AUSTRIA

AUSTRIA. – A state in Central Europe, comprising almost the entire northern versant of the Eastern Alps, from the Swiss border (Vorarlberg) to Burgenland with the Salzach basin (Salzburg), the Mur basin (Styria), the upper Drava (Carinthia), and the Danube valley from Passau to Bratislava (Upper and Lower Austria).

OUTLINE:

I. Geography

II. History of Christianity

III. Literature

IV. School systems

V. ARTE.

I. GEOGRAPHY.

The territory of Austria, within the frontiers of 1922, measures 84,000 sq. km., on which live 7 million inhabitants (density: 84 per sq. km., higher than France’s, lower than Switzerland’s). The population, entirely German (97%), is overwhelmingly Catholic (90.4%), with a few Protestants (4.3%) and a Jewish nucleus (2.8%).

A mountainous state, almost entirely alpine and relatively poor, it benefits from its transit position (where routes between Slavic and Balkan Europe intersect with those between Germanic and Latin Europe), despite the difficulties of communications (it nonetheless has over 25,000 km. of roads and 6,800 km. of railways; the Danube is fully navigable within Austrian territory).

Alongside agriculture (one-fifth of the population) and industry (one-third), commerce (one-seventh) is therefore one of the primary sources of activity. Cereal production (especially rye) is insufficient for consumption; livestock farming is flourishing (2.2 million head of cattle), though far less so than in Switzerland; forestry products are substantial, and the mineral resources of the subsoil (lignite, iron, lead, zinc, copper, magnesite, etc.) are not negligible. Both contribute to a varied and lively industry (furniture, paper mills, iron and steel, etc.).

A federal republic since 1918, it returned to this status in 1945 after the end of the Anschluss with Germany (13 March 1938). For four centuries (until the First World War), Austria was one of the principal European powers, though it formed a unity not from a national but from a dynastic point of view. On the eve of the First World War, the Austrian monarchy, together with the Hungarian Crown (personal union), ruled over more than 676,000 sq. km. and 55 million inhabitants (300,000 sq. km. and 30 million in proper Austria), from the Sudetenland to the lower Adriatic and from the upper Danube to Galicia.

At the end of the Second World War, Austria was entirely occupied by Allied troops (May 1945). Reconstituted (4 July 1945) within the frontiers of 1937, it was divided into four occupation zones: the Soviet or north-eastern (comprising Lower Austria, Burgenland, and Upper Austria on the left bank of the Danube), the American or north-western (comprising Salzburg and Upper Austria on the right bank of the Danube), the French or western (comprising Tyrol and Vorarlberg), and the British or southern (comprising Carinthia, Styria, and eastern Tyrol). The last two zones border on Italy. Vienna, like Berlin, is also subdivided into four zones and is the seat of the Allied command in Austria.

With 1.5 million inhabitants (2 million in 1939), Vienna, once the capital of a great monarchy, remains one of the most important cities of Central Europe. Graz (Styria), Linz (Upper Austria), and Salzburg also exceed 100,000 inhabitants.

| Districts | Area in sq. km. | Population | Density | Capital (Population in thousands) |
|-------------------|-----------------|------------|---------|-----------------------------------|
| Vienna | 278 | 1,431,837 | — | Vienna (1,548) |
| Lower Austria | 19,296 | 1,492,846 | 79 | Vienna |
| Upper Austria | 11,994 | 1,197,252 | 100 | Linz (173) |
| Salzburg | 7,153 | 362,353 | 51 | Salzburg (106) |
| Tyrol | 12,647 | 401,899 | 32 | Innsbruck (95) |
| Vorarlberg | 2,602 | 187,414 | 72 | Bregenz (18) |
| Carinthia | 9,535 | 542,368 | 57 | Klagenfurt (63) |
| Styria | 16,385 | 1,112,672 | 68 | Graz (220) |
| Burgenland | 3,977 | 271,362 | 70 | Eisenstadt (5) |
| TOTAL | 83,867 | 7,000,003 | 84 | |

Giuseppe Caraci

II. HISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY.

Today, the word Austria refers to that predominantly mountainous region, which, bordered by Germanic and Czechoslovak territories to the north and Italian and Yugoslav territories to the south, extends between the upper and lower Danube and the Inn, between the Enns and the Leitha (its right-bank tributaries), and the Mur and Drava to the west. The March of Austria, with the city of Vienna, was the heart of present-day Austria. In antiquity, this region roughly corresponded to *Noricum* and *Upper Pannonia*.

1. Classical Age

At the dawn of Christianity, the entire region was under Roman rule.

The populations, predominantly Celtic, which largely formed the kingdom of Noricum, were subjected to the empire between 16 and 9 BC and constituted *Noricum*, eastern *Raetia* or Raetia Secunda, and *Upper Pannonia*. The slow process of Romanization did not entirely erase the Celtic character of the populations. Local deities merged with those of the empire. The most notable cities were *Carnuntum* (later completely destroyed by barbarians), where in 193 Septimius Severus was proclaimed emperor, and in 308 a conference was held between Diocletian and his co-emperors; Valentinian III stayed there in 375, shortly before its destruction; *Vindobona* (today Vienna): traces of the ancient Roman city still remain; Marcus Aurelius died there in 180; *Laureacum* (today Lorch, near Enns), a station of the Danube fleet; *Lentia* (Linz); *Ovilava* (Wels); *Iuvavum* (Salzburg); *Veldidena* (today Wilten, near Innsbruck); *Brigantium* (Bregenz) on Lake Constance, where there was also a fleet station; *Virunum*, not far from Klagenfurt, a large city completely destroyed; *Teurnia* (Tiburnia), today St. Peter im Holz, near Spital am Drau; *Flavia Solva* (near Leibnitz), destroyed in 405; *Aguntum* (near Lienz), destroyed by a violent flood in the 5th century.

The centres of diffusion for Christianity, as for other Eastern religions, were Milan, Sirmium, and, for the southern regions, Aquileia. We know that for a long time Syrian and Italian legions were stationed in these provinces, and traces of the cult of Mithras, Cybele, etc., are found everywhere today. It is likely that Christianity penetrated sporadically through soldiers, colonists, and merchants. We do not know, therefore, when the hierarchical organization was established; Aquileia must certainly have been the first centre of Christian diffusion, a fact confirmed by local legends that attribute the introduction of Christianity into these parts to Hermagoras and Fortunatus of Aquileia, or to Mark or other disciples of Peter.

The few martyrs known from the time of Diocletian include Maximilian of *Laureacum*, Florian and 40 companions in the same place, and Vitorinus, bishop of Petovio (Pettau).

The *Life* of Severinus, apostle of *Noricum*, provides abundant information about the 5th and 6th centuries. He became a center of hope for the pop-

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### AUSTRIA - Historical ecclesiastical map.

AUSTRIA

On the summits of hills and mountains, remains have been found of some Paleochristian oratories and churches, superimposed on earlier Celtic temples, and later continued with Romanesque and Gothic constructions, often up to the present day. It is worth noting, finally, that excavations in 1948 led to the discovery of the first capital of *Noricum*, located on the Magdalensberg, north of the Zollfeld, built after the establishment of the province (15 AD), with its forum, temple (of Mars Latobius), municipal building (?), station of the first cohort of Montanorum, etc. *Virunum*, situated in the plain, was thus the second capital, created in the 3rd century.

2. Medieval period

a) Early period. — After Odoacer, the Austrian regions were traversed by Theodoric on his way to Italy, while from the west the Alemanni and Bavarians spread through the Alpine valleys. Around 510, the Lombards settled in the eastern part for about half a century. They were followed by the hordes of the Avars (around 585), together with the Slavic populations they had subjugated: the Serbs, Croats, Slovenes, and the so-called "Alpine Slavs," i.e., Alpine Slavs, who penetrated in isolated groups as far as Tyrol. Roman, or rather Celtic-Romanized, nuclei certainly remained scattered throughout the region. At this time, with a first temporary Merovingian domination (from 550), we have knowledge of the survival of the three sees of *Tiburnia*, *Celeia*, and *Petovio* (letter of the bishops of Venice to Emperor Maurice, 591; cf. *MGH, Epistulae*, I, 17). For the rest, the few sources are completely silent on the religious state of these regions in the 6th and 7th centuries.

Only with the Bavarian state organization do we have news about the ecclesiastical situation. While the east slowly transformed into the so-called "Avar desert," a certain Bavarian penetration spread toward the present-day regions of Tyrol, Carinthia, and Styria. With the mission of St. Rupert and the establishment, at *Iuvavum*, later Salzburg, of a monastery with a episcopal see (St. Peter) under the Bavarian duke Theodo, we have, around 700, finally a fixed point for the subsequent systematic spread of Christianity in the eastern Alps, where the immigrant Slavic populations were still pagan; the remaining Roman nuclei, instead, were absorbed.

But the Christian mission took on secure forms and effective methods only after the definitive hierarchical organization of

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**Kunstdenkmäler Österreichs, II. Vienna 1935, p. 137**

**AUSTRIA - Plan of the Roman castro (190 AD) of Laureanum, today Lorch, near Enns (Upper Austria): 1. praetorium; 2. decuman gate; 3. main gate; 4. forum and capitolium of the civil city, where the episcopal basilica dedicated to St. Lawrence arose (4th century); every church of the cemetery.**

the populations, now almost entirely Christian and civilized, faced the new invaders. It was in the 4th and 5th centuries that the episcopal sees of *Celeia* (Cilli) and *Petovio* (Pettau), whose bishop Apronianus subscribed to the Council of Sardica (344), came into existence; of *Laureanum*, capital of *Noricum Ripense* (the basilica stands beneath the present church of St. Lawrence); of *Carnuntum* (where a church arose among the arcades of the amphitheater); *Tiburnia* (with Bishop Paulinus at the time of Severinus, whose basilica stands beneath the parish church of St. Peter, while the cemetery basilica today constitutes one of the most interesting monuments of Romano-Christian Austria). For the other cities, we do not know whether they were episcopal sees or not: only future excavations may provide confirmation in this regard.

Excavations in recent decades have revealed a series of fortified "refuges," located on heights, with a church, presbyteral house, and baptistery at the center, surrounded by other buildings—baths, casemates, etc.—enclosed by walls with a single gate, generally protected by two enormous towers. All these refuges, from the first half of the 5th century, are largely arranged along the Drava River and the Puster Valley. Notable examples include: Hoischhügel, near Maglern, the ancient *Meclaria*; Hemmaberg, near Globasnitz, in the Jauntal, close to the ancient *Iuenna*, with a church, *consignatorium* (?), and baptistery; Gratzerkogel, near St. Michael am Zollfeld, near the ancient *Virunum*, with two churches, and especially Kirchbichl, near Lavant, in eastern Tyrol, close to the ancient *Aguntum*; excavations in 1948 showed that here existed the largest refuge of the eastern Alpine regions known to date, with a walled area of 2 km²; above the foundations of a Celtic-Roman temple from the 1st century stood the refuge church. In addition to the refuges, there were also true military castles, such as the one at Duel, near Paternion-Feistritz, with a three-aisled church, priestly house, with the font in a room, baths, etc. *Teurnia* was also fortified, having become the capital of *Noricum mediterraneum* in the final phase of the empire. All these fortifications seem to have formed a kind of Alpine *limes*, protecting the border against barbarian invasions. In other localities, especially

Bavaria, through the agency of St Boniface, who in 739 established under Salzburg the already existing bishoprics of Freising and Regensburg, adding a new one, Passau. From this moment onward Salzburg and Passau became the great centres propelling Catholic preaching and, together with it, the cultural penetration of the Germanic peoples as far as the Danubian plains of Hungary. It was St Virgil of Salzburg who secured, in collaboration with the Bavarian dukes, the establishment of new religious and civil cultural centres, namely the first monasteries, which, later endowed with ever new territories and founding other ‘cells’, remained for two or three centuries the pioneers of Christianity. The first monastery was that of Mondsee (748), followed in the remote Pusteria by Innichen, today St Candido, and, the most famous, in 777, Kremsmünster, founded by Tassilo III. In 788 Bavaria was incorporated into the kingdom of Charlemagne.

From now on the constant policy of expansion of the German kings towards the Eastern Alps, that is to say towards the south, in the direction of Italy, created the march of Friuli and then of Verona, and towards the east the Eastern March (Ostmark). Charlemagne definitively removed the ever-present danger of the Avars. Indeed, in 796 an ecclesiastical commission was convoked on the Danube, composed of the patriarch Paulinus of Aquileia, the bishops of Salzburg and Passau, to confer on the best way to organise a mission in those parts. Already from 785 the celebrated Arno sat in the see of Salzburg; he, created archbishop in 798, brought under his jurisdiction the sees of Sabiona, Freising, Regensburg, Passau and Neuburg. In 811 it was agreed that the boundary between the mission zones of Aquileia and Salzburg should be the course of the Drava. Between Salzburg and Passau the delimitations occurred only after a century, apparently in a peaceful manner: it can be said roughly that Carinthia, as far as the Drava, Styria and Hungary as far as the Danube were under the influence of Salzburg, while the territory to the north was under that of Passau. However, at first Salzburg carried out its missions even in these parts, as is attested, for example, by the patronage of the two oldest churches of Vienna, St Rupert and St Peter.

The mission was prearranged at the famous Synod of Reisbach (799). To facilitate the governance of regions so distant from the sees themselves, the office of chorepiscopus was instituted, Salzburg’s in Carinthia, Passau’s in the Eastern March, an institution that lasted beyond the year 900. In 823 the important monastery of St Florian was founded; then villages and small centres, colonies of German towns, monasteries and bishoprics arose on territories donated by the German kings. Everything, however, was overturned and devastated during the invasion that lasted for more than 50 years by the Magyars (900–55). These pagan hordes, like the Huns and the Avars, systematically devastated all the neighbouring countries (Italy throughout the Po valley, France as far as Siena, and almost all Germany), but above all the Eastern Alpine regions. Only the great victory of Otto I (955) at Lechfeld put an end to Magyar barbarism and opened a new period, the period of the third and definitive Christianisation and of the complete Germanisation of the Eastern Alps, with the exception of the most distant region towards the Adriatic, where the Slovenes remained.

The only ecclesiastical building to survive intact and still in use from that second period is the parish church of Karnburg in Carinthia, which is the chapel of an imperial palace (Pfalz) mentioned in 888.

b) Second period: political organisation, colonisation and definitive ecclesiastical organisation: 9th–13th centuries. — As a result of the Magyar invasion, along the Danubian regions almost everything had to be begun anew; in the interior of the Alpine system and in the southern parts the depopulation and devastation were less severe. Since religious life is intimately bound up with political and cultural developments, mention is made here of the political history of Austria.

I

from K. Ginzart, *Die Kunstdenkmäler Kärntens* VI. 1, Klagenfurt 1930, p. 697

AUSTRIA — Plan of the parish church of Flattnitz, 1390 m., Carinthia, consecrated in 1173, with Romanesque dome, Gothic choir and bell tower of the 14th century.

The territories most affected, depopulated or even partly deserted (the future Austria proper) were reorganised anew as a march and, from 976, given as a fief to the family of the Babenbergs, which died out in 1246. Their rule, lasting 270 years, marks for the central part of the future Austria a period of rapid cultural, religious and political development. Leopold III the Saint (1096–1136) gave extensive support to the religious development of the country. Henry II (1141–77) received the title of duke; the delicate position and the contact with the eastern world, especially after the first crusades, placed the margraviate in a position of almost independent political privilege. Vienna then saw many crusader armies pass beneath its walls, coming from all directions, and almost all the Austrian lords, with the dukes at their head, went east to fight the Saracens. Austria experienced between the 12th and 13th centuries its first golden age, and Vienna was in the region the centre of Germanic-Christian culture, especially under Leopold VI the Glorious (1198–1230). After the death of Frederick II (1250) the terrible ‘interregnum’ (1250–73) not only dissolved every bond of public law but also enabled King Ottokar II of Bohemia to occupy Austrian territories (1251). When Rudolf I of Habsburg (1273–91) was crowned German king, the situation changed. He, in order to restore public order, so compromised throughout the empire, had not only to fight all the petty lords but above all to demand the restitution of the most important Austrian fief to the crown. After Ottokar’s fall (1278), Rudolf took possession of imperial territories, but in 1282 he granted the Austrian duchy to his son; from now on, until 1918 (for 636 years), the Habsburgs ruled in Austria, developing, through successful policy, the modest initial territories and winning for themselves and their country the universal attestation of ‘Catholic Austria’.

We now turn to a brief account of the other territories that later joined proper Austria. Styria, developed under the Traungauers (Stirburg), was at first a march, later elevated to a duchy and passed, in 1192, by inheritance, to the Babenbergs. Carinthia, a duchy in its own right since 1000, whereas previously it had been subject to Bavaria, had dukes from various houses and passed, by inheritance, in 1335 to Austria. The developments of the Tyrol are more complex. The progressive union of various counties, originally enfeoffed to Trent and Brixen, led to the formation of a sufficiently large and homogeneous territory that took the general name of Tyrol and became ‘reichsunmittelbar’, an immediate fief of the Empire. Following various events and lines of inheritance, the Tyrol too came to be united with Austria in 1363. Vorarlberg also originated from many small counties and lordships; especially under the counts of Montfort (1158–1400), it became a uniform territory, later acquired by the Habsburgs in 1390. It should finally be noted that the name ‘Österreich, Austria’ dates back to 996, while Vienna appears for the first time with its new name ‘Venia, Wien’ in 881.

As regards the colonization of the aforementioned territories, the southern parts, namely Carinthia and a large part of Styria, did not suffer as many losses in men and devastation as the northern parts. The flat region open towards Hungary had remained a true desert. It should also be noted that many regions, especially the immense forests to the north of the Danube towards Bohemia, and also many internal Alpine regions, less accessible, had until then been almost uninhabited. One of the most urgent tasks, therefore, was to repopulate the entire region. This was usually achieved by enfeoffing more or less extensive territories to German lords, to cities, but more often to bishops and monasteries. These, in turn, took care to make the lands granted to them productive through increasingly intensive colonization. This process can be said to have ended, in principle, during the 11th century; in certain very rugged parts, however, it continued until the late Middle Ages. The immigrant populations came for the most part from Bavaria, but also from other parts of Germany. Thus Austria had a predominantly German population; but given its border situation, and the extensive commercial relations and exchanges of natural products, as well as its ever-growing independence and power, especially under the Habsburgs, a central political unity formed, so that now the “Austrian” man, by his entire mentality, culture, and historical antecedents—which, moreover, never repudiated his Germanic origins—appears as a type entirely his own and distinct from the other variations of the German people properly so called.

Since the indigenous and immigrant population was now Catholic, the organic developments of settlement brought with them the developments of ecclesiastical organization and life. For centuries, the two centers of ecclesiastical organization remained the sees of Passau and Salzburg. But while Passau, after its vain attempt to rise to metropolitan status (recall the famous forgeries of Lorch), contented itself with governing the Roman parts of Austria by means of an “officialate” with its seat in Vienna, Salzburg pursued a more flexible policy; by reviving the defunct system of chorepiscopi, episcopal sees were established that were initially conceived as mere vicariates of the metropolitan, but soon succeeded in constituting themselves as true dioceses, albeit rather small ones, while the bishops remained vicars (archdeacons) of the metropolitan for the areas distant from Salzburg. Hence the curious fact that the archbishop of Salzburg had the right to appoint his own suffragans. These supplementary bishoprics were: Gurk in Carinthia (1072); Seckau in Styria (1218); Lavant in Carinthia (1226). In the middle of the 15th century, at the initiative of Emperor Frederick III, the bishopric of Ljubljana arose in Carniola.

But the true, everlasting glory of that era lies in the cultural achievements of the great Bavarian, and especially Austrian, monasteries, which were feudal lords of enormous territories and, through patient labor, opened them to all developments of civil and religious culture. At this point, one would have to compile a full list of Benedictine, Augustinian Canons, Cistercian, and Premonstratensian monasteries.

If the great Austrian monasteries still today present themselves with a number, often quite considerable, of parishes completely incorporated into them, this is because these were once the territories elevated by the monastery itself to the highest Christian civilization.

The relations, always very lively, of the Austrian regions both with Italy and with the Near East, resulted in a continuous exchange of reciprocal cultural, literary, artistic, and commercial influences that brought about a rapid general development of that peripheral part of Germany; Austria then became, as we have already noted, the true center of German culture, and the court of the Babenbergs in Vienna was more splendid (Walter von der Vogelweide; early German literature, origins of the great German epics, such as the Nibelungenlied, etc.). Here lie the roots of that marked sense for every kind of high culture which remained forever the proudest boast of Austria.

The history of Christianity in Austria, in a certain sense, ends at this period, which has written the most splendid pages, as evidenced by the grand ecclesiastical art of the time (see bibliography); for the centuries that followed up to the present day, Austrian Catholicism has followed, more or less, all the spiritual and cultural movements of Europe, with aspects sometimes specific and with its own characteristics. Brief outlines will therefore suffice to sketch the history of Austrian Christianity up to today.

3. Modern Age

The beginning of this period is characterized above all by: the century-long wars against the Turks; the danger began earlier, but from 1470 until around 1500 there was hardly a year without violent Turkish incursions deep into the Austrian provinces: in 1520 the first siege of Vienna occurred, which alarmed all Europe. The 16th century marks the height of Turkish predominance; Austria assumed full responsibility for the defense of Europe against the Turks, although often hindered by the burgeoning Protestantism, which abused its political strength to extort from the Austrian rulers ever new religious and political prerogatives in exchange for some inadequate subsidy; and by France, which never ceased to ally itself, secretly or openly, with the Ottomans. Only in the 17th century, after the second siege of Vienna (1683), did Austria finally succeed in driving the Turks out of Hungary (in which Marco d’Aviano, an Italian Capuchin, played a singular role) and pushing them back towards the Balkans. The finest victories that saved Europe from the scourge of the Crescent are linked to the name of Eugene of Savoy, an Austrian general. The long and hard war against the Turk, which also had a religious character, led, especially after the victorious Catholic Restoration, to a grand revival of all religious and cultural forces, so that the years from the 17th century to the mid-18th mark, for Austria, with its Baroque culture, a second golden age.

The second characteristic element at the beginning of this period is the violent onslaught of Protestantism in Austria and the work of the Catholic Reformation. The rapid development of Lutheranism in Austria was determined, as indeed were the vehement developments of heresy throughout Europe, by a complex of religious, political, economic, and cultural causes, which, towards the end of the 16th century, had created, with the valuable contribution of humanism, a state of general tension. This tension gave rise to continuous wars (especially between Germany and France), along with internal revolutions, namely the various peasant uprisings provoked by the radically changed economic conditions after the

Great discoveries and above all with the general religious revolution of Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, Henry VIII, etc. The Author too suffered greatly from the peasant uprisings of the first half of the 16th century, but above all from the extremely rapid expansion of Protestant heresy. Especially the nobility (often for political reasons and to pressure the government, etc.), even more than the oppressed peasants and the middle classes of the cities, turned to the new faith. The clergy at that time unfortunately left much to be desired. The Catholic Church finally rediscovered itself and, with the Council of Trent, renewed the spirit of faith and internal holiness, the forces of resistance and renewal of the whole Christian life, first of the clergy and then of the people. This most difficult work was a fruitful leaven which, after a few decades of incubation, towards the end of the 17th century, produced in Austria a rapid Catholic revival of universal importance.

The merit of the Catholic Reformation belongs first and foremost to the Syrian descendants of the Habsburgs (Charles of Styria and Ferdinand) who, in the second half of the 16th century, using above all the Jesuits, began from Graz a systematic work of reconquest (University of Graz, colleges, seminaries, etc.), thus making Austria the vanguard of the Catholic Reformation itself. Sometimes violence was resorted to in order to achieve this goal, but generally the mere force of persuasion was sufficient (Martin Brenner, bishop of Seckau, the “hammer” of heretics!).

In Tyrol, never so invaded as the other provinces, Sigismund and Ferdinand of Tyrol firmly began to apply the Catholic Reformation (Jesuits, Capuchins, University of Innsbruck). In Vienna and in Austria proper, because of imperial policy strongly opposed by the nobility, the beginnings of the Reformation were slower (St. Peter Canisius); but with the accession to the imperial throne of Ferdinand of Graz (1619), the fate of the Reformation was decided in the sense of a rapid and almost complete restoration of Catholicism in the positions it had lost. Jesuits, Capuchins, and then also ancient Orders, now themselves reformed to new life, contributed effectively to the rise of a new, flourishing, and soon exuberant Catholic religiosity, which pervaded above all the cultural and artistic life of the country. We are at the second golden age of the great abbeys, which, almost all of them, during the 17th and 18th centuries, were renewing their churches and rebuilding, often with grand splendor, their houses, according to the dictates of Baroque art, which soon became familiar to the Austrian spirit. Two great Austrian Benedictine Congregations flourished at that time: that of Salzburg and that of Melk, proud of their academies, universities (Salzburg), libraries, and scientific publications (the Pez brothers, etc.).

But even from the middle of the 18th century, in Austria too the philosophical and political currents that then pervaded all European states began to make themselves felt: growing rationalism (in Germany under the form of Enlightenment), secret societies (Freemasonry), the omnipotence of the State (brought to its height by Louis XIV), police regimes, monarchical absolutism with all its train of caesaropapism. Thus in France there was Gallicanism and Jansenism, in Germany Febronianism, in Austria Josephinism. The origins and tendencies were identical; there were, however, variations according to the individual countries and their specific historical, political, and social conditions. In the Austrian government, after so many wars (against the Turks, against France, Prussia), a bare economic utilitarianism began to be introduced, in connection with the beginnings of liberalism and mercantilism in England; the need was felt to strengthen the power of the State, following the example of France, Prussia, etc.; thus perfect monarchical absolutism was achieved, and consequently the unification of the state structure, fragmented by so many provinces of different nationality, culture, and confession: a rigorous centralism, therefore. All this complex of new forces and directives could not but increasingly influence the relations between State and Church. The whole Austrian-flavored caesaropapist system entered history under the name of “Josephinism” (v.), from Joseph II (1780–90). The Austrian Church was almost completely severed from Rome; a formation (general seminaries) was imposed on it according to current ideologies; everything deemed useless to the public purposes of the State was immediately suppressed; many forms of popular piety—pilgrimages, festivals, confraternities, and above all the “useless” convents, i.e., those that did not run schools or public welfare works, were abolished. Religious tolerance was introduced, marriage was incorporated into civil legislation, and (indeed a great boast of Josephinism) a system of education was created, from elementary school to university, all rational and compulsory, etc. Although Josephinism was disastrous for the Church, the clergy, and popular piety, one cannot deny it certain merits, such as the new and more homogeneous diocesan and parochial circumscription, a more rational distribution of charity, and others, even though these were often implemented despite canonical procedures.

4. Contemporary Age — Austria too was gravely involved in the Napoleonic wars amid the upheavals of a Europe shaken by the French Revolution; and as a natural consequence of so many convulsions, after the