ERNESTO of BAVARIA. – Archbishop and Prince-Elector of Cologne, b. in Munich on 17 Dec. 1554, d. at Arnsberg (Westphalia) on 17 Feb. 1612. At barely twelve years of age, Pius V granted him the bishopric of Freising (1566), to which were later added those of Hildesheim (1573) and Liège (1581). When Gebhard Truchsess of Waldburg apostatised in 1583, he was unanimously elected Bishop of Cologne. He had been ordained priest in 1577. Despite a life not entirely blameless, he worked zealously to implement the Tridentine reform in the Rhenish and Westphalian regions, supported by the Jesuits, for whom he had founded colleges.
BIBL.: P. Weiler, *Die kirchliche Reform in Erzbistum Koln*, 1538–1575. Cologne 1931; Pastor, IX–XIII, passim; Eubel, III, pp. 172, 198, 209, 222.