Leopold Anton von Firmian

• 1. Introduction

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  Leopold Anton von Firmian signed a document on the 31st of October 1731 that would force more than twenty thousand people out of their homes. He chose that date deliberately. It was the 214th anniversary of Martin Luther's nailing of his Ninety-five Theses to a church door in Wittenberg. The message was unmistakable. Firmian was Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg, one of the most powerful ecclesiastical rulers in the Holy Roman Empire. He wanted, in his own words, to restore the Catholic Church to its "old power and glory." What followed was one of the largest forced expulsions of Protestants in eighteenth-century Europe. But Firmian was not only a persecutor. He was a builder, a patron, and a man shaped by one of the most well-connected noble families in Austria. The full picture of his life runs deeper than a single edict.

• 2. A Family Built for Power

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  The Firmian family traced its roots to one of the oldest Tyrolean noble families, with a seat at Sigmundskron castle in the County of Tyrol. Leopold Anton was born in Munich on the 11th of March 1679, the son of Baron Franz Wilhelm von Firmian, an Imperial envoy born in 1636, and his wife, Countess Maria Viktoria von Thun und Hohenstein. His mother's brother, Count Johann Ernst von Thun, had held the very same archbishopric of Salzburg before him, from 1687 to 1709. Church authority ran in the family. Leopold Anton's own nephew, Karl Joseph von Firmian, became Austria's plenipotentiary minister in Milan and earned a reputation as a patron of the arts. Karl Joseph supported the poet Giuseppe Parini, the musician Johann Ernst Eberlin, and the painter Giambettino Cignaroli. Karl Joseph also appears to have been among the patrons of the young Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's opera Mitridate, Re di Ponto, performed in Milan around 1770. Leopold Anton himself was an early patron of Leopold Mozart, Wolfgang's father. Another nephew, Cardinal Leopold Ernst von Firmian, became prince-bishop of Passau.

• 3. The Road to Salzburg

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  Firmian prepared for an ecclesiastical career from early life. He received his ordination in Rome in 1707 and became provost of the Salzburg chapter in 1713. Pope Clement XI appointed him Bishop of Lavant in 1718. Pope Benedict XIII then elevated him to Bishop of Seckau in 1724, the same diocese his maternal uncle had once held. On the 4th of October 1727, Firmian was elected Archbishop of Salzburg, placing him among the highest ranks of the Catholic hierarchy in the German-speaking world. His uncle had held this position for more than two decades before him, and now Firmian would hold it until his death in 1744.

• 4. The Edict and the Exodus

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  To pursue his goal of restoring Catholic dominance, Firmian first sent Jesuits into the village squares of Pongau, the mountainous region of his archbishopric where Protestant communities had quietly endured. All villagers were required to appear before the preachers, under threat of severe penalties. When persuasion did not accomplish what Firmian wanted, he moved to compulsion. His Edict of Expulsion, signed on the 31st of October 1731, gave the Protestants of the archbishopric a stark choice: recant their beliefs or be banished within days. To enforce the order, Firmian brought in more than 6,000 Austrian soldiers. The result surprised even those who had expected resistance. Over twenty thousand of his subjects declared Protestant beliefs and chose exile rather than recantation. Protestant bodies in the Reichstag protested vehemently, and the Protestant nations of Europe objected loudly. King Frederick William I of Prussia received most of those who survived the journey and settled them around Gumbinnen in East Prussia. Others reached Hanover, the Netherlands, and the British colony of Georgia. After the expulsion, Firmian reorganized the vacated Salzburg territory into four mission areas, assigned respectively to the Augustinian, Capuchin, Benedictine, and Franciscan orders.

• 5. Builder and Patron

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  Firmian's ambitions were not confined to religious discipline. He had Schloss Klessheim completed and commissioned Schloss Leopoldskron as his private residence, building it for his nephew Franz Laktanz Firmian. He also redesigned the Kapitelschwemme and the Marstallschwemme, two of Salzburg's distinctive horse troughs that still stand today. Schloss Leopoldskron held a particular place in his affections. When Firmian died on the 22nd of October 1744, his body was laid to rest in the crypt of Salzburg Cathedral, but his heart was placed beneath the floor of the Schloss Leopoldskron chapel, the residence he described as dearly beloved.