Page - 374 - in Maximilian Hell (1720–92) - And the Ends of Jesuit Science in Enlightenment Europe

Chapter 8374 bishop of Trier.107 Hell noted the prominent role of nuncio Garampi in achiev- ing this “real triumph of the Catholic Church,” but reported to Eszterházy with disappointment that it is not well received by the “perverted Catholics of this city of ours.”108 Further fulminations concern the “insults” to the Catholic Church constituted by designs to alleviate regulations on fasting and even to abandon priestly celibacy (“after a Lutheran manner”).109 Nevertheless, Hell continued to tackle in his letters scholarly developments as well, never losing the hope that the Eger school, this “most splendid palace of the muses,”110 might eventually provide a “safe and permanent haven” for the university of Hungary.111 The latter expectation was made explicit by Hell after the accession of Leopold ii early in the year 1790. The seventy-year-old ex-Jesuit at that time became involved in a new edition of the Statutes of the University of Vienna, and made efforts to convince the policy-makers of the need for a purely Catho- lic university system.112 As he explained to Eszterházy, he hoped to restore the studies at the universities of our hereditary realms, which now lie with their backs broken, to their ancient status and spirit in the same manner as the university studies were restored during the reign of the pious emperor Ferdinand ii, at first in Vienna in the year 1623, and thereafter in all the cities of the Austrian hereditary realms.113 These hopes were to be frustrated again. Hell’s scientific output became also somewhat scaled down during the 1780s. Though even in the very last years of his life, he published two fragments of the Expeditio litteraria in the volumes of the Ephemerides for 1791 and 1793, the major astronomical contributions to the supplements of the annual in the 1780s were either authored by Hell’s serving 107 For a comprehensive overview in English, see Ulrich Lehner, “Johann Nikolaus von Hon- theim’s Febronius: A Censored Bishop and His Ecclesiology,” Church History and Religious Culture 88, no. 2 (2008): 205–33. 108 Hell to Eszterházy in Eger, dated March 19, 1779. fle AV 2629. The discussion continues in the letter of April 9, 1779, fle AV 2629. As for the “perverted Catholics” of Vienna, support- ers of Josephist ecclesiastical policies indeed regarded the retraction as one of the most dangerous writings “against worldly regents.” Cf. Lehner, “Hontheim’s Febronius,” 226. 109 Hell to Eszterházy in Eger, dated October 15, 1779. fle AV 2629. 110 Hell to Eszterházy in Eger, dated December 26, 1783. fle AV 2629. 111 Hell to Eszterházy in Eger, dated October 30, 1790. fle AV 2629. 112 In an extant copy of the 1791 edition of the Statutes, an autograph letter by Hell was pasted between pages 167 and 168, revealing “his contempt for Protestant education, calling Prot- estant universities ‘pseudo-Universities’ that ‘corrupt students’ minds.’” See Shore, Jesuits and the Politics of Religious Pluralism, 105. 113 Hell to Eszterházy in Eger, dated November 1, 1791. fle AV 2629.