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The Elite and Popular Foundations of German Catholicism in the Age of Confessionalism: The Reichskirche

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 December 2008

Marc R. Forster
Marc R. Forster
Affiliation:
Connecticut CollegeNew London
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Extract

The nature of Catholicism in early modern Central Europe did not result solely from a conflict between elite reform endeavors and popular traditionalism. Instead, the Catholic population and influential elements within the German Imperial church (Reichskirche) shared a devotion to particularism, privilege, and local religious traditions. This convergence of popular and elite religious attitudes underscores the local character of German Catholicism and helps explain the failure of Tridentine universalism to capture the German church.

Type
Articles
Information
Central European History , Volume 26 , Issue 3 , September 1993 , pp. 311 - 325
Copyright
Copyright © Conference Group for Central European History of the American Historical Association 1993

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References

I would like to thank Jeff H. Lesser and my parents, Elborg and Ronert Forster, for their help on earlier versions of this article. Some of the research was funded by the R. Francis Johnson Faculty Development Fund of Connecticut College.

1. Veit, Andreas and Lenhart, Ludwig, Kirche und Volksfrömigkeit im Zeitalter des Barock (Freiburg, 1956) discuss the importance of church institutions.Google ScholarBossy, John, “The Counter-Reformation and the People of Catholic Europe” Past and Present 47 (1970)CrossRefGoogle Scholar and Christianity in the West, 1400–1700 (London, 1985)Google Scholar as well as Delumeau, Jean, Catholicism between Luther and Voltaire. A New View of the Counter-Reformation (London, 1977) emphasize the independence of popular religion.Google Scholar

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8. Perhaps the emphasis of the Council of Trent on pastoral work forced the monks and canons, who had resisted the parochial emphasis of Tridentine reform in the sixteenth century, to become more active among the population, undermining their reputation as useless and parasitic. See Reinhardt, Rudolf, Restauration, Visitation, Inspiration. Die Reformbestrebungen in der Benediktinerabtei Weingarten von 1567–1627 (Munich, 1960), 80–82.Google Scholar

9. Large parts of these bishoprics were Protestant after 1550. Together, they make up most of the modern German Land of Baden-Württemberg, as well as parts of the Palatinate, Alsace, and northern Switzerland.

10. The Bossy/Delumeau thesis is also undermined by the fact thet villagers were often able to keep control in local religious life. See for example Luria, Keith P., Territories of Grace: Cultural Change in the 17th Century Diocese of Grenoble (Berkeley, 1991)Google Scholar, and Forster. On confessionalization, see Schilling, Heinz, “Die Konfessionalisierung im Reich. Religiöser und gesellschaftlicher Wandel in Deutschland zwischen 1555 und 1620,” Historische Zeitschrift 246 (1988): 1–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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18. GLAK 78/1552.

19. Forster, 35–36.

20. ADBR 12 J 1656, p. 130b. “Bad behavior” usually meant sexual misconduct of some kind.

21. ADBR 12 J 1656, pp. 95b, 123a.

22. ADBR 12 J 1656, p. 148a. This was in 1582.

23. GLAK 78/2778.

24. ADBR 12 J 1656, p. 115a.

25. On Eberhard, see Forster, ch. 2.

26. All these documents can be found in GLAK 78/2778, which is unpaginated.

27. The chapter in Weissenburg was probably the weakest in the bishopric of Speyer. Clearly bishops had little chance of enforcing their authority in the Cathedral chapters or the Imperial monasteries. See for example Châtellier, Louis, Tradition chrétienne et renouveau catholique dans le cadre de l'ancien Diocèse de Strasbourg (1650–1770) (Paris, 1981), part 2, chs. 1 and 2.Google Scholar

28. On Weingarten, see Reinhardt, Restauration, Visitation, Inspiration.

29. Forster, pp. 111–16.

30. Reinhardt, Restauration, Visitation, Inspiration, esp. 20–30, 192–214.

31. Historians have often failed to recognize the spasmodic nature of Tridentine reform. See Delumeau, Catholicism between Luther and Voltaire. Hsia, Social Discipline in the Reformation, 39–40, discusses different stages of Catholic renewal.

32. Forster, 192. Sieffert, P. Archange, “Die katholische Pfarrei St. Johann zu Weissenburg im achtzehnten Jahrhunderr,” Archiv für elsässische Kirchengeschichte 4 (1929): 177–78.Google Scholar

33. GLAK 94/271.

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35. GLAK 88/389.

36. GLAK 88/402.

37. HStASt. B467/Bü28.

38. For conflicts between the Bishops of Constance and the Abbey of St. Gallen in the eighteenth century, see GLAK 82/584. See also von Reden-Dohna, Armgard, Reichsstandschaft und Klosterherrschaft. Die schwäbischen Reichsprälaten im Zeitalter des Barock (Wiesbaden, 1982), esp. 13–15.Google Scholar

39. GLAK 65/11604, pp. 31v–33v.

40. GLAK 65/11604, pp. 38v–42v.

41. GLAK 65/11604, p. 45r.

42. Walker, Mack, German Home Towns: Community, Estate, General Estate (Ithaca, 1971).Google Scholar

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44. Bossy, “The Counter-Reformation,” 53. On local religion see especially Christian, Local Religion in Sixteenth Century Spain and Luria, Keith, Territories of Grace.Google Scholar

45. Forster, 51. The Cathedral chapter had patronage of another third.

46. Molitor, Kirchliche Reformversuche, ch. 4.

47. Châtellier, Tradition chrétienne et renouveau catholique, part 4, ch. 4.

48. Jedin, Hubert, Handbuch der Kirchengeschichte, vol. 5 (Freiburg, 1970), 158.Google Scholar

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50. These records are in HStASt. Abteilung B486, B481L, B515. GLAK 98 (Salem).

51. Hersche, , “Interdierte Rückständigkeit,” in Blanning, T. C. W., Reform and Revolution in Mainz: 1743–1803 (London, 1974);Google ScholarReden-Dohna, von, Reichsstandschaft und KlosterherrschaftGoogle Scholar; Vann, The Swabian Kreis, esp. 43–47.

52. GLAK 229/57523, 229/57524, 229/79260. See also Forster, 53–54.

53. Forster, 54. GLAK 42/no. 4736.

54. The conflicts between the older monastic orders and the Jesuits, especially during the Thirty Years' War were part of this debate. The Jesuits had few supporters in collegiate chapters either, especially after 1650. See Forster, 216–21. There is little indication that the Jesuits made much effort to influence this group, except during the late sixteenth tentury. Châtellier, Louis, The Europe of the Devout: The Catholic Reformation and the Formation of a New Society (Cambridge, 1989), chs. 5 and 6Google Scholar. Also Reinhardt, Restauration, Visitation, Inspiration.

55. GLAK 94/439. See also Forster, 193. On the Forty Hours Devotion, see Luria, Keith, “The Counter-Reformation and Popular Spirituality” in Dupré, Louis and Saliers, Donald E.. eds., Christian Spirituality: Post Reformation and Modern (New York, 1989).Google Scholar

56. GLAK 133/461.

57. The Ritterstift also resisted episcopal efforts to discipline and control the priests in its patronage parishes, GLAK 61/10973, pp. 121–22.

58. Reinhardt, Restauration, Visitation, Inspiration, 80–83.

59. HStASt. B17/426. This is a survey of all monasteries in Vorderösterreich, done by the Austrian government in preparation for the dissolution of monasteries as part of the Josephine reforms.

60. HStASt. B17/426, report from Kurnberg. Perhaps the villagers were suspicious of parish priests with too much knowledge of local conditions.

61. HStASt. B17/426. The report on Staufen comments that the priests would not be able to handle parochial duties without help in the “volkreichen Land.”

62. GLAK 98/3245.

63. GLAK 98/1595.

64. Châtellier, Tradition chrétienne et renouveau catholique, 205.

65. Rapp argues that in the late fifteenth century powerful chapters and monasteries prevented reform. Rapp, Francis, Réformes et Réformation à Strasbourg. Eglise et société dans le Diocèse de Strasbourg (1450–1525) (Paris, 1974).Google Scholar

66. Beck, Rainer, “Der Pfarrer und das Dorf,” in van Dülmen, Richard, ed., Armut, Liebe, Ehre. Studien zur historischen Ku1turforschung (Frankfurt, 1988), 124–31.Google Scholar

67. Vann, The Swabian Kreis, 45–46. Reden-Dohna, Von, Reichsstandschaft und Klosterherrschaft, 29–341Google Scholar. More research is needed on the social makeup of various church institutions and the impact this had on relations between these institutions and the population.

68. Luria, “The Counter-Reformation and Popular Spirituality,” 104.

69. Reinhardt, Restauration, Visitation, Inspiration, 208–9, 222–28.

70. Luria, Territories of Grace, makes a first step in analyzing this dynamic of religious change. Luria focuses too narrowly on the relationship between reforming bishop and the local population.