ERTHAL, FRIEDRICH KARL JOSEPH AND FRANZ LUDWIG VON

Friedrich Karl Joseph, prince elector and archbishop of Mainz, primate of Germany and chancellor of the Empire (1774–1802); b. Mainz, Jan. 3, 1719; d. Aschaffenburg, July 25, 1802. He studied at Mainz, Würzburg, and Reims, and became a canon of the cathedral of Mainz (1753) and rector of the university (1754). In 1774 he was elected archbishop of Mainz as well as prince archbishop of Würzburg, but he resigned the latter office in favor of his brother Franz. Karl was most gifted, but worldly, and favorable to the enlightenment. His episcopalist tendencies found expression in the Congress of ems. As a result of the french revolution he lost his territories on the Rhine, and was expelled from Mainz.

Franz Ludwig, prince bishop of Würzburg and Bamberg (1779–95); b. Lohr am Main, Sept. 16, 1730; d. Würzburg, Feb. 14, 1795. After studying theology at Mainz, Würzburg, and Rome, and jurisprudence at Vienna, he was appointed president of the secular administration of the cathedral chapter of Würzburg (1763). In 1779 he was elected unanimously to the double episcopal see of Würzburg and Bamberg. He was loyal to Rome, held strict ecclesiastical views, was solicitous for good training for his clergy, promoted the spiritual exercises of St. ignatius, and was a zealous preacher and a tireless visitator of both his dioceses. In secular matters he reformed the school system, penal law and administration, and took special care of the poor. To his worldly brother, the prince elector, he proposed the ideal of a ruler in his Principles of Government, an ideal that he himself strove to realize completely.

Bibliography: Friedrich Karl Joseph. l. vezin, Die Politik des Mainzer Kurfürsten F. K. von Erthal vom Beginn der Französischen Revolution bis zum Falle von Mainz (Bonn 1932). Franz Ludwig. f. leitschuh, L. von Erthal: Fürstbischof von … Bamberg, Herzog von Franken (Bamberg 1894). h. raab, Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche 2 3:1055–56 bibliog.

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