WESSENBERG, IGNAZ HEINRICH von. - Illuminist and Febronian, b. in Dresden on 4 Nov. 1774, d. in Constance on 9 Aug. 1860. Philosophy, theology, canon law, and ecclesiastical history were the subjects to which he devoted the greatest interest; contacts with political and ecclesiastical personalities and with the circles of state administration.
From 1798 financial difficulties, which had struck his family, forced him to settle in Constance, where he had long been a canon. Decisive was his meeting (1795) with the Archbishop of Mainz and coadjutor of Constance, Karl Theodor von Dalberg, who immediately saw in W. the man suited to him and, once he had full control of the diocese of Constance, chose him—still in his ecclesiastical habit and sweating—to be his vicar general. An intense reform activity, dominated by Enlightenment criteria, characterized W.’s pastoral action in Constance. Alongside commendable efforts to improve the conditions of the clergy, with good initiatives for the renewal of parish life, this reform was animated by a radical rationalistic tendency, which caused serious disorientation. Pilgrimages, processions, and popular devotions were proscribed as superstitions. The Marian rosary and weekly confession were viewed with open hostility. Confraternities and congregations were suppressed or turned to purely philanthropic purposes. In liturgical functions and the administration of the sacraments, German forms were adopted, culminating in the creation of a new ritual.
The arbitrariness with which W. introduced these innovations, even going so far as to grant dispensations exceeding the power of bishops, was grounded in his Febronian conception, which, while theoretically admitting the Roman primacy, overvalued the divine and inviolable right of bishops and their independence from the Apostolic See, claiming that the provisions of the Holy See were to be applied in different territories only after acceptance by the bishops, assisted and aided by state authorities. W. was one of the leading exponents of this attitude even within the broader context of the ecclesiastical history of Germany in his time, aiming at a national organization of the German Church under the aegis of a primacy. He worked tirelessly toward this goal at the Congress of Vienna and at the Diet of Frankfurt. However, the idea of giving the German Church an organic, unitary constitution capable of guaranteeing broad autonomy from Rome definitively failed due to the opposition of some Catholic states.
After Dalberg’s death in 1817, the Chapter of Constance appointed W. capitular vicar and administrator of the diocese. The Holy See rejected this appointment and imposed a new choice on the Chapter, but W., supported by the Grand Duke of Baden, maintained the administration. A journey he made to Rome did not have the hoped-for effect of clarifying the situation. W., convinced that his account had highlighted the excessiveness of Roman pretensions, was greeted on his return with great demonstrations of enthusiasm. The revision of the diocesan circumscriptions of Germany gave the Holy See the opportunity to resolve the issue definitively. The ancient diocese of Constance, from which the Swiss territories had already been detached in 1814–15, was suppressed in 1821 by the bull Provida solersque and, in compensation, the two new sees of Freiburg and Rottenburg were erected, forming the new ecclesiastical province of Upper Rhenish. Although the clergy of the two new dioceses had elected W. as their bishop by a majority of votes, Rome refused confirmation, and since, after the death of Grand Duke Charles, even the Baden regency no longer supported him, he was forced to retire (1827).
In the long years that W. still lived in Constance, besides trips abroad and scholarly activity (publication of selected works [7 vols., 1834–35]), he carried out great activity in the political and social spheres. Blameless in morals, open to a sense of art, actively interested in alleviating and aiding all kinds of needy people; brilliant as a writer or orator, he was, however, as a theologian superficial and rigid in affirming his ideas. The city of Constance still possesses various cultural and charitable foundations that trace back to him and preserves his rich library and his house.