Maximilian I
Duke of Bavaria, Elector of Bavaria, and Steward of the Holy Roman Empire, born Munich, Germany, 1573; died Ingolstadt, Germany, 1651; son of William V, the Pious, of Bavaria, and Renate of Lorraine. Maximilian gave much attention to the advancement of religion among the people. He re-established the Catholic Church and made Catholicity the only religion in Bavaria; he organized the Catholic League, 1609, founded five Jesuit colleges, a monastery for the Minims , one for the Carmelites , nine for the Franciscans , and fourteen for the Capuchins . Besides this Maximilian was especially attentive to military matters; he was sincerely religious and rigidly moral in conduct, and not only put down every movement in opposition to the Church in his own country but also exterminated Calvinism and Lutheranism in the territories he had acquired.
Fuente: New Catholic Dictionary
Maximilian I
Duke of Bavaria, 1598-1622, Elector of Bavaria and Lord High Steward of the Holy Roman Empire, 1623-1651; b. at Munich, 17 April, 1573; d. at Ingolstadt, 27 September, 1651. The lasting services he rendered his country and the Catholic Church justly entitle him to the surname of “Great”. He was the son of zealous Catholic parents, William V, the Pious, of Bavaria, and Renate of Lorraine. Mentally well endowed, Maximilian received a strict Catholic training from private tutors and later (1587-91) studied law, history, and mathematics at the University of Ingolstadt. He further increased his knowledge by visits to foreign courts, as Prague and Naples, and to places of pilgrimage including Rome, Loretto, and Einsiedeln. Thus equipped Maximilian assumed (15 Oct., 1597) the government of the small, thinly populated country at his father’s wish during the latter’s lifetime. Owing to the over-lenient rule of the two preceding rulers the land was burdened with a heavy debt. By curtailing expenditure and enlarging the revenues, chiefly by working the salt-mines himself and by increasing the taxes without regard to the complaints of the powerless estates, the finances were not only brought into a better condition, but it was also possible to collect a reserve fund which, in spite of the unusually difficult conditions of the age, was never quite exhausted. At the same time internal order was maintained by a series of laws issued in 1616. Maximilian gave great attention to military matters. No other German prince of that time possessed an army so well organized and equipped. Its commander was the veteran soldier from the Netherlands Johann Tserclaes, Count of Tilly, who, austere himself, knew how to maintain discipline among his troops. The fortifications at Ingolstadt on the Danube were greatly strengthened, and Munich and other towns were surrounded by walls and moats. Well-filled arsenals were established in different places as preparation for time of need. Opportunity for the use of this armament soon offered itself.
The small free city of Donauwörth fell under the imperial ban for violating the religious peace. In executing the imperial decree Maximilian not only succeeded in bringing this city into subjection to Bavaria but also in re-establishing the Catholic Church as the one and only religion in it. This led to the forming (1608) of the Protestant Union, an offensive and defensive confederation of Protestant princes, in opposition to which arose in 1609 the Catholic League organized by Maximilian. Oddly enough, both coalitions were headed by princes of the Wittelsbach line: Maximilian I as head of the League, Frederick IV of the Palatinate, of the Union. The Thirty Years’ War, during which Bavaria suffered terribly, broke out in 1619. Under Tilly’s leadership the Bohemian revolt was crushed at the battle of the White Mountain (Weissen Berg) near Prague, 8 November, 1620, and the newly elected King of Bohemia, Frederick V, forced to flee. His allies, the Margrave of Baden and the Duke of Brunswick, were defeated by the forces of Bavaria and the League at Wimpfen and Hochst (1622), as was also at a later date (1626) King Christian of Denmark. Conditions, however, changed when Maximilian, through jealousy of the House of Hapsburgh, was led in 1630 to seek the dismissal of the head of the imperial army, Wallenstein. The youthful Swedish king, Gustavus Adolphus, defeated Tilly, the veteran leader of the army of the League at Breitenfeld (1631), and in a battle with Gustavus Adolphus near the Lech, 16 April, 1632, Tilly was again vanquished, receiving a wound from which he died two weeks later at Ingolstadt. Although the siege of this city by the Swedes was unsuccessful, Gustavus plundered the Bavarian towns and villages, laid waste the country and pillaged Munich.
Maximilian, who since 1623 had been both Elector and ruler of the Upper Palatinate, implored Wallenstein, now once more the head of the imperial forces, for help in vain until he agreed to place himself and his army under Wallenstein’s command. The united forces under Wallenstein took up an entrenched position near Nuremberg where Wallenstein repulsed the Swedish attacks; by advancing towards Saxony he even forced them to evacuate Maximilian’s territories. The relief to Bavaria, however, was not of long duration. After the death of Gustavus Adolphus at the battle of Lützen (1632) Bernhard of Weimar, unmolested by Wallenstein, ravaged Bavaria until he received a crushing defeat the battle of Nordlingen (6 Sept., 1634). Even in the last ten years of the war the country was not spared from hostile attacks. Consequently Maximilian sought by means of a truce with the enemy (1647) to gain for Bavaria an opportunity to recover. The desired result, however, not being attained, he united his forces to those of the imperial army, but the allied troops were not sufficient to overthrow the confederated French and Swedes, and once more suffered all the terrors of a pitiless invasion. The fighting ended with the capture of the Swedish generals, 6 Oct., 1648, and the Peace of Westphalia was signed at Munster, 24 Oct. of the same year. The material benefits derived by Maximilian from his attitude in politics were meagre: the Electoral dignity, the office of Lord High Steward, and the Upper Palatinate. The abstract gains, on the other hand, appear far greater. Not only since then has Bavaria had the second place among the Catholic principalities of Germany, ranking next to Austria, but for centuries a strong bulwark was opposed to the advance of Protestantism, and the latter was, at times, even driven back. A few years after the Peace of Westphalia and eighteen months after the administration of Bavaria had been transferred to his still minor son Ferdinand Maria, Maximilian’s eventful and troublesome life closed. He was buried in the church of St. Michael at Munich. A fine equestrian statue, designed by Thorwaldsen and cast by Stiglmayer, was erected at Munich by King Louis I in 1839.
Although there was almost incessant war during his reign, and Bavaria in the middle of the seventeenth century was like a desert, nevertheless Maximilian did much for the arts, e.g. by building the palace, the Mariensäule (Mary Column), etc. Learning also, especially at the University of Ingolstadt, had in this era distinguished representatives. The Jesuit Balde was a brilliant writer both of Latin and German verse and Father Scheiner, another member of the same order, was the first to discover the spots on the sun; historians also, such as Heinrich Canisius, Matthias Rader, etc., produced important works of lasting merit.
Maximilian, however, gave for more attention to the advancement of religion among the people than to art and learning. He founded five Jesuit colleges: Amberg, Burghausen, Landshut, Mindelheim, and Straubing. Besides establishing a monastery for the Minims and one for the Carmelites at Munich, he founded nine monasteries for Franciscans and fourteen for Capuchins who venerate him as one of their greatest benefactors. He also founded at Munich a home for aged and infirm Court officials, and gave 30,000 guldens for the Chinese missions, as well as large sums to the Scotch-English college of the Jesuits at Liège. His private charities among the poor and needy of all descriptions were unlimited.
Maximilian was endowed with an uncommon ability for work. He was also sincerely religious and rigidly moral in conduct; he even went beyond the permissible in his efforts to uphold and spread the faith. Maintaining like all princes of his time the axiom “Cujus regio ejus religio”, he not only put down every movement in opposition to the Church in his country but also exterminated Calvinism and Lutheranism root and branch in the territories he had acquired. Where admonition and instruction were not sufficient the soldier stepped in, and the poor people, who had already been obliged to change their faith several times with change of ruler, had now no choice but return to the Church or exile. Maximilian, in addition, never lost sight of secular advantage, as is shown by his numerous acquisitions of territory. Especially valuable was the purchase of two-thirds of the countship of Helfenstein, now a part of Wurtemberg, which as a Bavarian dependence was preserved to the Church and has remained Catholic up to the present time, notwithstanding its Protestant surroundings. Maximilian was twice married. The first marriage was childless. By his second wife Maria, daughter of the Emperor Ferdinand II, whom he married 15 July, 1635, he had two sons; the elder of these, Ferdinand Maria, as already mentioned, succeeded him.
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STIEVE, Maximilian I in Allgem. Deutsche Biog., XXI (1885)21 sq., gives bibliography before 1885; cf. the statements in DOBERL, Entwicklungsgeschichte Bayerns, I (2nd ed., 1908).–HAGL, Die Bekehrung der Oberpfalz (2 vols., 1903); RABEL, Das ehemaliga Benediktiner-Adelstift Weissenohe in Jahrb. des Hist. Vereins Bomberg (1908).–For the founding of monasteries by Maximilian: EBERL, Gesch. d. bay. Kapuzinerodensprovinz 1593-1902 (1902).–DEUTINGER, Beitrage zur Geschichte des Erzbisthums Munchen-Freising, New Series, I (1901).–LAVISSE-RAMBAUD, Histoire generale, V, 508 sqq.; HIMLY, Hist. de la formation territoriale des etats de l’Europe centrale, II (1876), 164 sqq.; CORREARD, Precis d’histoire moderne et contemporaine, 36 sqq.
PIUS WITTMANN Transcribed by Benjamin F. Hull
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume XCopyright © 1911 by Robert Appleton CompanyOnline Edition Copyright © 2003 by K. KnightNihil Obstat, October 1, 1911. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., CensorImprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York
Fuente: Catholic Encyclopedia
Maximilian I
one of the most distinguished of the German emperors, the son and successor of Frederick III, the forerunner of Charles V, was born at Neustadt, near Vienna, March 22,1459. In his nineteenth year he married Maria, the only child and heiress of Charles the Bold, duke of Burgundy, who died in 1482. Maximilian had hoped to enjoy the estates of his father- in-law, but Louis XI of France attempted to seize some of these possessions, and thus involved our German prince in a contest which, when it promised to end favorably for Maximilian, was suddenly turned in favor of Louis XI by the dexterous intrigues of the latter among the Netherlanders. It was not until 1493 that peace was finally established at Senlis. This very year his father the emperor died, and Maximilian succeeded to the government of the vast possessions of the Teutonic realm, so soon to become the theater of one of the greatest revolutions the world has ever been called upon to witness the Reformation of the 16th century an event that was ushered in just as Maximilian himself was fast fading as the shades of evening. In 1494 the newly-crowned emperor married Bianca Sforza, daughter of the duke of Milan, which alliance gave rise to a succession of wars in Italy.
Shortly after he joined the League of Cambray, formed between pope Julius II, Ferdinand of Spain, and Louis XII of France, against the Venetians; but that republic having soon after become reconciled to the pope, Maximilian joined the so-called Holy League between England, Spain, Venice, and the pope, in opposition to the French, who were signally defeated by the forces of Henry VIII and the emperor in the battle of the spurs, near Guinegate (1513). The ascension of Francis I to the throne of France somewhat modified matters in favor of the French. The new king of the Franks captured Milan, and compelled Maximilian to give up Verona to the Venetians for 200,000 ducats. By the treaty of Basle (1499) he had been obliged to acknowledge the independence of Switzerland. Though thus unsuccessful in his wars, he had the fortune to see the hereditary dominions of his house increased during his reign by several peaceful additions; and the marriage of his son Philip with the infanta Juana, and of his daughter Margaret with the infant Juan of Spain, led to the subsequent union of Spain with Austria, while the marriage of two of his grandchildren with the son and daughter of Ladislaus, king of Hungary and Bohemia, brought both these kingdoms to the Austrian monarchy. The closing activity of his reign was displayed against the rising heresy. Luther had just come forward and attacked Tetzel (1517), and, as Leo X was inclined to make light of the opposition of the little Augustine friar, Maximilian addressed the Roman pontiff, and persuaded him to heed this difficulty as a question which was dividing Germany. But in the very year in which the discussion at Leipzic came off Maximilian died (1519), and left it for his successor Charles V to further the cause of Protestantism by a blind obedience to the dictates of an incompetent Roman pontiff. Maximilian I was a liberal patron of literature, and learned men were greatly encouraged by him. Indeed he was himself an author, producing several works in prose and verse. See Hegewisch, Gesch. d. Regierung Maximilians I (1782; new ed. Leipz. 1818); Haltaus, Gesch. d. Kaisers Maximilian (1850); Klupfel, Kaiser Maximilian I (Berl. 1864); Lichnowsky, Gesch. d. Hauses Habsburg; Vehse, Memoirs of Austria, 1:2-33; Coxe, Hist. of the House of Austria, 1:278 sq.; Kohlrausch, Hist. of Germany, p. 234 sq.