Matthäus Lang was the son of a burgher of
Augsburg and later received the noble title of
Wellenburg after a castle near his hometown that came into his possession in 1507. After studying at
Ingolstadt,
Vienna and
Tübingen he entered the service of Emperor
Frederick III of Habsburg and quickly made his way to the front. He was also one of the most trusted advisers of Frederick's son and successor
Maximilian I, and his services were rewarded in 1500 with the provostship of the cathedral at Augsburg and five years later with the position of the
Bishop of Gurk. He also received the
Bishopric of Cartagena in
Murcia in 1510 and was appointed cardinal by
Pope Julius II one year later. In 1514 he became
coadjutor to
Leonhard von Keutschach, the Salzburg
Prince-Archbishop, whom he succeeded in 1519. He received the title of a Cardinal Bishop of the
Suburbicarian diocese of
Albano in 1535. In the course of the
Protestant Reformation Lang's adherence to the older faith, together with his pride and arrogance, made him very unpopular in his Salzburg diocese. As early as in 1523 he was involved in a serious struggle with his subjects in the
City of Salzburg, and in 1525, during the
German Peasants' War, he had again to fight hard to hold his own. Insurgents occupied the town of
Hallein, devastated the archbishop's
Burg Hohenwerfen and even laid siege to his residence at
Hohensalzburg, until they were finally defeated with the aid of troops provided by the
Swabian League. Cardinal Lang was one of the chief ministers of
Charles V; he played an important part in the tangled international negotiations of his time; and he was always loyal to his imperial masters. Not without reason has he been compared with
Cardinal Wolsey. == Bibliography ==