Born in Trier, he belonged to a noble family which had been for many generations connected with the court and diocese of the archbishop-elect on, his father, Kaspar von Hontheim, being receiver-general of the archdiocese At the age of twelve young Hontheim was given by his maternal uncle, canon of the collegiate church of St Simeon (which at that time still occupied the Roman Porta Nigra at Trier), a prebend in his church, and on May 13, 1713 he received the tonsure.
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