The Holy Roman Emperor And His Jesuit Confessor

To understand the character and conduct of the Emperor Ferdinand II, he must know his relations with her confessors. In vardu v fur Oesterreichische Geschichte (History of Austria), Beda Franziskus Dudík, OSB publishes the correspondence do Ferdinand and his family with Fr Martinus Becanuset,

Father Wilhelm Lamormaini, S. J., Imperial confessors. With the greater freedom that the Emperor chose his confessors among the Jesuits and gave them a decisive influence not only on matters of conscience, but the affairs of state.

If Ferdinand II was a Catholic comprehensive, he had a part in the education of his parents, the other in the direction of her confessors. The hundred and ten letters that we have before, most into Latin, are simultaneously penetrate to the secret workings of the government machine.

A lettro 1630, for example, shows that from that time the Emperor had most confidence in Wallenstein. From all the correspondence shows that the introduction of the Jesuits in Germany, to combat Protestantism, is the work of P. Lamormaini.

-quote again the Politics of Brandenburg in 1689 by Hans Prutz in Zeitschrift fur Geschichte preussische, and pass in the eighteenth century.

Read the original French (here) , the translated version in English (here)

Short Bio.

William Lamormaini, SJ, confessor of Emperor Ferdinand II, * † 22.2. 1570 in La Moire Mannie (Bel Luxembourg), † 22.2.1648 in Vienna. A farmer's son went to Jesuit colleges, in Trier and Prague. As a Doctor of Philosophy 1590, he joined the Jesuit novitiate at Brno, he studied theology in Vienna in 1592-96 and received the priesthood in 1596 in Bratislava. In the years 1598-1604 taught at the Jesuit University in Graz, first philosophy, then (1606-14) and theology, was appointed in 1613 to the local rector. In 1622 Lamormaini became rector of the Jesuit College in Vienna. 1624 Ferdinand II appointed him to his confessor. In 1639-43 was appointed Rector of the Jesuit College in Vienna and was the 1643 Upper Austrian province of the order. Fr. William Lamormaini, S.J. was an uncompromising fighter for the Counter-Reformation.

Link (here)

Read the latin original by Father Guilielmi Lamormaini entitled "Ferdinandi II Imperatoris virtutes Romanorum"