Page - 226 - in Universities in Imperial Austria, 1848–1918 - A Social History of a Multilingual Space

226 ♦  Universities in Imperial Austria, 1848–1918 Przegląd Powszechny (Universal review).39 At the theological faculties, new disciplines were established, such as “Christian sociology” (an obligatory subject at the Czech theological faculty in Prague from 1897 on),40 Christian social science (Christliche Gesellschaftslehre), the history of church art, and Christian archaeology.41 The Catholic clergy and other interested parties also made requests of universities. The University of Vienna was reminded to maintain its Catholic character, as recorded in its founding charter. More important, however, to counterbalance “secular” academies, the Catholic clergy, supported by the Christian Socialists, proposed the establishment of a Catholic university in Salzburg. This “Free Catholic university in Austria,” which was proposed by the episcopacy in 1901 (Catholic organizations had been fighting for it in an organized way since 1884),42 was to have a slightly different angle than the state universities. It was to be independent of the state, financed by private donors (namely, Habsburg Catholics), and would serve as a training ground for new Catholic cadres rather than as a scientific institution per se. It openly aimed at reforming the state based on the Catholic faith.43 Although the idea was supported by the bishops of all of the provinces, and a multicultural and multilingual school was proposed, it resonated almost exclusively in the German-speaking parts of the monarchy.44 But the idea also had vocal critics. In particular, liberals voiced their concerns,45 and the Neue Freie Presse devoted a long editorial to the im- practicability of such a university and the legal problems it would have.46 Although Pope Leo XIII supported the conference of bishops,47 the idea was not without critics within the church itself. At virtually the same time, the professor of church history in Vienna, Albert Ehrhard, in his widely dis- cussed book on Catholicism in the twentieth century, warned that founding a Catholic university in Salzburg could be “a retraction from the vast sea of cultural life to an idyllic island, on whose coast the surging waves of the sea will not break.” He also saw the mission of the church as lying not in the creation of a ghetto for its needs but rather in the “involvement of the church in all intellectual places of education and culture.” 48 Other liberal Catholics, including Ludwig Wahrmund, similarly disliked the idea, fearing that clericalism would dominate over objective research.49 In Wahrmund’s case, this led to severe conflicts within academia. The direct cause of this struggle over the religious outlook of academia in the Habsburg Empire was, however, of foreign origin: the fight in the German Empire since late 1901 against the appointment of the Catholic historian