FIRMIAN, LEOPOLD ANTON ELEUTHERIUS VON. — Archbishop of Salzburg, born on 27 May 1679 in Munich, died on 22 October 1744 in Salzburg. Bishop of Lavant in 1718, then of Seckau and Ljubljana, on 4 October 1727 he was appointed prince archbishop of Salzburg. After having unsuccessfully attempted to convert the Protestants of his diocese, who, in agreement with their German co-religionists, were plotting a revolt, he was forced to issue an emigration edict in 1731. Thus more than 20,000 Protestants left the Salzburg region, approximately 16,000 of whom moved to Prussia, and the others to Hanover, Holland, and North America.
BIBL.: J. K. Mayr, Die Emigration der salisburger Protestanten von 1731-32, Salzburg 1931; F. Martin, s. V. in LThK, IV, col. 13. Silvio Furlani