John Theodore of Bavaria - Cardinalate

Cardinalate

Theodore was created a Cardinal-Priest of San Lorenzo in Panisperna on 9 September 1743 by Pope Benedict XIV. He did not participate in the conclave of 1758 following the death of Benedict. He was the last representative of the Wittelsbach family to occupy the bishopric of Liège. In March 1761, shortly after the death of his elder brother Clemens August, Pope Clement XIII rejected his succession as Archbishop and Prince-Elector of Cologne because the pope entertained some doubt as to Theodore's moral conduct.

Theodore was known as a great hunter, patron of music (he played the violincello) and theatre, and held a splendid court at Liège. He was said to have had affairs with several women despite his clerical status and was liked by the inhabitants of the bishopric. Asthmatic and tubercular, he gave into the advice of his doctor, a physician named Steppler (a German from Munich), who pretended that his sickness originated from coal vapours. He thus went for regular stays in Germany, though this did not improve his health.