Julius Echter von Mespelbrunn

During the first ten years of Echter's government, the attempt to unite the Abbey of Fulda and the Bishopric of Würzburg, after the deposition of the Prince-Abbot Balthasar von Dernbach, caused much confusion.

Under the Jesuits it flourished, grew rapidly, and furnished the see with the priests and officials needed to prosecute the Counter-Reformation.

He banished all Lutheran preachers from his territory[5] and removed all priests who were unwilling to observe the rules of their office.

[7] His most lasting monument, after the University of Würzburg, is the Julius Hospital (Juliusspital) in that town, which he founded with the endowment of the abandoned monastery of Heiligenthal.

Echter also had around 300 churches built or renovated as well as constructing numerous rectories and school buildings in his territory.

[8]: 21 Würzburger Hofbräu makes a wheat beer called Julius Echter Hefe-Weissbier[9] in honor of the bishop.

[citation needed] St John's College, Cambridge also holds 20 volumes which previously belonged to him; these were taken from Mespelbrunn's library during the Thirty Years War.