Christopher Royas de Spinola

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Christopher Royas de Spinola (born of a noble Spanish family, near Roermond in Gelderland in 1626; died at Wiener-Neustadt, 12 March 1695) was a Spanish Franciscan diplomat and Bishop of Wiener-Neustadt.

[edit] Life

Educated at Cologne, he entered the Franciscan Order at that place and for some time taught philosophy and theology. Going to Spain, he was made provincial of his order, and in 1661 accompanied Margaret Theresa, the first wife of Emperor Leopold I, to Vienna, where he became one of the emperor's influential diplomats.

He was appointed titular Bishop of Knin, in Dalmatia, in 1668 and Bishop of Wiener-Neustadt, 19 January, 1686. In his endeavours to bring about a reunion between Protestants and the Catholic Church he had the support of Leopold I. His negotiations with well-known Protestant theologians, such as Molanus, Callistus, Leibniz, etc., and various Protestant courts, especially Hanover and Brandenburg, were encouraged by Pope Innocent XI, and in 1683 led to a conference of Protestant theologians to whom Spinola submitted his plan of reunion. The plan was apparently approved by the Protestant theologians, but French influence and Spinola's concessions induced Innocent XI to take no action.

On 20 March, 1691, the emperor appointed Spinola commissary-general of the movement for ecclesiastical reunion in Austria-Hungary. The concessions which he now made to the Protestants of Austria-Hungary, such as Communion under both species, freedom for priests to marry, Mass in the German language, and suspension of the Tridentine decrees until a new council was held, were rejected by Rome.

[edit] References

Landwehr, Spinolas Unionsbestrebungen in Brandenburg in Märkische Forschungen, XX (Berlin, 1887);
Kiesl, Der Friedensplan des Leibniz zur Wiedervereinigung der getrennten christlichen Kirchen (Paderborn, 1904);
Knöpfler, in Allg. Deutsche Biog., XXXV, 202-4.