REISACH, KARL AUGUST von. — Cardinal, born on 6 July 1800 at Roth (diocese of Eichstätt), died on 22 December 1869 at the Redemptorists’ house in Contamine (Savoy). After obtaining a degree in law, he entered the German College in Rome in 1824. He later became rector of the College of Propaganda.
Together with P. Perrone and others, R. was charged with carefully examining the Hermesian doctrines, which Gregory XVI subsequently condemned in September 1855 with the brief
Dum acerbissimus. Appointed bishop of Eichstätt in 1836, he founded the diocesan ecclesiastical seminary there and promoted popular missions. Transferred to the archbishopric of Munich-Freising, after the crisis of 1848 he requested that the civil authorities annul every legislative provision contrary to the Concordat of 1817. This request by R., together with the entire Bavarian episcopate, and in particular the steadfastness he displayed in securing for the Church the rights established in the Concordat, eventually became a source of annoyance to King Maximilian II, who sought to have the archbishop transferred, considering him responsible for the difficulties that had arisen in relations between Church and State. The sovereign unsuccessfully attempted to persuade Archbishop Geissel to cede to R. the administration of the archbishopric of Cologne in exchange for that of Munich-Freising, while asking the Pontiff that R. cease governing the archdiocese. Pius IX, unwilling to aggravate the conflict further, granted the King’s wish, created R. a cardinal on 17 December 1855, and called him to join the Roman Curia. Prefect of the Sacred Congregation of Studies, he was appointed in 1867 president of one of the preparatory commissions for the First Vatican Council.