LAMORMAINI, WILHELM. - Jesuit, confessor of Emperor Ferdinand II, b. at La Moire Mannie in Luxembourg (whence his surname, which was properly Germay or Germeau) on 29 Dec. 1570, d. at Vienna on 22 Feb. 1648. He was a highly esteemed professor of philosophy (1598-1604) and of theology (1606-12) at Graz; rector at Graz (1613-21) and at Vienna (1622-24); then confessor of Ferdinand II (1624-37); afterwards rector at Vienna again (1639-43) and provincial of Austria (1643-45).
In his office as confessor he was not only a beloved and effective counselor of the Emperor, but contributed greatly to the restoration of the Catholic religion in Austria. He favored the edict of 1629, by which the Protestants had to return to the Catholics the ecclesiastical property they had usurped; he openly defended religious tolerance toward heretics, advised the establishment of various houses of his Order in the Empire; he played a leading part in the Catholic reform in Austria, Styria, Bohemia and Moravia. On the other hand, his position, so influential and so acceptable, could not fail to create bitter enemies for him, who accused him of having accepted money to keep silent, of having pushed his confreres to deceit and lying or to reacting with violence against the heretics; letters and documents of his and of others were even falsified, and he was even made the hero of disreputable novels. All groundless accusations, from which he knew how to defend himself and which left intact his reputation as a learned, pious, upright and unassuming person ("verus et omnibus numeris absolutus Jesu Socius," Urban VIII said of him).
He wrote: Ferdinandi II, Romanorum imperatoris virtutes (Vienna 1638), where some flattery of the Emperor and some unfavorable and unjust judgment on the memory of Wallenstein are revealed.
Bibliography6 worksL.'s Autobiography was published by F. Ch. Khevenhüller, in Annales Ferdinandei, XI, Leipzig 1723, p. 595 ff.; part of his correspondence in
BIBL.: L.'s Autobiography was published by F. Ch. Khevenhüller, in Annales Ferdinandei, XI, Leipzig 1723, p. 595 ff.; part of his correspondence in B. Dudik, Korrespondenz Kaiser Ferdinand II. und seiner erleuchten Familie mit p. M. Breanus u. W. L., Kaiserl. Beichwüttern S. J., Vienna 1876. - For the life: E. Staël, Vita et virtutes p. Guglielmi Germani I., composed in Vienna in 1648 and remaining in manuscript in the archives of the Order; B. Duhr, Wallenstein in seinem Verhältnis zu den Jesuiten, in Hist. Jahrbuch, 13 (1892), pp. 80-99; R. Stiegele, Beiträge zu einer Biographie der Jesuiten W. L., ibid., 28 (1907), pp. 551-69, 849-70; id., Gesch. der Jesuiten in den Ländern deutscher Zunge, II, II, Freiburg im Br. 1913, pp. 691-723. On the falsifications of documents see B. Duhr, Jesuitenfabeln, 4th ed., ibid. 1904, pp. 602-603, 684-87; Ital. trans., II, Florence 1908, pp. 51-52, 203-205.
Testore, Celestino. “Lamormaini, wilhelm.” In Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. VII, coll. 866–867. Città del Vaticano: Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1951. https://azioneromana.com/article/lamormaini-wilhelm.
MLA
Testore, Celestino. “Lamormaini, wilhelm.” Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. VII, Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1951, coll. 866–867. Azione Romana, https://azioneromana.com/article/lamormaini-wilhelm.
BibTeX
@incollection{ec7_lamormaini_wilhelm,
author = {Testore, Celestino},
title = {Lamormaini, wilhelm},
booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica},
volume = {VII},
pages = {866--867},
note = {Cited by column},
publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico},
address = {Città del Vaticano},
year = {1951},
url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/lamormaini-wilhelm}
}
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