsche Biographie'' 1 (1953), S. 438
/ref> His father was an imperial councillor and chief equerry. He studied philosophy in Vienna and theology in Rome. Already in his youth he received a canonry in

(1752) and

Salzburg Salzburg is the List of cities and towns in Austria, fourth-largest city in Austria. In 2020 its population was 156,852. The city lies on the Salzach, Salzach River, near the border with Germany and at the foot of the Austrian Alps, Alps moun ...

(1753) as well as the provostship of

Ardagger Ardagger is a town in the district of Amstetten in Lower Austria in Austria. Geography Ardagger lies in southwest Lower Austria, between the Danube and the hills of the Mostviertel ''Mostviertel'' (; English: Most (wine), Most'' Quarter') ...

Bishop

At the instigation of Salzburg Archbishop

Sigismund von Schrattenbach Sigismund (variants: Sigmund, Siegmund) is a German proper name, meaning "protection through victory", from Old High German ''sigu'' "victory" + ''munt'' "hand, protection". Tacitus latinises it '' Segimundus''. There appears to be an older form ...

, he became Bishop of Lavant in 1763 at the age of only 28 and was consecrated bishop in Salzburg on 20 May 1763. In 1773 he also received the provostship of St. Mauritzen in

Friesach Friesach () is a historic town in the Sankt Veit an der Glan (district), Sankt Veit an der Glan district of Carinthia (state), Carinthia, Austria. First mentioned in an 860 deed, it is known as the oldest town in Carinthia. Geography Location Fri ...

. He had the bishop's residence in St. Andrä in the Lavant Valley, which had been badly damaged by an earthquake, restored partly from his own fortune. Imbued with the ideas of

The Enlightenment The Age of Enlightenment (also the Age of Reason and the Enlightenment) was a European intellectual and philosophical movement active from the late 17th to early 19th century. Chiefly valuing knowledge gained through rationalism and empirici ...

, in 1770 he even prohibited the Passion Play and the wearing of crosses without taking into account the feelings of the people. Auersperg was a

Knight of Malta The Sovereign Military Order of Malta (SMOM), officially the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes and of Malta, and commonly known as the Order of Malta or the Knights of Malta, is a Catholic lay religious ...

Prince-bishop

He was confirmed

Bishop of Gurk The Bishop of Gurk is the head of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Gurk, which was established by Archbishop Gebhard of Salzburg, in 1072, as the first suffragan bishop in the Duchy of Carinthia. Initially performing only the functions of an archie ...

on 31 January 1773, enthroned in Gurk Cathedral on 1 May, and ruled in the spirit of the enlightened state church until 1783. A dedicated follower of

Josephinism Josephinism is a name given collectively to the domestic policies of Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor (1765–1790). During the ten years in which Joseph was the sole ruler of the Habsburg monarchy (1780–1790), he attempted to legislate a series o ...

, the Gurk diocese received an accession of territory by the Emperor in 1775. He published a pastoral letter about the 1782 Imperial Edict of Tolerance, which among other things, extended religious freedom to the Jewish population in the Austrian empire. In the future, confessional mixed marriages were no longer to require Catholic education of the children, the use of the rosary and holy water was to be permitted only with the greatest caution, and the hanging of pennies and other customs that could strengthen the superstition of the people were to be forbidden. For this he received the greatest praise from

Emperor Joseph II Joseph II (13 March 1741 – 20 February 1790) was Holy Roman Emperor from 18 August 1765 and sole ruler of the Habsburg monarchy from 29 November 1780 until his death. He was the eldest son of Empress Maria Theresa and her husband, Emperor F ...

. However, the bishop met with great protest from a large part of the faithful. Schloss Poeckstein-Ostansicht

Through numerous ecclesiastical reforms, he made his diocese a model of a state-church diocesan administration. Here he had Pöckstein Castle built by Johann Georg von Hagenauer. During the cooperation for a new diocesan regulation of Inner Austria, Auersperg's proposal to elevate the diocese of Gurk to an archdiocese was not accepted. On the occasion of the first papal visit to Austria by

Pope Pius VI Pope Pius VI (; born Count Angelo Onofrio Melchiorre Natale Giovanni Antonio called Giovanni Angelo or Giannangelo Braschi, 25 December 171729 August 1799) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 15 February 1775 to hi ...

, Auersperg traveled to

Ljubljana {{Infobox settlement , name = Ljubljana , official_name = , settlement_type = Capital city , image_skyline = {{multiple image , border = infobox , perrow = 1/2/2/1 , total_widt ...

to greet the guest there on 16 March 1782, on the pope's way to Vienna. The Passau cathedral chapter elected Auersperg as bishop on 19 May 1783, after Emperor Joseph II had separated the Austrian parts from the

diocese of Passau The Diocese of Passau (; ) is a Latin diocese of the Catholic Church in Germany that is a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising.Leopold Ernst von Firmian Leopold Ernst von Firmian (September 22, 1708 – 13 March 1783) was an Austrian bishop and cardinal. He was Bishop of Seckau from 1739 to 1763, campaigning against Protestantism. He also acted as coadjutor bishop or administrator of the Bisho ...

. The new prince-bishop was unable to change the Emperor's mind and renounced all diocesan rights in the Austrian territories.Lins, Joseph. "Diocese of Passau." The Catholic Encyclopedia
Vol. 11. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1911. 19 August 2023 Supported by his brother Count Johann von Auersperg, whom he made vicar general, he carried out drastic reforms in the following years. He fought against various forms of popular piety, had images of saints removed that were objected to during visitations, and forbade sermons against Protestants. He promoted the care of the poor and the sick and at the same time had begging banned under penalty of law. He excelled as a builder and patron of the arts in the diocese of Passau. Theater and opera, which he saw as educational institutions, flourished under him. On 30 March 1789, Pope Pius VI appointed him a cardinal.
/ref> Under Auersperg, in addition to the court theater with the Redoutenhaus, schoolhouses, hospitals, administrative buildings, roads and bridges were built, in particular the Inn promenade in Passau. He had court architect and lifelong friend Johann Georg von Hagenauer build Schloss Freudenhain as a summer residence, which included an important park. He was awarded the grand cross of the Austrian Order of Sankt Stefan in 1791. He died unexpectedly at the age of 61 in his villa in the Holländerdörferl, an artificial village in the middle of the park. He was buried in the crypt of Passau Cathedral.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Auersperg 1734 births 1795 deaths 18th-century Austrian cardinals Clergy from Vienna Roman Catholic bishops of Passau Bishops of Lavant House of Auersperg