(4) 1. BADEN-DURLACH, O.S.B., Bernhard Gustav von (1631-1677)
Birth. December 24, 1631, Karlsburg, Baden-Durlach, Germany. Of the princes of Baden. Third of the eleven children of Margrave Friedrich V von Baden-Durlach and his second wife Eleonore, countess zu Solms-Laubach. His first name was Gustav Adolf. Nephew and godson of King Gustav Adolf of Sweden, he was named after him. Raised as a Lutheran.
Education. He was educated at the court of the Margrave of Baden-Durlach.
Early life. He received at an early age a Protestant-owned canonicate at the cathedral of Strassbourg. Like his older half-brothers, he fought in the 1650s in the service of Venice against the Turks and in the service of Sweden against Poland and Denmark. After the death of King Charles X of Sweden, he went home. In 1660 he traveled to France and Italy and after a long stay in Rome, he converted to Catholicism on August 24, 1660, in the Franciscan cloister of Hermolsheim (Unterelsass), and took the name Bernhard. In 1663 he became imperial general; and fought against the Turks from 1663 until 1664. Received the minor orders, 1665. He became canon of the metropolitan cathedral chapter of Cologne in 1665. In the autumn of 1667, he reached over his relatives and sought the mediation of the emperor to obtain admission in the monastery of Fulda and for the simultaneous acceptance of the local abbot as coadjutor with the right of succession. On October 5, 1667, he entered the Order of Saint Benedict (Benedictines) and began his novitiate as Brother Bernhard in Petersberg, near Fulda.
Priesthood. Ordained March 19, 1668, in Mainz. On October 7, 1668, he took the vows, and received, then incorporated into the chapter, the provostship of Holzkirchen. Shortly thereafter, he also received the office Hammelburg, after the papal confirmation of the coadjutorship, as early as September 3, 1668, had been carried out. Even before the confirmation, the pope had allowed him to retain both canonicates in Cologne and Strassbourg with their income. At the end of 1668, he became administrator of the abbey of Kempten, whose abbot had shown signs of mental illness. On May 11, 1670, he was named, with papal approval, coadjutor of Kempten, with right of succession. After Abbot Joachim of Fulda died on January 4, 1671, he succeeded him as abbot. On February 5, 1671, he took possession of the abbey of Fulda. On April 12, 1671, in Baden, he was consecrated abbot by Bishop Gabriel Hug of Strassbourg with the assistance of the abbots of Schuttern and Schwarzach/Baden. He received the imperial confirmation and the regalia the following August 23. He was confirmed by the pope on January 15, 1672 as coadjutor of Abbot Johann Bock von Pattern of Siegburg.
Cardinalate. Created cardinal and reserved in pectore in the consistory of August 24, 1671; published in the consistory of February 22, 1672. He had had hopes for the cardinalate since he was a novice and his family had asked the emperor since that time for his elevation. The awarding of the red biretta by the emperor in Vienna took the new cardinal from early March until the end of August 1672 out of the abbey. In 1673, he spent ten months in Cologne and Siegburg to serve as a canon of Cologne, thus meeting the residence requirements, and in Siegburg to perform his duties as coadjutor; he stayed in that abbey only in 1673; he was a life-time coadjutor, since the abbot outlived him. He became prince-abbot of Kempten in 1673. In November 1674, Cardinal Bernard Gustav made on behalf of the emperor a trip to Liège to represent the interests of the empire but he did not achieve his goals and returned with the unfortunate outcome of a costly business. He returned to Fulda at the end of April 1675. The frequent travel and expensive household of the cardinal created tensions between him and the chapter. Because of the encroachment of the abbot into the rights of the chapter and the provost, all the parties signed a capitular statute in 1676 to clarify and define the respective rights; the document lost its validity at the death of the abbot. A reason for a murky relationship between the abbot and chapter was John Werner Freiherr von Plittersdorf, whom the margrave brought to Fulda and in 1671 named president of the clerical and secular government. In him, who had thus become the most powerful man after the abbot, the chapter saw the responsibility for unsound decisions, especially since he was the promoter of the fateful voyage of the cardinal to Liège and of other harmful ventures; Plittersdorf under sharp criticism from other princes, was finally released in 1677. Participated in the conclave of 1676, which elected Pope Innocent XI. Received the red hat and the title of S. Susanna, October 19, 1676. First as a novice and later as abbot of Fulda, he had entertained a plan to unite all the Benedictine congregations and monasteries in the realm into an overall association with a general agent in Rome; the plan was accepted only by Swiss Benedictine abbots, who were friends of the cardinal based on their interest, the cardinal prepared a report, which he presented to the new pope; the reviewers of the proposal suggested that he should be the president of the association. The journey to the conclave kept him away from Fulda for four months. As in the previous year, he spent the summer of 1677 in Kempten, where he suffered this time, as he had in 1675, as a strong fainting with violent chills. After his return to Fulda, the illness worsened and he went at the end of November to Hammelburg in order to find recovery but he died the following month.
Death. December 26, 1677, after several weeks in bed suffering from recurrent infections of the upper airways and fainting spells, which he suffered for the last six months in connection with his case history of a blood disease, at Castle Saaleck in Hammelburg, in the territory of the abbey of Fulda. He was buried in the collegiate church of Fulda, where he had built a tomb.
Bibliography. Cardella, Lorenzo. Memorie storiche de' cardinali della Santa Romana Chiesa. 9 vols. Rome : Stamperia Pagliarini, 1793, VII, 210; Leinweber, Josef. Die Fuldaer Äbte und Bischöfe. Frankfurt am Main : Knecht, 1989, p. 135-139.
Webgraphy. Biography, in German, Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie; his engraving and biography, in English, Wikipedia; his genealogy, A7, C4, E3, Genealogy.EU; his engraving, Araldica Vaticana.
Birth. February 5, 1628 (1), Paris, France. Of a noble family originally from Artois. Son of François Annibal, duke d'Estrées, marshal of France, and Marie de Béthune (B5). Brother of Jean II d'Estrées, admiral and marshal of France, viceroy of America. Nephew of Gabrielle d'Estrées, mistress of King Henry IV of France.
Education. (No information found).
Sacred orders. (No information found). Abbot commendatario of the monastery of Longi Pontis, Soissons. Provost commendatario of Verton, Nanterre.
Episcopate. Elected bishop of Laon, August 30, 1655. Consecrated, September 26, 1655, at the cathedral of Senlis, by Henri de Bethune, archbishop of Bordeaux, assisted by Denis Sanguin, bishop of Senlis, and by Luis de Rechigne, bishop of Tulle. Duke and peer of France. Abbot of Saint-Germain-des-Prés. Member of the Académie Française, 1658; was dean of the Académie at the moment of his death. Participated in the Assembly of the Clergy, 1660. Protector of the Académie de Soissons. Ambassador of France before the Holy See.
Cardinalate. Created cardinal and reserved in pectore in the consistory of August 24, 1671; published in the consistory of May 16, 1672; received the red hat and the title of S. Maria in Via, August 8, 1672. Minister of Portugal before the Holy See. Opted for the title of SS. Trinità al Monte Pincio, January 28, 1675. Participated in the conclave of 1676, which elected Pope Innocent XI. Resigned government of the diocese of Laon in favor of his nephew Jean, June 2, 1681. Abbot of St Claude from 1681. Camerlengo of the Sacred College of Cardinals, January 12, 1682 until January 11, 1683. Commander of the Order of Saint-Esprit, 1688. Participated in the conclave of 1689, which elected Pope Alexander VIII. Participated in the conclave of 1691, which elected Pope Innocent XII. Opted for the order of cardinal bishops and the suburbicarian see of Albano, September 15, 1698. Participated in the conclave of 1700, which elected Pope Clement XI. Ambassador of France in Spain, 1701-1703. Abbot of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, 1703.
Death. December 18, 1714, in the abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés. Exposed and buried in the church of that abbey.
Bibliography. Cardella, Lorenzo. Memorie storiche de' cardinali della Santa Romana Chiesa. 9 vols. Rome : Stamperia Pagliarini, 1793, VII, 208-210.
Webgraphy. His engraving, signature and biography, in French, Académie française; images and biography, in English, Wikipedia; his engraving by Ferdinand Voet and Aubertus Cluet, Antiquariat Hille, Berlin.
(1) This is according to the site of the Académie Françiase, linked above; Annuaire Pontifical Catholique, 1905, p. 167; and Jean, Les évêques et les archevêques de France. Depuis 1682 jusqu'a 1801, 322. Hierarchia Catholica Medii et Recentioris Aevi, V, 7, indicates that he was born on June 3, 1629 and lived 85 years, 6 months and 15 days.
(6) 3. NIDHARD, S.J., Johann Eberhard (1607-1681)
Birth. December 8, 1607, castle of Falkenstein, diocese of Passau, Austria (1). His first name is also listed as Juan Everardo; and his last name is also listed as Nidhardus; as Neidarth; as Neidhardt; as Neüthardt; as Nithard; and as Neidthardt.
Education. Entered the Society of Jesus (Jesuits), October 6, 1631, Vienna.
Priesthood. Ordained to the priesthood (no date found). Professor of philosophy, ethics canon law, dogmatic theology and the art of debating, University of Graz. Named spiritual advisor to Archduchess Maria-Ana of Austria, future wife of King Felipe IV of Spain (1649). After the king died in 1665, she appointed him state councilor and inquisitor general of Spain in September 1666; occupied the post until 1669; he became member of the Council of Regency, of which the inquisitor general was part ex officio. He declined promotion to the cardinalate as the queen desired. Unable to improve the sad conditions in which the previous minister, the count-duke of Olivares, had left the kingdom, suspected by the Spaniards for being Austrian, and intensively disliked and opposed by Don Juan, illegitimate son of King Felipe, he stepped down and was named Spanish ambassador extraordinary to the Holy See in February 1669. Nominated bishop of Agrigento, did not occupy the post.
Episcopate. Elected titular archbishop of Edessa in Osrhoëne, November 16, 1671. Consecrated, January 24, 1672, Gesù church, Rome, by Cardinal Federico Sforza, bishop of Tivoli, assisted by Giacomo Altovitti, titular patriarch of Antioch, and by Gilla Colonna, titular patriarch of Jerusalem.
Cardinalate. Created cardinal and reserved in pectore in the consistory of August 24, 1671; published in the consistory of May 16, 1672; received the red hat and the title of S. Bartolomeo all'Isola, August 8, 1672. Participated in the conclave of 1676, which elected Pope Innocent XI. Opted for the title of S. Croce in Gerusalemme, September 25, 1679.
Death. February 1, 1681, at 11 p.m., in his residence in Collegio del Santissimo Nome di Gesù, Rome. Exposed in Gesù church, Rome, where the funeral took place on February 4, 1681, and buried in the tomb of Cardinal Juan de Lugo, S.J., in that same church.
Bibliography. Cardella, Lorenzo. Memorie storiche de' cardinali della Santa Romana Chiesa. 9 vols. Rome : Stamperia Pagliarini, 1793, VII, 213-214; Guitarte Izquierdo, Vidal. Episcopologio Español (1500-1699). Españoles obispos en España, América, Filipinas y otros países. Rome : Instituto Español de Historia Eclesiástica, 1994. (Publicaciones del Instituto Español de Historia Eclesiástica; Subsidia; 34), p. 208; Ritzler, Remigium, and Pirminum Sefrin. Hierarchia Catholica Medii et Recentioris Aevi. Volumen V (1667-1730). Patavii : Typis et Sumptibus Domus Editorialis "Il Messaggero di S. Antonio" apud Basilicam S. Antonii, 1952, pp. 8, 44, 45 and 191.
Webgraphy. His engraving and biography by María Carmen Sáenz Berceo, in Spanish, DB~e, Diccionario Biográfico Español; his engraving by Martin Bernigeroth, Antiquariat Hille, Berlin; his tomb in the Gesù Church, Rome, together with Cardinal Juan de Lugo's tomb, Australian National University.
(1) The site of the bishops of Agrigento indicates that he was born in Muhlviertel, Austria.
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