WESSENBERG, IGNAZ HEINRICH von. — Enlightenment thinker and Febronian, born in Dresden on 4 November 1774, died in Constance on 9 August 1860. Philosophy, theology, law, and ecclesiastical history were the subjects to which he devoted the greatest interest; he maintained contacts with political and ecclesiastical figures and with circles involved in state administration.
From 1798, financial difficulties that had affected the 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 assumed full governance of the diocese of Constance, chose him, at barely twenty-seven years of age and still a subdeacon, as his vicar general. An intense programme of reform, dominated by Enlightenment criteria, characterized W.’s pastoral action in Constance. Alongside praiseworthy efforts to improve the condition 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 redirected towards purely philanthropic purposes. German formularies were adopted for liturgical services and the administration of the Sacraments, eventually leading to the creation of a new ritual.
The arbitrary manner in which W. introduced these innovations, going so far as to grant dispensations beyond the power of bishops, was grounded in his Febronian conception, which, while theoretically admitting the Roman Primacy, exaggerated the divine and inviolable right of bishops and their independence from the Apostolic See, maintaining that the dispositions of the Holy See should be applied in the various territories only after their acceptance by the bishops, assisted and supported by the state authorities. W. was one of the leading exponents of this position also within the broader context of the ecclesiastical history of Germany in his time, seeking a national organization of the German Church under the aegis of a primate. He worked tirelessly towards this end at the Congress of Vienna and at the Diet of Frankfurt. Yet the idea of giving the German Church a unified organic constitution capable of ensuring broad autonomy from Rome definitively failed because of the opposition of certain Catholic states themselves.
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 election on the Chapter, but W., supported by the grand duke of Baden, retained the administration. A journey to Rome did not have the hoped-for effect of clarifying the situation. W., convinced that by his conduct he had demonstrated the exorbitance of the Roman claims, was welcomed on his return with great demonstrations of enthusiasm. The revision of the diocesan boundaries of Germany gave the Holy See the opportunity finally to resolve the question. 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 the two new sees of Freiburg and Rottenburg were established in compensation, forming the new ecclesiastical province of the Upper Rhine. 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 Karl, even the Baden regency no longer supported him, he was forced to retire (1827).
During the many years that W. continued to live in Constance, in addition to travelling abroad and pursuing scholarly activity (publication of selected works [7 vols., 1834–35]), he engaged in extensive political and social activity. Irreproachable in conduct, open to an appreciation of art, and actively concerned with relieving and assisting every kind of needy person, he was brilliant as a writer and speaker, but as a theologian he was superficial and rigid in asserting his ideas. The city of Constance still possesses various cultural and charitable foundations attributable to him, and preserves his rich library and his house.