Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 15.djvu/479

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VIENNA


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VIENNA


rebuilt in the Gothic style during the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries, and since 1852 has been com- pletely restored by tlio architects, Ernst Fr. Schmidt and Hermann. The Vnliv Kirche of Our Saviour, one of the most beautiful Ciothio churches of modern times, was built 1850-79 according to the plans of Fer- stel, in commemoration of the escape of the Emperor Francis Joseph from assassination in 1853. It has a very rich facade and two towers each 316 feet high. The church of Maria Sticgen (Maria on the river- bank), the national church of the Czechs, was built in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries in the Late Gothic style; the heptagonal tower was erected in 1536. The "Karlskirche", an elaborate structure in the Baroque style with a huge cupola, is the master- piece of Fischer von E)rlach, and was erected 1715-37. The parish church "zu den sieben Zufluchten" was built by Mullcr (1848-61), in the Itahan Round- arched style with an octagonal cupola and two towers each 223 feet high; the church of the Lazarists was built 1860-62 in Early Gothic style after the design of F. Schmidt; St. Brigitta, a Gothic church, erected in 1862-73 by the same architect; the Gothic church of the Augustinians, dating from the fourteenth century, contains the celebrated monument by Canova of Maria Christina, daughter of the Empress Maria Theresa; the Capuchin church erected in the Baroque style (1622-32) contains the crypt of the imperial family with 132 coffins; St. Peter, the second oldest church of Vienna, rebuilt in the Baroque style (1702- 13) by Fischer von Erlach. Associational church life is highly developed in the city of Vienna, and there are numerous Cathohc charitable institutions.

II. The Diocese op Vienna. (1) History. — The territory which now belongs to the Diocese of Vienna was subject, from the time the Germans acquired it, to the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Passau, who was represented in Vienna by an official. At the begin- ning of the thirteenth century Duke Leopold VI began negotiations with Rome for the founding of a separate bishopric for Vienna, but the.se elTorfs failed owing to the opposition of the Bishops of Passau. Like the rulers of the Babenberg dynasty the first princes of the house of Habsburg also desired to make Vienna an independent diocese. However Emperor Frederick III was the first to bring it about; in 1469 two dioceses were established at the same time in the Austrian territories by the Bull "In supremaK digni- tatis specula"; these sees were placed directly under the control of the pope: one was for the city of Vienna, which then contained three parishes, and for the four- teen, later sixteen, parishes of its immediate vicinity; the second was for the city of Wiener- Neustadt. The right to appoint the bishops of these two small dioceses was given by Pope Paul II to Emperor Frederick III and his successors. The church of St. Stephen was made the cathedral church of the Diocese of Vienna. The Bishop of Passau did not withdraw his opposition until 1481, consequently it was not until this year that the Bull of erection could be formally proclaimed in the presence of a papal envoy, Bi.shop .Mexander of Forli, and a deputy of the Archbishop of Salzburg, the primate of Ger- many. In 1471 Frederick III appointed as first bishop Count Leopold of Spaur, who was not, how- ever, able to occupy his see. The small endowment of the diocese was the main reason why during the first century administrators rather than bishops were generally appointed. The first administrator was Johann Beckcnslor or Peckenschlagcr (14SO-S2), formerly Archbishop of Gran, from which he had been driven by the Magyars; he received the archiepiscopal See of Salzburg in 1482. This bishop was succeeded by Bernhard Rohrer (1482-87), who could only exercise his office for a short period on account of the siege and occupation of Vienna by Matthias Corvinus. The diocese was administered during the supremacy


of Matthias Corvinus by his court preacher. Urban Docsi.

After ^'iellna came again under the control of the Habsburgs the succession of administrators was as follows: Mattliias Scheldt (1490-93), Bishop of Sec- kau; Johann Vitez (1493-99), private secretary to Matthias Corvinus and a zealous promoter of Human- ism; Bernhard PoUheim of Wartenberg (1499-1504), formerly rector of the University of Padua, and Franz Bakacs of Erdod (1504-09), Bishop of Raab. After a vacancy of several years the diocese was administered by Georg Slatkonia, Bishop of Piben in Istria (1513- 22); Petrus Bonomo, Bishop of Trieste and governor of the Austrian Netherlands (1522-23), and Johann of ReveUis (1523-29), chief ahnoner of Archduke Ferdinand. Distinguished administrators were Jo- hann Faber (1533-41) and P'rederick Nausea (1541- 52). After the death of Nausea's successor, Christo- pher Werthwein (1552-53), the cathedral chapter undertook the administration of the diocese. Blessed Peter Canisius aiding it by advice and deed in the struggle against the religious innovations. Bishop Anthony Bruns, who was appointed in 1558, received the Archdiocese of Prague in 1561. His successor Urban Sagstetter, a zealous defender of the ancient Faith, resigned in 1568, on account of the violent opi)nsition he encountered among the clergy and laity, who were largely inclined to Lutheranisra. After his resignation the chapter undertook the spiritual administration. Johann Kaspar Neubock (1574-94), formerly professor at the llniversity of Freiburg in the Breisgau, was the first of the unbroken series of the actual Bi.shops of Vienna. During his episcopate the Protestant movement, which he opposed to the best of his ability, although without great success, reached its culmination at Vienna. His successor Cardinal Melchior Klesl (1.598-1630) introduced the Counter-Reformation in Austria with the aid of Emperors Ferdinand II and III and carried it to a successful termination. Anthony Wolfrath of Cologne (1631-39), who was also Bishop-Abbot of Kremsmiinster, obtained for himself and his successors the dignity of a prince of the emijire.

Among the most distinguished of his successors were: the zealous and energetic Prince-Bishop Philip Frederick Count of Breuncr (1639-69), the Capuchin Emmerich Sinelli (1680-85), councillor of the emperor, during whose episcopate the memorable siege of Vienna by the Turks occurred; Francis Ferdinand Freiherr von Rummel (160(}-16), who was the tutor of the later Emperor Joseph I ; Prince-Bishop Sigmund Count von Kollonitz (171(5-51), nephew of Bishop KoUonitz of W'iener-Neustadt, who won imperishable glory during the siege of Vienna. During this episco- pate Pope Innocent XIII, at the request of Emperor Charles VI, raised the Diocese of Vienna in 1722 to the rank of an archdiocese and gave it the formerly exempt Diocese of Wicner-Neustadt as suffragan. In 1729 the diocese w.os enlarged by the addition of the parishes in the "district under the Wienerwald" which had formerly belonged to Pa.ssau. His suc- ces.sor John Joseph Count von Trautson (1751-57) was regarded as a free-thinker on account of his le- niency towards Protestants and his enmity to the Jesuits, although he was zealous for the training and discipline of the clergy. During the episcopate of Cardinal Anthony Christopher von Migazzi (17.57- 1803), the keen adversary of the Josephine system, the Diocese of Vienna received its present boundaries. In 1785 the Diocese of Wiener-Neustadt was sup- pressed and incorjjorated in that of Vienna; in addition Vienna received the parishes of the '.'district under the Mannhartsberg" in Lower Austria, and five parishes of the Diocese of Raab. At the same time the two Dioceses of Lins and St. Piilten, which Joseph II had erected against the wish of the pope and of the Bishop of Pa.ssau, were made suffragans of Vienna. Miga?,*