!!!Gegenreformation

Counter-Reformation, the Roman Catholic efforts, mostly supported by 
state power and promoted by new religious orders, to re-convert the 
population to Roman Catholicism after the  Reformation. The Council of 
Trent (1545-1563) had created the doctrinal basis for Catholic 
restoration and new approaches to pastoral work. The Peace of Augsburg 
of 1555 gave the local princes the right to decide to which creed 
their subjects were to adhere. While the Habsburgs themselves were 
hostile to  Protestantism, they were repeatedly forced by the Ottoman 
threat to make concessions to the largely Protestant Estates. At 
first, they sent Catholic priests from the lands that had remained 
Catholic out to the cities and market towns that formed part of the 
Habsburg domain ("Kammergut") and relied in particular on the  
Jesuits, who had been called to Austria by Ferdinand I; the 
Jesuits founded monasteries and schools ("colleges") in Vienna (1551, 
1563), Innsbruck (1562), Graz (1573), Hall in Tirol (1573), Leoben 
(1585), Linz (1602), Klagenfurt (1605), Krems (1615), Judenburg (1620) 
and Steyr (1631). They were followed by Capuchins, Franciscans, Minim 
Brothers, Servites and others. For his own lands, Ferdinand I 
(d. 1564) had already decreed a Reformation Order on the basis of 
the Catholic faith in 1548. Political Counter-Reformation started in 
Tirol in 1567. At the Munich Conference of 1579, Karl, the ruler of 
Inneroesterreich, Ferdinand of Tirol and Wilhelm of Bavaria agreed to 
gradually suppress Protestantism in their lands. In 1576 Emperor 
Rudolf II initiated Conter-Reformation measures in Vienna and 
Lower Austria, which were to be effected by Archduke Ernst in his 
capacity as stadtholder. In 1578 the governmental Reformation 
Commission was created, which was entrusted in 1589 to the 
Administrator of the Diocese of Wiener Neustadt, M.  Klesl, who was 
later to become Cardinal. Conflict between the Habsburg brothers 
Rudolf II and Matthias impeded the Counter-Reformation in Lower and 
Upper Austria. In Upper Austria, Governor H. J. Loebl tried in 
1598 to reinstate the Catholic faith and suppress the Lutherans and 
the Peasant Revolt of 1594-1597 which had been triggered by the 
attempt to recatholicise the land; in 1601/02 he subdued the Lutheran 
mine workers and peasants of the Salzkammergut region.

\\
The fate of Protestantism in Austria was decided by the Battle of the 
White Mountain near Prague (1920), on account of which the Protestant 
Estates lost the privilege of the territorial formula "cuius regio, 
eius religio". In 1627 Protestant predicants and school-teachers were 
expelled from Lower Austria. In Upper Austria, which was under 
Bavarian rule as the result of a pledge between 1620 and 1628, 
Stadtholder A.  Herberstorff enforced Counter-Reformation with 
particular violence, whereupon the  Frankenburger Wuerfelspiel 
triggered the major Peasants' Revolt of 1625/26 ( Peasants' Revolts). 
Again, many Protestants were exiled. Counter-Reformation measures 
under Archduke Karl II were particularly harsh and pervasive in 
Inneroesterreich (Styria, Carinthia, Carniola - "Inner Austria"), 
where the Jesuit University of Graz (created in 1585) formed the 
spiritual and intellectual centre. In cities and market towns of 
Inneroesterreich, Protestant rites were forbidden in 1580, the 
Protestant school foundation was closed in 1598 and a year later 
Ferdinand II exiled the Protestants. In 1628 Protestant noblemen 
in Inneroesterreich were confronted with the choice between converting 
to Catholicism or emigration. In Salzburg, Archbishop Michael von 
Kuenburg (1554-1560) started expelling Protestant burghers and 
craftsmen. The provincial synod of Salzburg of 1569 initiated the 
further recatholicisation of the region and set an example for the 
reconversion of the "Inner-Austrian" lands. Archbishop Count Lodron 
(1619-1653) of Salzburg pursued Counter-Reformation policies in his 
realm. Religious and pastoral efforts directed against the remaining 
Protestants continued until the Edict of Toleration.

\\
The Counter-Reformation caused an estimated 100,000 Protestants to 
leave Austria. The most assiduous promoter of the Catholic faith was 
Emperor Ferdinand II (1619-1637), who practically eradicated 
Protestantism in Austria, except for a few enclaves. His efforts were 
continued by his successor, Ferdinand III, if somewhat less 
vigorously. Even in the 18%%sup th/%  century sanctions such as forced 
emigration to Hungary and Transylvania were imposed on clandestine 
Protestants. It was only through Joseph II's Edict of Toleration 
(1781) that Protestantism was legalised in Austria. In the course of 
the Conter-Reformation, the absolutist princes ( Absolutism) asserted 
themselves vis-à-vis the Estates and thus forged Austrian 
unity, which was the prerequisite for a successful defence against the 
Turks. Culturally, the Counter-Reformation was succeeded by the era of 
the Austrian  Baroque.

!Literature
J. Wodka, Kirche in Oesterreich, 1959; E. W. Zeeden, 
Gegenreformation, 1973; G. Reingrabner, Die Protestanten in 
Oesterreich, 1981; F. Dolinar, M. Liebmann et al. (eds.), 
Katholische Reform und Gegenreformation in Inneroesterreich 
Katoliška prenova in protireformacija v notranje-avstrijskih 
deželah 1564-1628. Riforma cattolica e controriforma nell"Austria 
interna 1564-1628, 1994.


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