Ecclesiastical territories: the bishop of Würzburg as a reforming prince, 1573-1617

A counter-reformation prince-bishop, 1573-1617

Julius Echter von Mespelbrunn (1545-1617), prince-bishop of Wurzburg and duke of Franconia from 1573 to his death, provides a prime illustration of the influence which spiritual princes were capable of weilding within the Empire. In 1576, only three years after taking office at the age of 28, he founded an impressive hospital, the Juliusspital, with the endowment of an abandoned monastery, to care for pilgrims, orphans and epileptics.  Six years later, in 1582, he opened the city's university, which had lapsed only thirteen years after its foundation in 1402. Housed in purpose-built quarters and staffed primarily by the Jesuits which he welcomed to the city, the flourishing institution provided the priests needed to replace Lutheran preachers banished from the principality and the Catholic priests removed for failing to meet the standards of their office, while also educating a new generation of officials needed to prosecute thoroughgoing Catholic reform. In the course of rebuilding the episcopal palace, he also assembled a fine library of some 3000 volumes. One of the most effective rulers of his time and a leading figure of the Catholic League, Julius Echter was a widely emulated model of a counter-reformation prince.

Source: Matthäus Merian (ed.), Topographia Franconiae [= Topographia Germaniae, vol. 9] (Frankfurt am Main, 1648, repr. 1656). Wikimedia (public domain): here and here.

Credit: Howard Hotson (February 2023)