Page - 71 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Volume 07/01

Material Traces of a Religious Trial | 71www.jrfm.eu 2021, 7/1, 67–93 The Case In the 17th century the parish of Haus im Ennstal was in a tricky position. Po- litically it was an eastern outpost of the duchy of Styria, but ecclesiastically it was bound to the archdiocese of Salzburg, which was a political heavyweight too. In 1646, the parish was incorporated into the Benedictine monastery at Admont.7 In the course of the Reformation in the previous century, almost all of the duchy of Styria, and especially the region Ennstal, had become Protes- tant, and it had taken repeated efforts by the reigning Habsburgs between 1570 and 1600 to re-establish Catholicism. Many Protestants had been forced to leave Styria, and Salzburg, but many remained, formally reverting to Ca- tholicism yet remaining crypto-Protestants. This secret Protestantism made the mountain region of northern Styria difficult ground for every Catholic cleric, and parishes were often staffed by priests who having fallen out of favour with the authorities, being disciplined with this usually temporary assignment.8 Many of them were naturally eager to regain the Archbishop’s favour and actively sought to restore Catholic orthodoxy. In the first half of the 17th century, the region was also affected by the rerouting of international trade roads as a result of the events of the Thirty Years’ War. The lion’s share of international commerce between the cities in the kingdoms and duchies of southern Germany on the one hand and Styria, Hungary and Croatia on the other hand was relocated to other routes, leav- ing the hitherto booming villages and markets with only a small part of their former income.9 The impact of famines and marauding mercenaries did not hit the region as hard as elsewhere, but there was a constant threat, exagger- ated by rumours, of being raided and plundered, which created a climate of anxiety. 7 Knappitsch 2015, 37–38. 8 Even until the 1990s, the ruins of a sacral building several hundred metres west of Trautenfels Castle were called the “Heidentempel” (heathen temple) in the vernacular. They were the remains of the Protestant Church Neuhaus, which was destroyed in 1599 by the Archduke of Styria during the Catholic restoration. Cf. Leeb/Scheutz/Weikl 2009. 9 See Schmidt 2018.