Ignaz Heinrich von Wessenberg

Ignaz Heinrich von Wessenberg

Ignaz Heinrich von Wessenberg (born at Dresden, 4 November1774, died at Konstanz, 9 August1860) was a German writer and scholar, and liberal Catholic churchman, and Vicar-General and Administrator of the Diocese of Constance. Imbued from his early youth with Josephinistic and Febronian principles, he advocated a German National Church, somewhat loosely connected with Rome, supported by the State and protected by it against papal interference.

He studied at Augsburg, Dillingen, Würzburg, and Vienna. At the age of eighteen he was already canon at Konstanz, Augsburg, and Basle, and in 1802, when still a subdeacon, he became Vicar-General of Prince-Primate Dalberg for the Diocese of Constance. Not until 1812, when he was 38, did he accept priest's orders.

Before he became vicar-general he had shown his liberal views of religion and the Church in a work entitled "Der Geist des Zeitalters" (Zürich, 1801). In 1802 he founded the monthly review "Geistliche Monatsschrift", which he edited and used as a medium to spread his ideas of religious enlightenment. The protests against this review were such that Dalberg ordered its suspension on 25 May, 1804. It was replaced by the "Konstanzer Pastoralarchiv", which was less offensive and continued to be published annually in two volumes till 1827. For the realization of his pet plans of a National German Church Wessenberg made futile efforts at the council which Napoleon convened in Paris in 1811 and at the Congress of Vienna in 1815.

In the Swiss portion of the Diocese of Constance Wessenberg's innovations aroused great dissatisfaction. His abolition of various holy days of obligation in the cantons of Aargau and St. Gall in 1806; his cooperation with the Government of Lucerne in the suppression of monasteries; his orders in case of mixed marriages (1808) to permit the male offspring to be brought up in the religion of the father, the female in the religion of the mother; and especially his many matrimonial and other dispensations that exceeded his competence induced Testiferrata, the papal nuncio at Lucerne, to call him to account, but Wessenberg insisted that nothing had been done which exceeded the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Constance, giving Testiferrata at the same time to understand that he did not recognize the papal nunciature of Lucerne.

After various requests from the Catholics of Switzerland, Pius VII put an end to Wessenberg's reformist plans in that part of the diocese by severing the Swiss cantons from the Diocese of Constance, in a Brief of 21 October, 1814. On 2 November of the same year the pope ordered Dalberg to depose Wessenberg without delay from the office of vicar-general. Dalberg kept the pope's order secret, though in the beginning of 1815 he temporarily replaced Wessenberg as vicar-general by Canon von Roll for private reasons. In the summer of 1815 he requested the Government of Baden to appoint Wessenberg his coadjutor with the right of succession. The government acceded to Dalberg's wish, but Rome refused to recognize the coadjutorship.

In the same year Wessenberg published anonymously a notorious anti-papal treatise entitled "Die deutsche Kirche, Ein Vorschlag zu ihrer neuen Begrundung und Einrichtung". It is a plea for his scheme of a German National Church, and suggests detailed plans as to its organization. On 17 Feb., 1817, seven days after the death of Dalberg, the Chapter of Constance elected Wessenberg as vicar of the chapter and administrator of the diocese, but his election was invalidated by Pius VII in a Brief of 15 March, 1817.

In July Wessenberg went to Rome, hoping to gain the pope to his side and return as primate of his projected German Church or, at least, as Bishop of Constance. He was kindly received by Consalvi, the secretary of state, but was told that, before the pope would enter into any negotiations with him, he would have to resign as administrator and, like Fenelon, make a declaration to the effect that he disapproved all that the pope disapproves. Refusing to submit to these conditions, he left Rome and with the approval of the Government of Baden continued to act as administrator of Constance until 1827, in open disobedience to the pope.

Pius VII suppressed the Diocese of Constance in his Bull, "Provida sollersque", of 16 August, 1821, incorporating it in the newly erected Archdiocese of Freiburg, whose first archbishop, Bernard Boll, was appointed in 1827.

It must be said to the credit of Wessenberg that during his administration he rendered some services to the Church. Among these are especially noteworthy his deep solicitude for a better training and stricter discipline of the clergy and his insistence on regular Sunday sermons in parish churches and semi-weekly religious instructions in the state schools.

After his retirement in 1827 he gave vent to his anti-papal sentiments and spread his rationalistic views on religion and the Church by various treatises and by frequent contributions to the anti-religious review, "Die freimüthigen Blätter" (Constance, 1830-44).

Works

His chief literary productions are:

*"Die grossen Kirchenversammlungen des 15. und 16. Jahrhunderts in Beziehung auf Kirchenverbesserung" (4 vols., Constance, 1840, 2nd ed., 1845), extremely anti-papal (cf. Hefele, in "Tübinger Quartalschrift", 1841, 616 sq.)
*"Die Stellung des römischen Stuhles gegenuber dem Geiste des 19. Jahrhunderts" (Zürich, 1833)
*"Die Bisthumssynode und die Erfordernisse und Bedingungen einer heilsamen Herstellung derselben" (Freiburg, 1849). T

The last-named two works were placed on the Index.

He is also the author of a collection of poems (7 vols., Stuttgart, 1843-54).

External links

*cite web
url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15590b.htm
title=Ignaz Heinrich von Wessenberg
publisher=Catholic Encyclopedia
accessdate=2007-05-13


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужно решить контрольную?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Ignaz Heinrich von Wessenberg — Ignaz Heinrich von Wessenberg, porträtiert von Marie Ellenrieder …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Ignaz Heinrich von Wessenberg —     Ignaz Heinrich von Wessenberg     † Catholic Encyclopedia ► Ignaz Heinrich von Wessenberg     Vicar General and Administrator of the Diocese of Constance, born at Dresden, 4 November, 1774; died at Constance, 9 August, 1860. He studied at… …   Catholic encyclopedia

  • Wessenberg, Ignaz Heinrich von — • Vicar General and Administrator of the Diocese of Constance (1774 1860) Catholic Encyclopedia. Kevin Knight. 2006 …   Catholic encyclopedia

  • Ignaz Heinrich Freiherr von Wessenberg — Ignaz Heinrich von Wessenberg, porträtiert von Marie Ellenrieder Ignaz Heinrich Karl, Freiherr von Wessenberg (* 4. November 1774 in Dresden; † 9. August 1860 in Konstanz) war ein aufgeklärter römisch katholischer Theologe aus schwäbischem Adel.… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Ignaz von Wessenberg — Ignaz Heinrich von Wessenberg, porträtiert von Marie Ellenrieder Ignaz Heinrich Karl, Freiherr von Wessenberg (* 4. November 1774 in Dresden; † 9. August 1860 in Konstanz) war ein aufgeklärter römisch katholischer Theologe aus schwäbischem Adel.… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Johann Philipp von Wessenberg — Johann Philipp Freiherr von Wessenberg Ampringen (* 28. November 1773 in Dresden [1]; † 1. August 1858 in Freiburg im Breisgau) war ein österreichischer Staatsmann und Diplomat …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Johann von Wessenberg-Ampringen — Johann Philipp von Wessenberg Johann Philipp Freiherr von Wessenberg Ampringen (* 28. November 1773 in Dresden [1]; † 1. August 1858 in Freiburg im Breisgau) war ein österreichischer Staatsmann und Diplomat …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Johann von Wessenberg — Johann Philipp Freiherr von Wessenberg, Porträt von Wendelin Moosbrugger Johann Philipp Freiherr von Wessenberg Ampringen (* 28. November 1773 in Dresden [1]; † 1. August 1858 in Freiburg im Breisgau) war ein österreichis …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Ignaz Speckle — OSB (* 3. Mai 1754 in Hausach; † 15. April 1824 in Freiburg im Breisgau) war der letzte Abt der Benediktiner Reichsabtei St. Peter auf dem Schwarzwald in St. Peter im heutigen Landkreis …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Wessenberg — bezeichnet Ignaz Heinrich von Wessenberg (1774–1860), deutscher Theologe, Generalvikar des Bistums Konstanz bis zu dessen Auflösung 1821 Johann von Wessenberg (1773–1858), österreichischer Staatsmann und Diplomat, Bruder des Vorgenannten der… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”