Matthäus Lang von Wellenburg

Born in 1468, he became in 1501 the first councillor of Emperor Maximilian I and had a decisive influence on European policies. There was hardly a contemporary decision relating to the exertion of authority that he did not influence. In 1511 he was elevated to the rank of cardinal by the pope. After insuring the Salzburg Cathedral Chapter that it would be secularized (and released from the rules of St. Augustine), they elected him to succeed Leonhard von Keutschach in 1519.

He was decisive in the election of the Medici Pope Clemens VII and the Habsburg Karl V would never have become emperor without his intervention. His "Treaty of Vienna" of 1525 implemented the annexation of Bohemia and Hungary by the House of Habsburg. During the Peasant's Rebellion (1525/26) troubling all of Europe he proved to be an unrelenting defender of his political position. To pacify the residents of Salzburg who were openly sympathetic to Protestanism, he called Luther's former superior, the Augustine hermit provincial, Johannes Staupitz, to come to Salzburg as the Cathedral minister; finally he coerced the monks at St. Peter's, to elect Johannes Staupitz as their Abbot. When the archbishopric of Magdeburg became Protestant in 1529, Matthäus Lang attempted to obtain the title of "Primas Germaniae", formerly given to Magdeburg, for Salzburg.

As the occasional owner of numerous bishoprics (including Cartagena in south-eastern Spain), he ruled in the style of a Renaissance prince. One of the major contributions to the Catholic side during the controversial issues of the Reformation was probably the "Teutsche Theologey", written by the Bishop of Chiemsee, Berthold Pürstinger, which was published at his request. It is the first comprehensive interpretation of the Catholic faith to appear in the German language.

Matthäus Lang died in Salzburg on March 30, 1540.