WARTENBERG, FRANZ WILHELM, CONTE DI - Enciclopedia Cattolica, Vol. XII, p. 1028

Machine translation of the 1948–1954 Italian original. The original text is authoritative.

WARTENBERG, FRANZ WILHELM, Count of. — Cardinal, b. March 1, 1593 at Munich, d. December 1, 1661 at Regensburg.

Son of Duke Ferdinand of Bavaria and Maria von Pettenbeck, he studied with the Jesuits at Ingolstadt and at the German College in Rome. Bishop of Osnabrück in 1625, he energetically promoted the Catholic Reformation and, as imperial commissioner, enforced the Edict of Restitution in the territories around the Elbe. He was also bishop of Verden in 1630 and of Minden in 1632, but had to abandon Osnabrück following the Swedish occupation from 1633 to 1648. In 1636 he became coadjutor, with right of succession, of the Bishop of Regensburg, succeeding him in 1650. In that year he also recovered the See of Osnabrück. He was created cardinal by Alexander VII on April 5, 1660.

BIBL.: B.A. Goldschmidt, W., Osnabrück 1866; Politische Correspondenz (1621-31), ed. H. Forst, Leipzig 1897; A. Steinhuber, Gesch. des Koll. German.-Hungar. in Rom., 2 vols., 2nd ed., Freiburg 1906, passim; W. Berning, Die Relatio status des Osnabrücker Bischofs F.W. V. W., in Mitt. d. Ver. für Geschichte u. Landesk. V. Osnabrück, 60 (1940), pp. 133-52; G. Schreiber, Das Weltkonzil von Trient, II, Freiburg 1951, pp. 375 ff.