Lamormaini, Wilhelm#
b. La Moire Mannie near Dochamps (Belgium), Dec. 29, 1570, d. Vienna, Feb. 28, 1628, Jesuit, confessor to the imperial court. Moved to Brno, Vienna and finally to Graz, where he became professor of Philosophy, of Theology and rector (1598-1621) and made friends with Ferdinand II; 1622-1625 rector of the Jesuit College in Vienna, became the Emperor's confessor (1624), which gave him considerable political power. He encouraged the Emperor to put through Counter-Reformationary measures and even approved the murder of Wallenstein. After 1635 his political influence diminished, but he remained Ferdinand II's confessor until the Emperor's death. 1639-1643 again rector of the Vienna Jesuit College, 1643/1644-1648 Superior of the Austrian Jesuits.
L. was one of the main agents of the Counter-Reformation in Central
Europe; he founded or reformed 17 Jesuit monasteries.
Works#
Ferdinandi II., Romani Imperatoris Virtutes, 1637 (Ger. in F. C. Khevenhueller, Annales, vol. 12, 1637).Literature#
A. Posch, Zur Taetigkeit und Beurteilung L., in: MIOeG 63, 1955; R. Bireley, Religion and Politics in the Age of the Counterreformation. Emperor Ferdinand II, W. L. SJ and the Formation of Imperial Policy, 1981; NDB.