JOSEPH
510
JOSEPH
to natural law, and therefore to the will of Christ;
consequently the Church has no right to enact such
laws, nor can the State accept them. Kaunitz re-
duced these principles to practice: "The supremacy
of the State over the Church extends to all ecclesias-
tical laws and practices devised and established solely
by man, and whatever else the Church owes to the
consent and sanction of the secular power. Conse-
quently, the State must always have the power to
limit, alter, or annul its former concessions, whenever
reasons of state, abuses, or altered circumstances de-
mand it." Joseph raised these propositions to princi-
ples of government, and treated ecclesiastical institu-
tions as public departments of the State. Maria
Theresa has been incorrectly represented as favouring
Josephinism. Most of the measures that presaged
Josephinism in the latter part of her reign had not
her approval. Joseph's entire policy was the embodi-
ment of his idea of a centralized empire developing
from within and in which all public affairs, political
and ecclesiastico-political, were treated as an indivis-
ible whole. His reforms, a medley of financial, social-
reformatory, and ecclesiastico-reformatory ideas, have
no solid foundation.
(b) The Reforms. — Bishoprics, religious orders, and benefices were limited by the Austrian boundary. Non-Austrian bishops were excluded, which simplified the often very confused overlapping of diocesan authorities. The announcement of papal, in fact of all ecclesiastical, decrees, was made dependent on im- perial approval (see Placet); decisions on impedi- ments to marriage were referred to the bishops; the communication of the bishops with Rome, and of the religious orders with their generals in foreign coun- tries, was forbidden, partly from considerations of political economy. In 1783, while at Rome, Joseph personally threatened that he would establish an inde- pendent state-church; he abolished all exemptions from episcopal authority and by an obligatory oath brought the bishops into dependence on the State. The acceptance of papal titles and attendance at the German College in Rome were forbidden, and a Ger- man College was established at Pa via in opposition to the Roman institution. The Edict of Toleration of
1781 granted to all denominations the free exercise of their religion and civil rights; at the same time a series of petty regulations concerning Divine service pre- scribed the number of the candles, the length and style of the sermons, the prayers, and hj'mns. All superfluous altars and all gorgeous vestments and images were to be removed; various passages in the Breviary were to have paper pasted over them; dog- matic questions were excluded from the pulpit, from which, on the other hand, all government proclama- tions were to be announced. "Our Brother the Sacristan", as Frederick the Great named Joseph, sincerely believed that in doing this he was creating a purified Divine service, and never heeded the discon- tent of his people and the sneers of non-Catholics.
The fundamental idea underlying a state-church is that the State is the administrator of the temporal property of the Church. Joseph embodied this idea in a law merging the funds of all churches, religious houses, and endowments within his territories, into one great fund for the various reciuirements of public worship, called the Rcligionsfonds. This fund was the pivot measure around which all other re- forms turned. Not only ecclesiastical property hitherto devoted to parochial uses, not only the prop- erty which the suppressed religious houses had devoted to parochial works, but all ecclesiastical property — the still remaining religious houses, chapels, confra- ternities, and benefices, and all existing religious en- dowments whatsoever — was held to be part of the new fund. The suppression of the religious houses in
1782 affected at first only the conteiiiphilive orders. The Rcligionsfonds, created out of tlu' i)ropcrty of the
monasteries, gave a new direction to Joseph's monas-
tic policy. In the foreground stood "the wealthy prel-
acies", which from 1783 were the chief oliject of his
suppressions. The journey of Pius VI to Vienna was
fruitless, and the laity reacted but feebly against the
suppressions. Of the 915 monasteries (762 for men,
and 153 for women) existing in 1780 in German Aus-
tria (including Bohemia, Moravia, and Galicia), 388
(280 for men, 108 for women) were closed — figures
which are often greatly exaggerated. By these sup-
pressions the "religious fund" reached 35,000,000
gulden ($14,000,000). Countless works of art were
destroj'ed or found their way to second-hand dealers or
the mint, numberless libraries were pitilessly scattered.
The suppression of the tertiaries and hermits brought no increase to the fund, and the suppres- sion of the confraternities (1783) was likewise a finan- cial failure. They were looked upon as sources of superstition and religious fanaticism; half their property was allotted to educational purposes, the other half was given over, "with all their ecclesiastical privileges, indulgences, and graces", to a new "Single Charitable Association", which possessed the features of both a confraternity and a charitable institution, and was intended to end all social distress. But the people had little taste for this "enlightened confra- ternity". The suppression of the filial churches and chapels-of-ease permitted the creation of new parishes. In carrying out this measure and in the suppression of the confraternities, Josejih's reforms met with the first popular resistance. The endowments for Masses and altars, for oratories, chapels-of-ease, and confra- ternities, for processions and pilgrimages, and for devotions no longer permitted in the new arrange- ment of Divine service, all went to the Rcligionsfonds, which undertook to satisfy the provisions for Masses, wherever the fact of endowment could be proved. Joseph assigned a definite number as pensions for dis- possessed monks and as the stipends of parochial clergy. Benefices without cure of souls, prebends in the larger churches, and all canonries above a fixed nimiber, belonging to collegiate churches and cathe- dral chapters, w'ere forfeited to the "religious fund", and the incumbents transferred to parochial positions. A maximum was fixed for the endowment of bishop- ries, the surplus being turned over to the "religious fund", as were also the incomes of livings during their vacancy.
The first duty of the ' ' religious fund' ' was to provide for the ex-religious. Their number did not exceed ten thousand. They received a yearly salary of 150 to 200 gulden ($60 to $80), and the monks were trans- ferred to parochial and scholastic work. The state- church reached its fullest expression in the parochial organization. The State undertook to train and remu- nerate the clergy, to present to livings, and to regulate Divine service. No parish church was to be over an hour's walk from any parishioner; and a church was to be provided for every 700 souls. The monasteries which still remained bore the main burden of the pa- rochial organization, and their inmates, as well as the ex-monks, were required to pass a state coneursus for the pastoral positions, while only in cases of extreme necessity did the "religious fund" furnish the means for the building of churches and rectories, for the care of cemeteries, and the equipment of churches. Natu- rally, the "religious fund" had to pay the costs of placing the clergy under state control, of the general seminaries and the support of the young clerics, who thus became wholly dejiendent on the Government, of tlie institutes for tlie practical education of the clergy, which were to be established in every dioce.se, and of the support of sick and aged priests after the incor- poration with the "religious fund" of thefunds created for superannuated priests {Emeriteiifnnds) and to supply needed support (Defiziriileiifniirh).
The acailemic reforms of Maria Theresa {Sludierv-
