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The spirit of opposition to the Holy See soon spread from France to
the various states of the Holy Roman Empire. The violent onslaughts
of the Reformers and the imminent danger of heresy had driven the
Catholics of Germany to cling more closely to the Holy See, and had
helped to extinguish the anti-Roman feeling, that had been so strong
in the early years of the sixteenth century. But once the religious
wars had ended without a decisive victory for either party, and once
the theory of imperial neutrality had been sanctioned formally by the
Peace of Westphalia (1648), the Catholic rulers of Germany,
not excluding even the spiritual princes, showed more anxiety to
increase their own power than to safeguard the interests of their
religion. The example of the Protestant states, where the rulers
were supreme in religious as in temporal affairs, could not fail to
encourage Catholic sovereigns to assert for themselves greater
authority over the Church in their own territories, in utter disregard
of the rights of the Pope and of the constitution of the Church.
Frequently during the reigns of Leopold I (1657-1705),
of Joseph I (1705-11), and of Charles VI
(1711-40) the interference of the civil power in ecclesiastical
affairs had given just cause for complaint. But it was only during the
reign of Francis I (1745-65), and more especially of
Joseph II (1765-90), that the full results of the
Jansenist, Gallican, and Liberal Catholic teaching made themselves
felt in the empire as a whole, and in the various states of which the
empire was composed.
The most learned exponent of Gallican views on the German side of the
Rhine was John Nicholas von Hontheim (1701-90), who was
himself a student of Van Espen (1646-1728), the
well-known Gallican and Jansenist professor of canon law in the
University of Louvain. On the return of von Hontheim to his native
city of Trier he was entrusted with various important offices by the
Prince-bishop of Trier, by whose advice he was appointed
assistant-bishop of that See (1740). He was a man of great
ability, well versed especially in ecclesiastical and local history,
and a close student of the writings of the Gallicans (Richer,
Dupin, Thomassin, and Van Espen). At the time the hope of a
reunion between the Lutherans and the Catholics in Germany was not
abandoned completely. It seemed to von Hontheim that by lessening the
power of the Papacy, which was regarded by the Protestants as the
greatest obstacle to reconciliation, Gallicanism provided the basis
for a good reunion programme, that was likely to be acceptable to
moderate men of both parties in Germany. With the object therefore of
promoting the cause of reunion he set himself to compose his remarkable
book, "De Statu Ecclesiae et de Legitima Potestate Romani
Pontificis", published in 1762 under the assumed name of
Justinus Febronius.
According to Febronius Christ entrusted the power of the keys not to
the Pope nor to the hierarchy, but to the whole body of the faithful,
who in turn handed over the duty of administration to the Pope and the
hierarchy. All bishops according to him were equal, and all were
independent of the government of their own dioceses, though at the same
time, for the purpose of preserving unity, a primacy of honour should
be accorded to the successor of Saint Peter. But this primacy was
not necessarily the special prerogative of the Roman See; it could be
separated from that Church and transferred to another diocese. In the
early ages of Christianity the Roman bishops never claimed the power
wielded by their successors in later times. These pretensions to
supreme jurisdiction were founded upon the false decretals of Isidore
and other forgeries, and constituted a corruption that should not be
tolerated any longer in the Church. In reality the Pope was only the
first among equals, empowered no doubt to carry on the administration
of the Church, but incapable of making laws or irreformable decrees on
faith or morals. He was subject to a General Council which alone
enjoyed the prerogative of infallibility. Febronius called upon the
Pope to abandon his untenable demands, and to be content with the
position held by his predecessors in the early centuries. If he
refused to do so spontaneously he should be forced to give up his
usurpations, and if necessary the bishops should call upon the civil
rulers to assist them in their struggle. As a means of restoring the
Papacy to its rightful position, Febronius recommended the
convocation of national synods and of a General Council, the proper
instruction of priests and people, the judicious use of the Royal
"Placet" on papal announcements, the enforcement of the "Appelatio
ab Abusu" against papal and episcopal aggression, and, as a last
resort, the refusal of obedience.
The book was in such complete accord with the absolutist tendencies of
the age that it was received with applause by the civil rulers, and by
the court canonists, theologians, and lawyers, who saw in it the
realisation of their own dreams of a state Church subservient to the
civil ruler. The book was, however, condemned by Clement XIII
(1764), who exhorted the German bishops to take vigorous
measures against such dangerous theories. Many of the bishops were
indifferent; others of them were favourable to von Hontheim's views;
but the majority suppressed the book in their dioceses. Several
treatises were published in reply to Febronius, the most notable of
which were those form the pen of Ballerini and Zaccaria. New
editions of the work of Febronius were called for, and translations of
the whole or part of it appeared in German, Italian, French,
Spanish, and Portuguese. It was received with great favour in
Austria, where the principles of Febronius were adopted by most of
the leading court canonists. At a meeting held in Coblenz
(1769) the three Prince-bishops of Mainz, Trier, and
Cologne presented a catalogue of complaints ("Gravamina") against
the Roman Curia, many of which were extracted from or based upon the
work of Hontheim. After repeated appeals of the Pope to the
Prince-bishop of Trier to exercise his influence upon von Hontheim,
the latter consented to make a retractation in 1778, but his
followers alleged that the retractation having been secured by threats
was valueless. This contention was supported by a commentary published
by Hontheim in explanation of his retractation, in which he showed
clearly enough that he had not receded an inch from his original
position. Before his death in 1790 he expressed regret for the
doctrine he put forward, and died in full communion with the Church.
The teaching of Febronius, paving the way as it did for the supremacy
of the State in religious matters, was welcomed by the Emperor
Joseph II, by the Elector of Bavaria, as well as by the
spiritual princes of the Rhine provinces. In Austria, especially,
violent measures were taken to assert the royal supremacy. Joseph
II was influenced largely by the Gallican and liberal tendencies of
his early teachers and advisers. He dreamed of making Austria a
rich, powerful, and united kingdom, and becoming himself its supreme
and absolute ruler. During the reign of his mother, Maria Theresa,
he was kept in check, but after her death in 1780, in conjunction
with his prime minister, Kaunitz, he began to inaugurate his schemes
of ecclesiastical reform. He insisted upon the Royal "Placet" on
all documents issued by the Pope or by the bishops, forbade the
bishops of his territories to hold any direct communication with Rome
or to ask for a renewal of their faculties, which faculties he
undertook to confer by his own authority. He forbade all his subjects
to seek or accept honours from the Pope, insisted upon the bishops
taking the oath of allegiance to himself before their consecration,
introduced a system of state- controlled education, and suppressed a
number of religious houses. In order that the clergy might be
instructed in the proper ecclesiastical principles, he abolished the
episcopal seminaries, and established central seminaries at Vienna,
Pest, Louvain, Freiburg, and Pavia for the education of the
clergy in his dominions. Clerical students from Austria were
forbidden to frequent the "Collegium Germanicum" at Rome lest they
should be brought under the influence of ultramontane teaching. Even
the smallest details of ecclesiastical worship were determined by royal
decrees. In all these reforms Joseph II was but reducing to
practice the teaching of Febronius.
By personal letters and by communications through his nuncio Pius
VI sought to induce Joseph II to abstain from such a policy of
state aggression; but, as all his representations were ineffective,
he determined to undertake a journey to Vienna, in the hope that his
presence might bring about a change in the policy of the Emperor, or
at least stir up the bishops to defend the interests of the Church
(1782). He arrived at Vienna, had frequent interviews with the
Emperor and with his minister Kaunitz, and was obliged to leave
without any other result, except that he had assured himself of the
fact that, whatever about the Emperor or the bishops, the majority of
the people of Austria were still loyal to the head of the Catholic
Church. The following year (1783) Joseph II paid a return
visit to Rome, when he was induced by the representations of the
Spanish ambassador to desist from his plan of a complete severance of
Austria from the Holy See.
Joseph II had, however, proceeded too quickly and too violently
in his measures of reform. The people and the large body of the clergy
were opposed to him as were also the Cardinal-Archbishop of Vienna,
the bishops of Hungary, and the bishops of Belgium under the
leadership of Cardinal Frankenberg. The state of affairs in the
Austrian Netherlands became so threatening that the people rose in
revolt (1789), and Joseph II found himself obliged to turn
to the Pope whom he had so maltreated and despised, in the hope that
he might induce the Belgian Catholics to return to their allegiance.
He promised to withdraw most of the reforms that he had introduced,
but his repentance came too late to save the Austrian rule in the
Netherlands. He died in 1790 with the full consciousness of the
failure of all his schemes.
While Joseph II was reducing Febronianism to practice in the
Austrian territories, the Prince-bishops of Mainz, Trier, and
Cologne hastened to show their anxiety for the suppression of
ultramontanism in the Rhinelands. The list of grievances against
Rome presented to the Emperor in 1769 indicated clearly their
attachment to Gallican principles, and this feeling was not likely to
be weakened by the erection of an apostolic nunciature at Munich in
1785. This step was taken by the Pope at the request of Carl
Theodore, Elector of Bavaria, a great part of whose territory was
under the spiritual rule of the prince-bishops. The prince-bishops
of the west, together with the Prince-bishop of Salzburg, all of
whom were hostile already to the papal nuncio, were greatly incensed by
what they considered this new derogation of their rights, and sent
representatives to a congress convoked to meet at Ems (1786).
The result of the congress was the celebrated document known as the
"Punctuation of Ems", in which they declared that most of the
prerogatives claimed by the Pope were unknown in the early centuries,
and were based entirely on the false decretals. They insisted that
there should be no longer appeals to Rome, that papal ordinances
should be binding in any diocese only after they had been accepted by
the bishop of the diocese, that the oath of allegiance taken by all
bishops before consecration should be changed, that no quinquennial
faculties should be sought as bishops already had such faculties by
virtue of their office, and that religious orders should not be exempt
from the authority of the ordinaries, nor be placed under the
jurisdiction of foreign superiors. The "Punctuation of Ems"
reduced the primacy of the Pope to a mere primacy of honour, and had
it been acted upon, it must have led inevitably to national schism.
The bishops forwarded a document to Joseph II, who, while
approving of it, refused to interfere. The Elector of Bavaria
opposed the action of the bishops as did also Pacca[175]
(1756-1854), the papal nuncio at Cologne. The latter
issued a circular to the clergy warning them that the dispensations
granted by the prince-bishops without reference to Rome were
worthless. This circular gave great annoyance to the prince-
bishops, particularly as they found themselves deserted by most of
those on whose support they had relied. Even the Protestant ruler
Frederick II of Prussia took the part of Rome against the
archbishops. In face of the unfriendly attitude of the bishops and
clergy nothing remained for the prince-bishops but to withdraw from an
untenable position. The Archbishop of Cologne for reasons of his own
made his submission, and asked for a renewal of his quinquennial
faculties (1787). The Archbishop of Trier made a similar
application, not indeed as Archbishop of Trier, but as Bishop of
Augsburg. But their submission was meant only to gain time. They
sought to have the matter brought before the Diet at Regensburg in
1788, but the action of the Elector of Bavaria produced an
unfavourable verdict. Having failed in their design, they addressed a
letter to the Pope asking him to put an end to the disedifying quarrel
by withdrawing the papal nuncio from Cologne, and by sending a
representative to the Diet to arrange the terms of peace. The reply
of Pius VI, covering as it did the whole ground of the
controversy, contained a masterly defence of the papal rights and
prerogatives (1789). The Archbishop of Trier publicly withdrew
his adhesion to the "Punctuation", and advised his Gallican
colleagues to do likewise, but they refused, and in the election
agreement of 1790 and 1792 they sought to pledge the emperors to
support their policy. At last the Archbishops of Cologne and
Salzburg made their submission, but the Archbishop of Mainz clung
obstinately to his views, until the storm of the French Revolution
broke over his city and territory, and put an end to his rule as a
temporal prince.
In Tuscany where Leopold, brother of Joseph II, reigned
(1765-90), a determined attempt was made to introduce
Febronian principles as understood and applied in Austrian territory.
Leopold was supported strongly in this attempt by Scipio Ricci,
who, though a Jansenist at heart, had been appointed to the
Bishopric of Pistoia at the request of the Grand-Duke. The
Bishop of Pistoia set himself deliberately to introduce Jansenism and
Gallicanism amongst his clergy. For this purpose he established a
seminary at Pistoia, and placed it in the hands of teachers upon whom
he could rely for the carrying out of his designs. In 1786 the
Grand-Duke called a meeting of the bishops of the province, and
explained to them in detail his programme of ecclesiastical reforms.
With the exception of the Bishop of Pistoia and two others they
refused to co-operate with him and his designs. This plan having
failed recourse was had to other measures. A synod was summoned at
Pistoia, which was presided over by Scipio Ricci, and guided in its
deliberations by Tamburini the well-known Gallican professor of
Pavia (1786). It was attended by over two hundred priests,
some of whom belonged to the diocese, while others were total
strangers. As might be expected the decrees of the synod were strongly
Gallican and Jansenist. To ensure their introduction into the
province of Tuscany a provincial synod of the bishops was called, but
the bishops expressed their strong disapproval, and the people attacked
the palace of the bishop. He was obliged to retire from his diocese,
though at the same time he remained the active adviser of Leopold until
the death of Joseph II led to Leopold's election to the imperial
throne (1790), and put an end to the disturbances in Tuscany.
Pius VI appointed a commission to study the decrees of Pistoia,
and in 1794 he issued the Bull, "Auctorem Fidei", in which
the principal errors were condemned. The unfortunate bishop refused
for years to make his submission. It was only in 1805, on the
return journey of Pius VII from the coronation of Napoleon at
Paris, that he could be induced to make his peace with the
Church.[176]
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