Page - 310 - in Maximilian Hell (1720–92) - And the Ends of Jesuit Science in Enlightenment Europe

Chapter 7310 a memorandum of 1768 to this body (later also redrafted for publication as a pamphlet), Kaunitz—effectively the first minister of the province—formulat- ed a clear-cut position regarding the boundaries between secular and spiritual power. He declared all ecclesiastical matters subject to the jurisdiction of the state, except those assigned by Christ to the Apostles: preaching the Gospels, defining Christian doctrine, performing sacraments and services, and main- taining the inner discipline of the clergy.7 From 1769, the suppression of small- er monasteries (more precisely: their integration in larger ones) in Lombardy began, but the scale remained relatively modest (around one in five), and even more so a few years later on the other experimental ground, newly annexed Galicia.8 Further measures taken in 1771 raised the minimum age of taking mo- nastic vows to twenty-four, and limited the “dowry” novices could bring into a monastery to 1,500 florins; in 1772, the number of public holidays was reduced, and pilgrimages were curbed. While these reforms were still not overwhelming, they indicate a changing climate in Vienna almost exactly during the period of the court astronomer’s absence from the Habsburg capital. Besides the initiative taken by Kaunitz, the role of Joseph ii, who succeeded his father as emperor and became co-regent with his mother in the Austrian dominions in 1765, was pre-eminent in the major steps. The most important—indeed, the only really important one dur- ing the reign of Maria Theresa—among these was the one that affected Hell most directly: the suppression of the Society of Jesus in 1773. While, as it has been and shall be argued in this book, Jesuit competence was appreciated and resorted to under the reforming regime in Vienna until the last moment and beyond, the order as a corporation had suffered gradual setbacks since the late 1750s. The criticism of Jesuit educational practices (such as the frequent change of teaching personnel, the occasionally all-too-fervent Counter-Reformation programmatics, or the method of university lecturing by sheer dictation from the professor’s own manuscripts, resisting the thrust toward the use of stan- dardized textbooks) led to the piecemeal limitation of the role of the Society in Austrian schooling. University chairs in theology and philosophy began to pass from Jesuit hands to members of the secular clergy or representatives of the older religious orders. In Vienna, the Jesuit directors of these faculties were removed by a decree of 1759 and replaced by the Jansenist bishop of Wiener Neustadt, Simon von Stock (1710–72) (followed by Franz Stephan Rautenstrauch 7 Harm Klueting, Der Josephinismus: Ausgewählte Quellen zur Geschichte der Theresianisch- Josephinischen Reformen (Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1995), 120. 8 Derek Beales, “Joseph ii and the Monasteries of Austria and Hungary,” in Beales, Enlighten- ment and Reform, 227–55, here 233–34; Beales, Joseph ii, 1:445–50, and 2:186–92.