Waldstein, Jan Bedrich

Jan Bedřich Waldstein was born in Vienna to the youngest son of Count Maximilian Waldstein (d. 1654) and his wife Countess of Polixena from Talmberk. After the death of his parents, Ferdinand Arnost Waldstein became his guardian. On September 14, 1661, the emperor proclaimed him an adult. Choosing a spiritual career, Waldstein studied philosophy at the Jesuit College in Prague, then theology in Rome. Even before priesthood ordination in 1665, Pope Alexander VII appointed Waldstein a prelate . After the ordination of Waldstein, Leopold I appointed him a canon in Olomouc , and then in the Wroclaw Cathedral . In 1668, the Knights of the Order of the Crusaders with a red star chose Jan Bedřich Waldstein as their Velmaster (Grand Master) .

In the same year, Waldstein, in the position of bishop, headed the diocese of Hradec Králové , and in 1675 became the 16th Archbishop of Prague (official inauguration took place on March 14, 1676 ).

Archbishop Waldstein is known as a consistent guide to the re-Catholicization policy in the Czech Republic. In 1677, the St. Wenceslaus Bible (the Bible in Czech) prepared by his predecessor was published, and two years later Waldstein released a corresponding guide for priests. In his position as archbishop, Waldstein encouraged the emergence of new parishes and the establishment of new Czech monasteries. His auxiliary, Jan Ignaz Dlouvezewski, organized a house for priests who had retired in Prague.

During the period of the Archdiocese of Waldstein, the government gradually reduced the secular powers of the church. In 1688, the ecclesiastical courts of the Czech Republic were denied the right to impose penalties for religious crimes. Under Wallenstein, the dispute over church tithe , which the government used to finance military spending, intensified, and the archbishop’s conflict with parliamentarians demanding the introduction of direct taxation of the clergy led to the exclusion of Wallenstein from the Czech parliament in 1693 .

Jan Bedřich Waldstein died on June 3, 1694 in Duchcov and was buried in the Waldstein Chapel of St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague . Archbishop Waldstein is known as a generous patron of arts , patron of artists and architects, as well as a collector of art objects.

• Bartůněk, Václav Stručné dějiny kollegiátní kapituly a královské kaple Všech svatých na Pražském hradě. Pražský arcibiskup Jan Bedřich Valdštejn. Litoměřice, 1979.