FRANCIS JOSEPH OF HABSBURG-LORRAINE, Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary. - Son of Archduke Francis Charles, brother of Emperor Ferdinand and of Sophia of Bavaria, b. at Laxenburg Castle on 18 Aug. 1830, d. at Schönbrunn on 21 Nov. 1916. He received a careful and strict education, imparted to him by teachers of worth, among whom stand out Count of Bombelles and Abbot Rauscher, future cardinal-archbishop of Vienna, who, together with his mother, also helped to instill in him the deep respect for and conscientious practice of the Catholic faith, which remained with him until death. He was not destined for the throne, but circumstances brought him to it during the crisis of 1848. Having ascended it, after the abdication of his uncle, on 2 Dec. of the same year he inherited a State that seemed destined for certain ruin.
The young monarch, however, had the good fortune to find at his side a man, Prince Felix Schwarzenberg, determined to restore the prestige of the dynasty. Indeed, within the brief span of a year the Empire found itself once again firmly in the hands of its rulers. Having begun negotiations with the bishops, F. J. annulled the provisions that had regulated relations between Church and State since the era of Joseph II. With the imperial patents of 18 and 25 Apr. 1850 the bishops regained the full right to communicate freely with the Holy See and to scrutinize the appointment of professors of theology, whose preparation did not offer the necessary guarantee. It was the first step toward the definitive elimination of Josephinism, sanctioned later by the concordat of 1855. After the wars of 1859 and 1866, the liberal movement grew stronger. The era of absolutism had passed and the Emperor had to grant a constitution to Austria (1861) and to adapt itself to a compromise with the Hungarians (1867), who recognized him as legitimate monarch in the lands of the crown of St. Stephen, obtaining in exchange full state autonomy, whereby the only bond with Vienna lay in the person of the monarch and in the common foreign and military policy. The Concordat, considered a still-living expression of the defunct form of government, became the target; a violent campaign was therefore launched, both in the press and in Parliament, a campaign that became particularly intense after the war lost in 1866. The government, headed by Beust, tended without ambiguity toward the unilateral denunciation of the Concordat, but the Emperor opposed it vigorously and advocated instead a modus vivendi with the papacy by means of the modification of certain articles. In the face of the opposition of the Holy See, Beust persisted in his campaign and, after having had Parliament approve various laws that had practically already rendered its provisions null, seized upon the definition of papal infallibility as a pretext to denounce it formally (30 July 1870). There followed in 1874 three laws that sanctioned the preeminence of the State over the Church.
(Int. Exc. Cett.)
The personal attitude of F. G. in the years from 1866 to 1874 (as, moreover, until his death) in the face of this anti-Catholic policy was rigidly constitutional. Inwardly his conscience rebelled against such acts and on more than one occasion he demonstrated his sincere attachment to the Holy See, but the preservation of the monarchy required of him the sacrifice of his real sentiments and of his personal ideas. With the passing of the years F. G. adapted himself ever more to the status quo. Until 1870 he had still nourished hopes of revenge against Prussia and Italy, but, after the proclamation of the second Reich (1871), he had clearly before his eyes the necessity of a lasting period of peace. A fixed point of his policy was fidelity to the Triple Alliance, sparing Europe the scourge of war for nearly half a century. Internally, the liberal institutions slowly but surely strengthened, with the prosperity and well-being assured to the populations of the Empire. The progressive awakening of Slavic nationalism did not excessively worry the Emperor, but the assassination at Sarajevo of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, designated successor after 1889, precipitated the end of the Empire, sealed with the death of the old sovereign.
Bibliography
(1931), pp. 509-26. On the situation of the Catholic Church in Austria-Hungary during the reign of F. G. cf. H. Brück, Geschichte der katholischen Kirche in Deutschland im neunzehnten Jahrhundert, III and IV, 2, Münster 1908, passim, and J. Schmidlin, Papstgeschichte der neuesten Zeit, II-III, Munich 1934-36, passim.
Silvio Furlani