CHAPTER V. THE STRUGGLE OF JOSEPH II AGAINST THE PAPACY-OTHER ATTEMPTED REFORMS. CAL INDE THE German lands which remained Roman Catholic subsequent to the peace of Westphalia were, with but little interruption, under strict subjection to the pope. This was chiefly due to the efforts of the Jesuits and their success in influencing the EFFORTS FOR various German courts in favor of Rome. Toward ECCLESIASTIthe middle of the eighteenth century, however, a PENDENCE. movement began in many countries looking toward a greater degree of ecclesiastical independence. In order to save the papacy those popes who were wisest yielded somewhat to the tendency of the time, not opposing too vigorously the disposition of the sovereigns to rule the Church in their own domains. THE BOOKS In 1763 appeared the first volume of a work which more accurately defined, and at the same time more fully developed, the spirit of the age. It was entitled De statu ecclesiæ et legitima potestate Romani Pontificis.' It taught that the true form of ecclesiastical government is not monarchical, but that the power of the keys is the possession of the entire Church, to be exercised by all bishops alike; that the pope is not the universal bishop with the bishops as his officials, receiving and exercising their rights in his name, but that the bishops are the successors of the apostles, and that the episcopal dignity is of divine origin. Notwithstanding the primacy of Peter the apostles were all equal; the papal primacy is the gift of Peter and the Church, and if the Church will it can connect the papacy with some other bishopric than the Roman. The foundation of the papacy is the unity of the Church; the duty of the pope is to preserve unity of faith and to care for the observance of the laws of the Church, but only by means of advices and reminders, not by commands within the bounds of other dioceses than his own. All those rights over the Church which the pope obtained during the Middle Ages must be abolished." 1 The pseudonym of the author was Justinus Febronius. His real name was Johann Nicolaus von Hontheim. 2 Comp. Gieseler, iv, 78, 79. Upon the appearance of the first volume, Pope Clement XIII, who had been particularly presumptuous in his claims, strove with all his power to suppress it. His efforts were vain, and only served to deepen the impression made by the work, which was soon translated into German, French, and Italian, while new editions in the Latin were issued, and the work was read with approval even in Portugal and Spain. PAPAL OPPO- JOSEPH II AND HIS JOSEPH II The reforms attempted by Emperor Joseph II followed closely the principles laid down by Febronius. Joseph became the sole ruler of the Austrian hereditary lands in 1780, upon the death of his mother, the famous but bigoted Maria Theresa. He had cherished plans of reform, and his purpose was to do away with every power of the papacy in Austria except such as pertained to the unity of the Church and to uniformity of doctrine.' In so doing he did not even take the trouble to consult the pope, but proceeded solely by virtue of his authority as national ruler. The opposition of the pope was prompt and strong, and Joseph himself proved too lacking in persistence and foresight to carry out his purposes in the face of increasing difficulty. Joseph distinguished between the exercise of public worship and the external forms of the Church, all of which belonged to the sphere of the secular ruler, and affairs purely spiritual, which pertained to the bishops, and concerning which each bishop in his own diocese was the final authority. No papal bulls or briefs were to be made public without the consent of the secular ruler, and the famous bulls, In Coena Domini and Unigenitus, were to be extracted from all books of ritual, on pain of severe penalties. Newly elected bishops and archbishops were no longer to take oath as vassals of the pope, but only the oath of canonical obedience in the original sense. The bishops had full power of absolution and the exclusive right to decide concerning marriages, and no recognition was granted of reserved cases nor of recourse to Rome. Gifts to religious establishments might not exceed fifteen hundred florins, monasteries were forbidden to send money to Rome, the connection of monks with foreign superiors was forbidden, their exemptions were abolished, and they were placed under the oversight of the bishops; all orders which did not have to do with pastoral, educational, or hospital duties were disbanded, and their properties were united in a fund for the establishment of additional schools and pastoral charges, while for each monastery 1 Gieseler, iv, 83. Nippold furnishes a most able discussion of Joseph and his times, i, 409–426. Wolf gives in vol. iii a summary of the original documents. the numbers of members was fixed and monks were forbidden to travel as such from place to place. Joseph forbade study in Rome, and established general seminaries, in which the future clergy were to be educated, while he ordered the careful examination of all candidates and monastic clergy. He also abolished a number of the more glaring superstitions in use in public worship. Many of the bishops strenuously opposed the new measures. The pope, Pius VI, was extremely vain and self-satisfied. Upon such external matters as his handsome personal appearance and manners, and upon deeds which called attention to himself, he relied for success in his undertakings.' In this spirit he journeyed to Vienna, in March, 1782, expecting to dissuade Joseph from his more extreme reforms. Joseph gave him a splendid reception, but referred him to his minister, Prince Kaunitz, in the matter of the reforms which even during the visit of the pope were further extended. Pius saw that his visit had been in vain, and soon returned to Rome. He now undertook by correspondence to alter Joseph's mind; but the effort was futile. The pope grew more JOSEPH'S VISand more intense in his appeals, and, finally, in 1783, IT TO ROME. demanded the cessation of several of the innovations. Joseph returned this letter without answer and was about to break away altogether from the pope, when it was thought best first to take counsel with Cardinal Bernis, the French, and Azara, the Spanish ambassador to Rome. Under the pretense of returning the pope's visit and of disposing of the difficulty with his holiness, Joseph went to Rome. There these two counselors called his attention to the unpreparedness of his people for these reforms and the possibility of political difficulties connected therewith. Persuaded of the correctness of their representations Joseph began to yield to the wishes of the pope, and while he did not abolish the new laws he did not insist on their enforcement. Under such a spirit of hesitation and inconsistency he could do nothing against the pope, who practically had his own way. While the reforms which Joseph undertook met with bitter opposition, both from clergy and secular authorities in the Belgian provinces," leading to open rebellion in 1789, the reforms attempted in the Austrian hereditary lands made so favorable an impression in other German Catholic countries that these strove to introduce similar changes. 1 Compare Baur, iv, 489. ? The circumstance which was particularly offensive was the order closing all episcopal seminaries and establishing one general seminary, the action being taken in order to provide for the better education of the clergy. THE ISSUE The papal nuncio in Cologne had disregarded the rights of the clergy, and on his return from Vienna to Rome the pope had granted the request of Carl Theodor of Bavaria, who, influenced by the ex-Jesuits,' had besought the pope to send a nuncio to his court. As the four German archbishops had exercised jurisdiction over Bavaria they saw that the presence of a nuncio in Munich meant the curtailment of their jurisdiction and the diminution of their power. As a consequence they appealed to the emperor, who pledged himself to protect them in the exercise of their rights and to recognize the nuncios only in so far as they represented rights which he acknowledged the pope to possess. CONGRESS The archbishops called a congress at Ems at which they adopted a declaration to the effect that the pope was primate and the center of Church unity, but denying all the privileges which had been based on the pseudo-Isidorean decretals.' The bishops should exercise the right of loosing and binding within their own dioceses, and papal interference, whether direct or through nuncios, must cease. The power to fill ecclesiastical positions from Rome and the sending of such vast sums of money to the pope must be limited. In all spiritual affairs the bishops have the first and the archbishops the second right of decision without any interposition on the part of nuncios; but the final appeal may be to papal judges in Germany, provided the judges are themselves Germans.3 PAPAL VIC- ARCHBISHOPS OR. Unfortunately the archbishops had acted without the cooperation of the bishops who feared that they would be more oppressed by their immediate superiors than by the pope. Not only did the pope have the support of the bishops, but also AND EMPER- of the Bavarian court, which claimed that if Joseph had the right to determine the affairs of the Church in his own hereditary lands the elector of Bavaria had the right to receive the nuncio in his domains and that the emperor could not interfere. Supported by the Bavarians, and by the bishops, the pope was more than a match for the archbishops and the emperor, and in 1789 the affair was ended by the pope who severely rebuked the four archbishops for their conduct. The emperor and the archbishops had been outgeneraled and defeated. The Order of Jesuits had been disbanded in 1773 by papal command. 2 Baur gives an excellent outline of this so-called Emser Punktation (points to be embodied in a treaty), iv, 494 f. * The elector and archbishop of Cologne was Maximilian, the brother of the emperor, and shared his views as to the relation of the pope to the Church. CHAPTER VI. THE SALZBURGERS-OPPRESSION IN HUNGARY, SILESIA, POLAND, AND THE PALATINATE. THE PERSE- THE persecution which has attracted most attention, because of its peculiar hardships and its great extent, is that in Salzburg, Austria, where, on account of the Waldensians and Husites, a certain freedom had existed prior to the time of Luther, whose reforms had taken special hold upon the inhabitants of the mining districts. It was the custom of these Protestants to join in public worship with the Romanists, but in secret they read the Bible and other devotional works. In spite of their outward conformity to Roman Catholic usages their true beliefs were occasionally discovered, and persecution was sure to follow. About 1684 they manifested indifference toward Roman customs, and a persecution ensued in which they were arrested and banished, not even being permitted to take with them their children. Under the archbishopric of Franz Anton, during twenty years, the Protestants grew strong again. But upon the accession of Leopold Anton, count of Firmian, to the archbishopric in 1729, a merciless oppression began. By the aid of a group of secret Jesuits he was able to discover them. They were distinguished by their nonuse of a special greeting,' recommended by Pope Benedict XIII, with the employment of which indulgences were connected. The Protestants could not use it because of the indulgences. When they could not be discovered by their secret prayers or their devotional books, this sign was sufficient, and it was public. But to make the proof more sure Jesuits were sent to search the houses of those who refused to employ the greeting. Upon refusal to give up the prayer books thus found and to retract their opinions they were thrown into prison and treated as rebels. The archbishop even appealed to the emperor for soldiers to aid him, and no appeals for an investigation were heeded. A dramatic incident occurred on a Sunday morning in August, NANT OF SALT. 1731, when one hundred of the elders met in a rocky valley near Salzach and solemnly kneeling about a table on which stood a vessel filled with salt dipped into it their moistened fingers, stretched THE COVE 1 The greeting was Blessed be Jesus Christ; " the response, "Forever, Amen." |