Leopold Anton Freiherr von Firmian or Leopold Anton Eleutherius von Firmian (Munich, 11 March 1679 – Salzburg, 22 October 1744) was a Catholic Prince Archbishop of Salzburg.
He was born, on his father's side, to the aristocratic family of the Tyrol, also known as Count Firmian, by virtue of being the son of the Contessa Maria Viktoria von Thun and the imperial envoy and Baron of Firmian, Franz William von Firmian. He was the uncle of cardinal Leopold Ernst von Firmian, also prince-bishop of Passau. His nephew, Karl (or Carl or Charles) Joseph Graf Count of Firmian, the Austrian plenipotentiary minister in Milan, was renowned as a patron of the arts, including poets such as Giuseppe Parini, musicians such as Johann Ernst Eberlin and painters such as Giambettino Cignaroli. While Leopold Anton was an early patron of Leopold Mozart; the nephew, count Karl Firmian appears to have been one of the patrons for Amadeus Mozart's opera in Milan: Mitridate, Re di Ponto circa 1770.
On a darker note, on October 31, 1731, the 214th anniversary of Martin Luther's nailing of his 95 Theses to the Wittenberg School door, Archbishop Count Leopold Anton von Firmian signed an Edict of Expulsion of Protestants declaring that all Protestants in the bishopric of Salzburg recant their non-Catholic beliefs or be banished within days. To Count Firmian's surprise, over 20 thousand citizens professed Protestant beliefs, and were exiled. He also tried to mediate with the schismatic Manharter sect of the Tyrol.
Source
- Italian wikipedia entry
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