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KLESL (or KLEESL), MELCHIOR (1552–1630)

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Originally appearing in Volume V15, Page 846 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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KLESL (or KLEESL), MELCHIOR (1552–1630)  , See also:Austrian states-See also:man and ecclesiastic, was the son of a See also:Protestant See also:baker, and was See also:born in See also:Vienna . Under the See also:influence of the See also:Jesuits he was converted to See also:Roman Catholicism, and having finished his See also:education at the See also:universities of Vienna and See also:Ingolstadt, he was made See also:chancellor of the university of Vienna; and as See also:official and See also:vicar-See also:general of the See also:bishop of See also:Passau he exhibited the zeal of a convert in forwarding the progress of the See also:counter-See also:reformation in See also:Austria . He became bishop of Vienna in 1598; but more important was his association with the See also:archduke See also:Matthias which began about the same See also:time . Both before and after 1612, when Matthias succeeded his See also:brother See also:Rudolph II. as See also:emperor, See also:Klesl was the originator and director of his policy, although he stoutly opposed the concessions to the Hungarian Protestants in 16o6 . He assisted to secure the See also:election of Matthias to the imperial See also:throne, and sought, but without success, to strengthen the new emperor's position by making See also:peace between the Catholics and the Protestants . When during the See also:short reign of Matthias the question of the imperial See also:succession demanded prompt See also:attention, the bishop, although quite as anxious as his opponents to retain the See also:empire in the See also:house of See also:Habsburg and to preserve the dominance of the Roman See also:Catholic See also:Church, advised that this question should be shelved until some arrangement with the Protestant princes had been reached . This counsel was displeasing to the archduke See also:Maximilian and to See also:Ferdinand, afterwards the emperor Ferdinand II. who believed that Klesl was hostile to the candidature of the latter See also:prince . It was, however, impossible to shake his influence with the emperor; and in See also:June 1618, a few months before the See also:death of Matthias, he was seized by See also:order of the archdukes and imprisoned at Ambras in See also:Tirol . In 1622 Klesl, who had been a See also:cardinal since 1615, was transferred to See also:Rome by order of See also:Pope See also:Gregory XV., and was released from imprisonment . In 1627 Ferdinand II. allowed him to return to his episcopal duties in Vienna, where he died on the 18th of See also:September 1630 . See J . Freiherr von See also:Hammer-Purgstall, Khlesls Leben (Vienna, 1847–1851) ; A .

Kerschbaumer, Kardinal Klesl (Vienna, 1865) ; and Klesls Briefe an Rudolfs II . Obersthofineister A . Freiherr von See also:

Dietrich-See also:stein, edited by V . Bibl . (Vienna, 1900) .

End of Article: KLESL (or KLEESL), MELCHIOR (1552–1630)
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