Seite - 363 - in Maximilian Hell (1720–92) - And the Ends of Jesuit Science in Enlightenment Europe

363Coping with Enlightenments directly. Cast as a call for subscriptions modeled upon Hell’s advertisement for the Expeditio litteraria, it bears the false signature of the court astronomer, who is also styled “historian of the Lappish nation, apostolic missionary of the Roman see.”64 Printed leaflets were circulating in Vienna by the autumn of 1784, and in 1786 the piece was included in von Schlözer’s widely disseminated Göttingen journal on public affairs, the Staats­ Anzeigen (State reports). One thread in the contents is the mockery of Hell’s inability to bring his great work to conclusion: von Born put into the astronomer’s mouth an account of how “after sweating over this work for ten years,” he decided to “say goodbye to all mundane issues” and to “ascend from astronomical matters even higher into the heavens, and henceforth treat nothing but spiritual and divine subjects.”65 In this spurious call for subscriptions, Hell is portrayed as a sworn enemy of the freemasons, with the full title of his work given as The Christian­ Hellian Tele­ scope, or Macro­ and Microscopic Observations on the Heresy and Goal of the Freemasons by Honorable Father Maximilian Hell of the Society of Jesus’ [sic], Made upon His Return and Repentance from Speculations concerning Matters Relating to Venus.66 The work was supposed to be brought out by the publisher “of our Society, in three volumes, although not in folio, but, as befits Christian modesty, in octavo.”67 Furthermore, the volumes were to appear on the day of Saint Xavier in the year 1784, on the day of Saint Aloysius in the year after, and on the day of Saint Ignatius in 1786. Subscriptions were open “in all Ca- tholic cities and provinces, at the Honorable Father Preachers and ex-Jesuit Missionaries.”68 The reference to Hell as “Honorable Father of the Society of Jesus,” the nam- ing of canonized representatives of the same Society (Xavier, Aloysius, and Ig- natius Loyola), the supposed existence of a Jesuit press and even of ex-Jesuit missionaries—all was neatly phrased in order to nail the Viennese court as- tronomer as a spearhead of anti-tolerant schemes against the freemasons. Fur- ther attacks on Hell’s reputation came in various newspapers and ephemeral publications in the mid-1780s.69 To at least one of these—an “anecdote illuminating Austrian ex-Jesuitism, or Jesuitism,” alleging Hell to be the local 64 In some of the literature, this signature has been taken at face value and the contents of the call have been discussed as though the text had been written by Hell. See Pinzger, Hell Miksa, 1:25–26. 65 [Ignaz von Born], “Lectori salutem,” Staats­ Anzeigen 9, nos. 33–36 (1786): 228–31, here 229. 66 [von Born], “Lectori salutem,” 230. 67 [von Born], “Lectori salutem.” 68 [von Born], “Lectori salutem,” 231. 69 According to Steinmayr, “Geschichte der Universitätssternwarte,” 271–73, these included the Oesterreichische Biedermanns­ Chronik, the Wienerische Kirchenzeitung, the Briefe aus dem Himmel, and the Phantasten­ und Prediger­ Almanach.