FIRMIAN, LEOPOLD ERNST. — Cardinal, born in Trento on 22 September 1708, died in Passau on 13 March 1783. Appointed bishop of Seckau, he was transferred to Passau by Clement XIII on 26 September 1763. Clement XIV created him cardinal on 14 December 1772. In 1776, alongside Cardinal Migazzi, archbishop of Vienna, he took part in the struggle against the plan for ecclesiastical studies prepared by Rautenstrauch according to the principles of Josephinism. During his stay in Vienna, Pius VI, at the request of Joseph II, personally imposed the red hat on F. and Batthiany on 19 April 1782, in the knights’ hall of the imperial Hofburg.
BIBL.: Pastor, XVI, see index; F. Martin, s. V. in LThK, IV, cols. 13–14; G. Soranzo, Perserinus apostolicus, Lo spirito pubblico e il viaggio di Pio VI a Vienna, Milan 1937, pp. 117 ff., 346 ff. Fausto Fossi