ABSTRACT
In 1574, just one year after the Evangelische Inquisition crisis, Georg Eder sat as the subject of a copper engraving.1 The result is in itself a succinct summary of the aftermath of the imperial condemnation that rocked his career: though Eder’s apparently ravaged physical features suggest a man under great stress, his title of imperial counsellor is still very much part of the picture. This is an expression in miniature of the results of the decree of 1573. In Vienna, the affair appears to have had no lasting impact on Eder’s court career; beyond the city, however, Eder’s case had become the focus of attention at the courts of Madrid, Rome and most of all, in Munich. As early as the end of 1573, Eder was aware that his future service to the Church rested under the alternative patronage of the Dukes of Bavaria.
