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134-435: In the strict sense of the word, mediatisation consists in the subsumption of an immediate ( unmittelbar ) state into another state, thus becoming mediate ( mittelbar ), while generally leaving the dispossessed ruler with his private estates and a number of privileges and feudal rights, such as low justice . For convenience, historians use the term mediatisation for the entire restructuring process that took place at

268-717: A Pandora's box and have severe repercussions on the institutional stability of the Empire. By the late 18th century, the continued existence of the Holy Roman Empire, despite its archaic constitution, was not seriously threatened from within its limits. An external factor – the French Revolution and the ascent of Napoleon Bonaparte – brought about its demise. After Revolutionary France had declared war on Prussia and Austria in April 1792 , its armies invaded; by

402-472: A civil administration usually followed within a few weeks. Such haste was due in good part to the fear that the June plan might not be definitive and therefore it was thought safer to occupy the allotted territories and place everyone before a fait accompli . That strategy was not foolproof however and Bavaria, which had been in occupation of the bishopric of Eichstätt since September, was forced to evacuate it when

536-762: A compromise was reached in November 1801 to delegate the compensation task to an Imperial Deputation ( Reichsdeputation ), with France to act as 'mediator'. The Deputation consisted of the plenipotentiaries of the Electors of Mainz, Saxony, Brandenburg/Prussia, Bohemia and Bavaria, and of the Duke of Württemberg, the Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel and the Grand Master of the Teutonic Order. Soon after Lunéville,

670-470: A constitutionally unique form of territorial authority known as "territorial superiority" ( Landeshoheit ) which had nearly all the attributes of sovereignty, but fell short of true sovereignty since the rulers of the Empire remained answerable to the Empire's institutions and basic laws. In the early modern period , the Empire consisted of over 1,800 immediate territories, ranging in size from quite large such as Austria, Bavaria, Saxony, and Brandenburg, down to

804-567: A distinctive temporal principality: the Hochstift . The German bishop became a "prince of the Empire" and direct vassal of the Emperor for his Hochstift , while continuing to exercise only pastoral authority over his larger diocese . The personal appointment of bishops by the Emperors had sparked the investiture controversy in the 11th century, and in its aftermath the emperor's control over

938-752: A future general peace with the Holy Roman Empire surrendered to France the German territories west of the Rhine, including the Prussian provinces. A secret Franco-Prussian convention signed in August 1796 specified that such a compensation would be the Prince-Bishopric of Münster and Vest Recklinghausen . In addition, Article 3 of the convention provided that the Prince of Orange-Nassau, dynastically related to

1072-612: A high of nearly four hundred – 136 ecclesiastical and 173 secular lords plus 85 free imperial cities – on the eve of the Reformation, this number had only reduced to a little less than 300 by the late-18th century. The traditional explanation for this fragmentation ( Kleinstaaterei ) has focused on the gradual usurpation by the princes of the powers of the Holy Roman Emperor during the Staufen period (1138–1254), to

1206-484: A memorandum that suggested giving to the Wittelsbach Emperor the bishoprics of Passau, Augsburg and Regensburg, as well as the imperial cities of Augsburg, Regensburg and Ulm. Frederick II added the archbishopric of Salzburg to the list and Charles VII went as far as adding the bishoprics of Eichstätt and Freising. The plan caused a sensation, and outrage among the prince-bishops, the free imperial cities and

1340-716: A par with the 39 books found in the Masoretic Text . This reaffirmed the previous Council of Rome and Synods of Carthage (both held in the 4th century AD), which had affirmed the Deuterocanon as scripture. The council also commissioned the Roman Catechism , which served as authoritative Church teaching until the Catechism of the Catholic Church (1992). While the traditional fundamentals of

1474-532: A prince-bishopric targeted for secularisation. While the secret compensation provisions of the treaties of 1796 with Prussia, Baden and Württemberg targeted only ecclesiastical territories, by the time the Congress of Rastatt opened in late 1797, there were widespread rumors about the abolition of at least some cities. Alarmed by such rumors, the imperial cities of the Swabian Circle, where about half of all

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1608-522: A saint, set an example by visiting the remotest parishes and instilling high standards. The 1559–1967 Index Librorum Prohibitorum was a directory of prohibited books which was updated twenty times during the next four centuries as books were added or removed from the list by the Sacred Congregation of the Index . It was divided into three classes. The first class listed heretical writers,

1742-422: A set of circumstances that could not be reversed until the 19th century: that the autonomous rule of the bishops, abbots, and secular princes, interspersed with independent city-states and lands of the imperial knights, constituted the German political structure, in other words, local sovereignty under the Emperor's suzerainty. Already in the 12th century, the secular and spiritual princes did not regard themselves as

1876-693: A single collective vote ( votum curiatum ). Further immediate estates not represented in the Reichstag were the Imperial Knights as well as several abbeys and minor localities , the remains of those territories which in the High Middle Ages had been under the direct authority of the Emperor and since then had mostly been given in pledge to the princes. At the same time, there were classes of "princes" with titular immediacy to

2010-881: A specific parish or area like a vicar or canon. In Italy, the first congregation of regular clergy was the Theatines founded in 1524 by Gaetano and Cardinal Gian Caraffa . This was followed by the Somaschi Fathers in 1528, the Barnabites in 1530, the Ursulines in 1535, the Jesuits , canonically recognised in 1540, the Clerics Regular of the Mother of God of Lucca in 1583, the Camillians in 1584,

2144-676: A spiritual revival in Europe, incubated by the rise of preaching friars , the standardization of the Paris Bible , lay spiritual movements (such as the devotio moderna ), the examples of nascent saints such as Catherine of Bologna , Antoninus of Florence , Rita of Cascia and Catherine of Genoa , printing, Christian humanism , an urbanized laity who could not flee the towns for monasteries, and other reasons. A series of ecumenical councils were held with reformist agendas: The kinds of positive reforms considered were not necessarily

2278-617: A stronger negotiating position, for example giving the province the ability to appeal to the Imperial Diet in any debate with Charles. For that reason, the Emperor strongly rejected and blocked Overijssel's attempt. Disadvantages might include direct intervention by imperial commissions, as happened in several of the southwestern cities after the Schmalkaldic War , and the potential restriction or outright loss of previously held legal patents. Immediate rights might be lost if

2412-793: A territorial ruler. Already in January 1802 Elector Max Joseph had issued a decree that dissolved 77 Bavarian monasteries and 14 nunneries which were nichtständische (unrepresented at the territorial Estates). Soon after the proclamation of the Recess in February 1803, some 70 Prälatenklöster , which were landständische (represented at the territorial Estates) and as such had traditionally enjoyed considerable autonomy, were secularized as well. The rich Prälatenklöster had controlled approximately 28 per cent of all peasants holdings in Bavaria. Following

2546-551: A thread: while Regensburg and Wetzlar, seats of the Imperial Diet and the Imperial Cameral Tribunal respectively, were still on the short list of imperial cities that were to survive in the June 1802 general compensation plan, they were secularized a few months later in order to beef up the newly created Principality of Aschaffenburg that was to constitute the territorial base of Archbishop von Dalberg,

2680-482: A vigorous campaign of reform, inspired by earlier Catholic reform movements: humanism , devotionalism , and observantism . The council, by virtue of its actions, repudiated the pluralism of the secular Renaissance that had previously plagued the Church: the organization of religious institutions was tightened, discipline was improved, and the parish was emphasized. The appointment of bishops for political reasons

2814-463: A vote within the Imperial Diet were to enjoy an improved aristocratic status, being deemed equal to the still-reigning monarchs for marital purposes , and entitled to claim compensation for their losses. But it was left to each of the annexing states to compensate mediatised dynasties, and the latter had no international right to redress if dissatisfied with the new regime's reimbursement decisions. In 1825 and 1829, those houses which had been designated

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2948-404: A week after Elector Maximilian IV Joseph had written to their respective prince-bishops to inform them of the imminent occupation of their principalities. During the autumn, Bavaria, Baden, Hesse-Darmstadt, and Württemberg, and even Austria, proceeded to occupy the prince-bishoprics, imperial abbeys, and free Imperial cities that had been allotted to them. Formal annexation and the establishment of

3082-533: Is misleading: it cannot rightly be applied, logically or chronologically, to that sudden awakening as of a startled giant, that wonderful effort of rejuvenation and reorganization, which in a space of thirty years gave to the Church an altogether new appearance. … The so-called 'counter-reformation' did not begin with the Council of Trent, long after Luther; its origins and initial achievements were much anterior to

3216-632: The Adorno Fathers in 1588, and finally the Piarists in 1621. At the end of the 1400s, a reform movement inspired by St Catherine of Genoa 's hospital ministry started spreading: in Rome, starting 1514, the Oratory of Divine Love attracted an aristocratic membership of priests and laymen to perform anonymous acts of charity and to discuss reform; the members subsequently became the key players in

3350-654: The Bavarian inheritance and during his later exchange plan to swap Bavaria for the Austrian Netherlands, which included a secret provision for the secularisation of the Archbishopric of Salzburg and the Provostry of Berchtesgaden . Yet, none of these projects ever came close to be implemented because, in the end, key actors appreciated that the secularisation of one single prince-bishopric would open

3484-495: The Capuchins , recognized by the pope in 1619. This order was well known to the laity and played an important role in public preaching. To respond to the new needs of evangelism, clergy formed into religious congregations , taking special vows but with no obligation to assist in a monastery's religious offices. These regular clergy taught, preached and took confession but were under a bishop's direct authority and not linked to

3618-721: The Catholic Revival , was the period of Catholic resurgence that was initiated in response to, and as an alternative to, the Protestant Reformations at the time. It is frequently dated to have begun with the Council of Trent (1545–1563) and to end with the conclusion of the European wars of religion in 1648, though this is controversial. The broader term Catholic Reformation (Latin: Reformatio Catholica ) also encompasses reforms and movements within

3752-649: The French Jansenist theologian Pasquier Quesnel (1634–1719). Jansenism was a Protestant-leaning or mediating movement within Catholicism, in France and the Spanish Netherlands, that was criticized for being crypto-Calvinist, denying that Christ died for all, promoting that Holy Communion should be received very infrequently, and more. After Jansenist propositions were condemned it led to

3886-550: The German Mediatisation , most of the free imperial cities and the ecclesiastic states lost their imperial immediacy and were absorbed by several dynastic states. Counter-Reformation Artists Clergy Monarchs Popes Electors of Saxony Holy Roman Emperors Building Literature Theater Liturgies Hymnals Monuments Calendrical commemoration The Counter-Reformation ( Latin : Contrareformatio ), also sometimes called

4020-495: The Holy Roman Empire , imperial immediacy ( German : Reichsunmittelbarkeit or Reichsfreiheit ) was the status of an individual or a territory which was defined as 'immediate' ( unmittelbar ) to Emperor and Empire ( Kaiser und Reich ) and not to any other intermediate authorities, while one that did not possess that status was defined as 'mediate' ( mittelbar ). The possession of this imperial immediacy granted

4154-606: The Observantist faction of the monastic orders (that less slackness regarding external observances would aid fervour in internal piety) or to promote a top-down ("head and body") institution-centric focus that reform needed to start at and from the Pope, or bishops, or councils, or princes, or canon law. There was considerable support for the evangelical counsels ' ideal of poverty as a way to short-circuit careerism, though John Wycliffe 's doctrine of mandatory apostolic poverty

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4288-542: The Ottonian and early Salian Emperors, who appointed the bishops and abbots, used them as agents of the imperial crown – as they considered them more dependable than the dukes they appointed and who often attempted to establish independent hereditary principalities. The emperors expanded the power of the Church, and especially of the bishops, with land grants and numerous privileges of immunity and protection as well as extensive judicial rights, which eventually coalesced into

4422-584: The Prince of Leiningen , followed suit. This came to be known as the Rittersturm . By autumn 1803, the majority of the knightly estates were de facto annexed by their larger neighbors but in January 1804, the seizures were declared illegal by the Emperor Francis II. Although the Emperor was unable to reverse the annexations, the threat of force put a stop to further seizures. Still, this violence

4556-571: The medieval church , its sacramental system, religious orders, and doctrine . It recommended that the form of Mass should be standardised, and this took place in 1570, when Pope Pius V made the Tridentine Mass obligatory. It rejected all compromise with Protestants, restating basic tenets of the Catholic Faith . The council upheld salvation appropriated by grace through faith and works of that faith (not just by faith , as

4690-567: The " Mediatized Houses " were formalised, at the sole discretion of the ruling states, and not all houses that ruled states that were mediatised were recognised as such. As a result of the Congress of Vienna, only 39 German states remained. The only ecclesiastical entities in Germany not abolished in 1803 were: The only free cities in Germany not abolished in 1803 were: After being abolished or mediatised, very few states were recreated. Those that were included: Imperial immediacy In

4824-857: The "Red Book". This launched the Liturgical Struggle , which pitted John III of Sweden against his younger brother Charles . During this time, Jesuit Laurentius Nicolai came to lead the Collegium regium Stockholmense . This theatre of the Counter-Reformation was called the Missio Suetica . The 1578 Defensio Tridentinæ fidei was the Catholic response to the Examination of the Council of Trent . The 1713 papal bull Unigenitus condemned 101 propositions of

4958-740: The 14th century. The 'Benedictine Bull' of 1336 reformed the Benedictines and Cistercians . In 1523, the Camaldolese Hermits of Monte Corona were recognized as a separate congregation of monks. In 1435, Francis of Paola founded the Poor Hermits of Saint Francis of Assisi, who became the Minim Friars. In 1526, Matteo de Bascio suggested reforming the Franciscan rule of life to its original purity, giving birth to

5092-580: The Archbishopric-Electorate of Mainz, the Teutonic Order and the Order of Malta. Archbishop Karl Theodor von Dalberg of Mainz had salvaged his Electorate by convincing Bonaparte that his position as Imperial Archchancellor was essential to the functioning of the Empire. As much of his Electorate, including the cathedral city of Mainz, had been annexed by France, the archbishopric was translated to Regensburg and augmented with some remnants of

5226-564: The Catholic Church, but because they feared it would lead to the aggrandizement of Prussia, Austria and Bavaria. The Final Recess of the Imperial Deputation (German: Reichsdeputationshauptschluss ) of 25 February 1803 is commonly referred to as the Imperial law that brought about the territorial restructuring of the Empire by subsuming the church states and imperial cities to larger secular imperial estates. In reality, neither

5360-431: The Church in the periods immediately before Protestantism or Trent and lasting later. Initiated in part to address the challenges of the Protestant Reformations, the Counter-Reformation was a comprehensive effort arising from the decrees of the Council of Trent. The effort produced apologetic and polemical documents, heresy trials, anti-corruption efforts, spiritual movements, the promotion of new religious orders, and

5494-463: The Church were reaffirmed, there were noticeable changes to answer complaints that the Counter-Reformers were, tacitly, willing to admit were legitimate. Among the conditions to be corrected by Catholic reformers was the growing divide between the clerics and the laity; many members of the clergy in the rural parishes had been poorly educated. Often, these rural priests did not know Latin and lacked opportunities for proper theological training. Addressing

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5628-454: The Confederation of the Rhine (Rheinbundakte), which sanctioned unilateral action by territorial states. On 12 June 1806, Napoleon established the Confederation of the Rhine to extend and help secure the eastern border of France. In reluctant recognition of Napoleon's dismemberment of imperial territory, on 6 August 1806, the Holy Roman Emperor Francis II declared the Empire abolished , and claimed as much power as he could retain as ruler of

5762-490: The Council of Trent attempted to improve the discipline and administration of the Church. The worldly excesses of the secular Renaissance Church, epitomized by the era of Alexander VI (1492–1503), intensified during the Reformation under Pope Leo X (1513–1521), whose campaign to raise funds for the construction of Saint Peter's Basilica by supporting use of indulgences served as a key impetus for Martin Luther 's 95 Theses . The Catholic Church responded to these problems by

5896-443: The Counter-Reformation was a mission to reach parts of the world that had been colonized as predominantly Catholic and also try to reconvert nations such as Sweden and England that once were Catholic from the time of the Christianisation of Europe , but had been lost to the Reformation. Various Counter-Reformation theologians focused only on defending doctrinal positions such as the sacraments and pious practices that were attacked by

6030-404: The Deputation issued at its 46th meeting on 25 February 1803. The Imperial Diet approved it on 24 March and the Emperor ratified it on 27 April. The Emperor however made a formal reservation with respect to the reallocation of seats and votes within the Imperial Diet . While he accepted the new ten-member College of Electors, which would for the first time have a Protestant majority, he objected to

6164-534: The Electorate east of the Rhine, and Wetzlar . Dalberg, who was confirmed as Elector and Imperial Archchancellor and gained the new title of Primate of Germany, was to prove a constant and useful ally of Napoleon during the coming years. In addition, under the dogged insistence of the Emperor, the Teutonic Order, whose Grand Master was generally an Austrian archduke, as well as the Knights of St John (Knights of Malta), were also spared and their scattered small domains were augmented with several nearby abbeys. The intent here

6298-412: The Emperor and/or the Imperial Diet could not defend them against external aggression, as occurred in the French Revolutionary wars and the Napoleonic Wars . The Treaty of Lunéville in 1801 required the emperor to renounce all claims to the portions of the Holy Roman Empire west of the Rhine . At the last meeting of the Imperial Diet ( German : Reichsdeputationshauptschluss ) in 1802–03, also called

6432-427: The Emperor which they exercised rarely, if at all. For example, the Bishops of Chiemsee , Gurk , and Seckau (Sacken) were practically subordinate to the prince-bishop of Salzburg, but were formally princes of the Empire. Additional advantages might include the rights to collect taxes and tolls , to hold a market , to mint coins , to bear arms , and to conduct legal proceedings . The last of these might include

6566-427: The Emperor's subordinates, still less his subjects, but as rulers in their own right – and they jealously defended their established sphere of predominance. At the time of Emperor Frederick II 's death in 1250, it had already been decided that the regnum Teutonicum was "an aristocracy with a monarchical head". Among those states and territories, the ecclesiastical principalities were unique to Germany. Historically,

6700-452: The Final Recess nor the Imperial Deputation which drafted it played a significant role in the process since many decisions had already been made in Paris before the Deputation began its work. The Final Recess was nevertheless indispensable in lending a constitutional imprimatur on territorial remapping and the granting and denial of obligations and prerogatives that would otherwise have lacked legitimacy. Hard pressed by Bonaparte, now firmly at

6834-407: The Franco-Austrian convention of 26 December 1802 reallocated most of Eichstätt to the Habsburg compensation package. For their parts, the lesser princes and the counts, with little manpower and resources, generally had to wait until the Final Recess was issued before they could take possession of the territories – if any – that were awarded to them as compensation, usually a secularized abbey or one of

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6968-409: The Habsburg realms. To gain support from the more powerful German states, the former Holy Roman Emperor accepted, and Napoleon encouraged, the mediatisation by those that remained of their minor neighbouring states. Mediatisation transferred the sovereignty of more than 100 small secular states to their larger neighbours, most of whom became founding members of the Confederation in order to participate in

7102-461: The Hail Mary with the Pater Noster prayer, and made available vernacular French versions of the Gospels and Epistles. Conservative and reforming parties still survived within the Catholic Church even as the Protestant Reformations spread. Protestants decisively broke from the Catholic Church in the 1520s. The two distinct dogmatic positions within the Catholic Church solidified in the 1560s. The regular orders made their first attempts at reform in

7236-465: The Holy Roman Empire, was increasingly considered an anachronism especially, but not exclusively, by the Protestant princes, who also coveted these defenceless territories. Thus, secret proposals by Prussia to end the War of the Austrian Succession called for increasing the insufficient territorial base of the Wittelsbach Emperor Charles VII through his annexation of some prince-bishoprics. In 1743, Frederick II 's minister Heinrich von Podewils wrote

7370-559: The Imperial Archchancellor. In the end, only Hamburg, Bremen, Lübeck, Frankfurt, Augsburg, and Nuremberg survived mediatisation in 1803. While the original intent had been to compensate the dispossessed secular rulers only for lost territory, that criterion was to be applied only to the minor princes and the counts who sometimes only received an annuity or a territorial compensation so modest that it had to be augmented with an annuity paid by better provisioned princes in order that their total income would not be less than their former income. In

7504-532: The Imperial Deputation when it finally convened at Regensburg for its first meeting on 24 August 1802. It was stated in the preamble that the mediating Powers had been forced to come up with a compensation plan due to the "irreconcilable differences between the German Princes" regarding the details of compensation, and the Imperial Deputation's delay in starting its work. It was said that the plan, "based on calculations of unquestionable impartiality" endeavored to effect compensation for recognized losses while “maintaining

7638-486: The Imperial Diet and its Deputation were in session. In particular, many mid and lower ranking rulers who lacked influence in Paris – the dukes of Arenberg, Croy and Looz, the prince of Salm-Kyrburg , the counts of Sickingen and Wartenberg, among others – tried their chances with the French diplomats posted at Regensburg, who could recommend additions or amendments to the general compensation plan, generally in exchange for bribes. Nevertheless, all claims were examined and there

7772-514: The King of Prussia and the Prince of Orange-Nassau could take possession of the territories allotted to them immediately after ratification. Two weeks later, the King issued a proclamation listing all the compensation territories awarded to Prussia but he waited until the first week of August 1802 before occupying the bishoprics of Paderborn and Hildesheim and its share of Münster, as well as the other territories that had been allotted to Prussia. The same month, Bavarian troops entered Bamberg and Würzburg

7906-537: The Netherlands. In all, 112 imperial estates disappeared. Apart from the territory ceded to France, their land and properties were distributed among the seventy-two rulers entitled to compensation. The outcome of the compensation process confirmed by the Final Recess of February 1803 was the most extensive redistribution of property in German history before 1945. Approximately 73,000 km (28,000 sq mi) of ecclesiastical territory, with some 2.36 million inhabitants and 12.72 million guildens per annum of revenue

8040-414: The Protestant reformers, up to the Second Vatican Council in 1962–1965. 'Counter-Reformation’ is a translation of German : Gegenreformation . Protestant historians have tended to speak in terms of Catholic reform as part of the Counter-Reformation, itself a response to the Reformation. In nineteenth-century Germany, the term became part of the German : Kulturkampf : ‘Counter-Reformation’

8174-416: The Protestants insisted) because "faith without works is dead", as the Epistle of James states (2:22–26). Transubstantiation , according to which the consecrated bread and wine are held to have been transformed really and substantially into the body , blood , soul and divinity of Christ, was also reaffirmed, as were the traditional seven sacraments of the Catholic Church . Other practices that drew

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8308-429: The Reformation, which only accelerated the trend for secular rulers to incorporate into their territories the material assets of Church fiefs. Many of the ecclesiastical Estates recorded in the 1521 register were already disappearing this way, including 15 prince-bishoprics. In the course of the Reformation, several of the bishoprics in the north and northeast were secularized and transformed into secular duchies, mostly to

8442-467: The Republic as soon as circumstances permitted, dispossessing both secular and ecclesiastical German rulers. The French revolutionaries, and later Napoleon Bonaparte , felt that some of these secular rulers should be compensated, by receiving "secularized" ecclesiastical land and property located on the right bank. This amounted to the appropriation of church lands. Already, the Franco-Prussian Treaty of Basel of April 1795 spoke of "a compensation" in case

8576-501: The Revolution had done to France. Following the Final Recess, the scattered estates of approximately 300 free imperial knights and 99 imperial counts , totaling perhaps 4,500 square miles, should have remained untouched. But by the winter of 1803, the rulers of Bavaria, Hesse-Kassel, and Württemberg began to take possession of these tiny enclaves through a combination of Surrender and Transfer Edicts (Abtretungs- und Überweisungspatenten) and military force and other smaller rulers, such as

8710-514: The Rhine, and that a specific compensation plan be discussed and adopted. Indeed, on 9 March 1798, the delegates at the congress at Rastatt formally accepted the sacrifice of the entire left bank and, on 4 April 1798, approved the secularisation of all the ecclesiastical states save the three Electorates of Mainz, Cologne and Trier, whose continued existence was an absolute red line for Emperor Francis II . The congress, which lingered on well into 1799, failed in its other goals due to disagreement among

8844-479: The Treaty of Campo Formio and the guidelines set at Rastatt. Article 7 of the treaty provided that "in conformity with the principles formally established at the congress of Rastatt, the empire shall be bound to give to the hereditary Princes who shall be dispossessed on the left bank of the Rhine, an indemnity, which shall be taken from the whole of the empire, according to arrangements which on these bases shall be ultimately determined upon." This time, Francis II signed

8978-421: The amount of compensation should be limited to the amount of territory, or income, lost, and that all the Estates of the Empire, and not just the ecclesiastical states, should bear the burden. They warned that a complete secularisation would be such a blow to the Empire that it would lead to its demise. Generally, the proponents of secularisation were less vocal and passionate, in good part because they realized that

9112-401: The annexations. Between the first abdication of Napoleon in 1814 and the Battle of Waterloo and the final abdication of Napoleon in 1815, the Congress of Vienna was convened by the Great Powers to redraw the borders of Europe. During this time, it was decided that the mediatised principalities, free cities, and secularised states would not be reinstated. Instead, the former rulers who held

9246-668: The arch-foe. Hectic discussions and dealings went on, not only with the mediating Powers and between the various princes, but within the various governments as well. Inside the Prussian cabinet, one group pushed for expansion westward into Westphalia while another favored expansion southward into Franconia, with the pro-Westphalian group finally prevailing. Between July 1801 and May 1802, preliminary compensation agreements were signed with Bavaria, Württemberg, and Prussia and others were concluded less formally with Baden, Hesse-Darmstadt, Hesse-Cassel and other mid-level states. Frantic discussions and dealings went on simultaneously in Regensburg, where

9380-531: The benefit of Protestant princes. In the later sixteenth century the Counter-Reformation attempted to reverse some of these secularisations, and the question of the fates of secularized territories became an important one in the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648). In the end, the Peace of Westphalia confirmed the secularisation of a score of prince-bishoprics, including the archbishoprics of Bremen and Magdeburg and six bishoprics with full political powers, which were assigned to Sweden, Brandenburg and Mecklenburg. On

9514-533: The bishoprics' cathedral chapters were also expropriated. The Final Recess detailed the financial and other obligations of the new rulers toward the former rulers, dignitaries, administrators and other civilian and military personnel of the abolished ecclesiastical principalities. The former prince-bishops and prince-abbots remained immediate to the emperor for their own person. They retained extensive authority, including judicial jurisdiction in civil and some criminal matters over their servants (art. 49). They retained

9648-630: The bishops' selection and rule diminished considerably. The bishops, now elected by independent-minded cathedral chapters rather than chosen by the emperor or the pope, were confirmed as territorial lords equal to the secular princes. The register prepared for the 1521 Imperial Diet of Worms listed as ecclesiastical Estates 3 ecclesiastical electors, 4 archbishops, 46 bishops and 83 lesser prelates (imperial abbots and abbesses) compared to 180 secular lords. By 1792 only 3 electors, 1 archbishop, 29 bishops and prince-abbots, and 40 prelates remained, alongside 165 secular Estates. The decline had started well before

9782-468: The case of the larger states, they generally received more than the territory they had lost. Baden received over seven times as much, Prussia nearly five times. Hanover gained the Prince-Bishopric of Osnabrück, having lost nothing. The Duchy of Oldenburg received much of the Prince-Bishopric of Münster although it had lost only the income of a toll station, and Austria did well also. In addition,

9916-538: The cession of specific ecclesiastical territories as their compensation in case their losses became permanent. Signed in the wake of major French victories over the Austrian armies, the Treaty of Campo Formio of October 1797, dictated by General Bonaparte, provided that Austria would be compensated for the loss of the Austrian Netherlands and Austrian Lombardy with Venice and Dalmatia. A secret article, not implemented at

10050-548: The church handling the Reformation. In 1548, then-layman Philip Neri founded a Confraternity of the Most Holy Trinity of Pilgrims and Convalescents : this developed into the relatively-free religious community the Oratorians , who were given their constitutions in 1564 and recognized as a religious order by the pope in 1575. They used music and singing to attract the faithful. The 1530 Confutatio Augustana

10184-434: The course of events was in their favor. Even when they were in agreement with some of the anti-secularisation arguments, they contended that Notrecht (the law of necessity) made secularisation unavoidable: the victorious French unequivocally demanded it and since peace was essential to the preservation of the state, sacrificing part of the state to preserve the whole was not only permissible but necessary. For its part, Austria

10318-438: The crown. During the High Middle Ages , and for those bishops, abbots, and cities then the main beneficiaries of that status, immediacy could be exacting and often meant subjection to the fiscal, military, and hospitality demands of their overlord, the Emperor. However, from the mid-13th century onwards, with the gradually diminishing importance of the Emperor, whose authority to exercise power became increasingly limited to

10452-480: The delegates on the repartition of the secularized territories and insufficient French control over the process caused by the mounting power struggle in Paris. In March 1799, Austria, allied with Russia, resumed the war against France. A series of military defeats and the withdrawal of Russia from the war forced Austria to seek an armistice and, on 9 February 1801 to sign the Treaty of Lunéville which mostly reconfirmed

10586-467: The education of priests had been a fundamental focus of the humanist reformers in the past. Parish priests were to be better educated in matters of theology and apologetics , while Papal authorities sought to educate the faithful about the meaning, nature and value of art and liturgy, particularly in monastic churches (Protestants had criticised them as "distracting"). Handbooks became more common, describing how to be good priests and confessors. Thus,

10720-539: The end of 1794, they had consolidated their hold over the Austrian Netherlands and the rest of the left bank of the Rhine. The forcefully secular French Republic had outlawed independent, non-state-sanctioned houses of worship; thus both Catholic and Protestant Germany were hostile to the Republic. Many German rulers allowed French people to carry on counter­revolutionary activities from their lands. The French leaders resolved more or less openly to annex those lands to

10854-623: The enforcement of legislative acts promulgated by the Imperial Diet , entities privileged by imperial immediacy eventually found themselves vested with considerable rights and powers previously exercised by the emperor. Several immediate estates held the privilege of attending meetings of the Reichstag in person, including an individual vote ( votum virile ): They formed the Imperial Estates , together with 99 immediate counts, 40 Imperial prelates (abbots and abbesses), and 50 Imperial Cities, each of whose "banks" only enjoyed

10988-464: The expectation of substantial financial gains, the German rulers decided at the last moment and on their own accord to include in the Final Recess of February 1803 a radical extension of the secularization process – Article 35 – which authorized the secularization of all the non-immediate monasteries, abbeys, convents and other religious houses throughout the empire which were legally subordinate to

11122-514: The extent that by the Peace of Westphalia (1648), the Emperor had become a mere primus inter pares . In recent decades, some historians have maintained that the fragmentation of Germany was not to be found in the misfortunes, weakness or mistakes of imperial dynasties, but rather in the huge geographical extent of the Empire and the vigor of aristocratic and ecclesiastical rule in its localities. Successive imperial dynasties were compelled to accept

11256-403: The fame of Wittenberg. It was undertaken, not by way of answering the 'reformers,' but in obedience to demands and principles that are part of the unalterable tradition of the Church and proceed from her most fundamental loyalties. The Italian historian Massimo Firpo has distinguished "Catholic Reformation" from "Counter-Reformation" by their issues. In his view, the general "Catholic Reformation"

11390-464: The flourishing of new art and musical styles. Such policies (e.g., by the Imperial Diets of the Holy Roman Empire ) had long-lasting effects in European history with exiles of Protestants continuing until the 1781 Patent of Toleration , although smaller expulsions took place in the 19th century. Such reforms included the foundation of seminaries for the proper training of priests in

11524-551: The half-century before the reformation, the phenomenon of Bishops closing down decadent monasteries or convents had become more common, as had programs to educate parish priests. In the half-century before the Council of Trent, various evangelical Catholic leaders had experimented with reforms that came to be associated with Protestants: for example, Guillaume Briçonnet (bishop of Meaux) in Paris, with his former teacher Jacques Lefèvre d’Etaples , had statues other than Christ removed from his churches (though not destroyed ), replaced

11658-475: The helm in France as First Consul , the Empire was obliged soon after Lunéville to take on the task of drafting a definitive compensation plan ( Entschädigungsplan ). The Imperial Diet resolved to entrust that task to the Emperor, as plenipotentiary of the Empire, while it intended to reserve the final decision to itself. Not wanting to bear the full onus of the changes that were bound to occur under French diktat, Francis II declined. After months of deliberations,

11792-601: The history of the Empire. This explains in good part why medium and small states, both ecclesiastical and secular, were able to survive and even prosper in the vicinity of powerful states with standing armies such as Brandenburg/Prussia, Bavaria and Austria. While no actual secularisation took place during the century and a half that followed the Peace of Westphalia, there was a long history of rumors and half-baked plans on possible secularisations. The continued existence of independent prince-bishoprics, an anomalous phenomenon unique to

11926-415: The imperial cities were located, held a special conference at Ulm in early March 1798 to examine the situation, for which they felt helpless. However, given that it was expected from the start that the handful of the largest and wealthiest cities would maintain their independence, the expected mediatisation of the imperial cities did not raise much public interest. The survival of an imperial city often hung by

12060-575: The imperial tax register of 1241. In the case of the nobility, the enfeoffment with an imperial fief and high aristocratic lineage was regarded as decisive criteria for immediacy. However, towards the end of the Middle Ages, the counts were generally considered to be immediate to the Empire, although they often had obtained their fiefs from neighboring princes. The imperial immediacy of bishops was acquired automatically when they were enfeoffed with their hochstift and granted immunities. The situation for

12194-493: The invading French, be adequately compensated. The Imperial Deputation, originally entrusted with the compensation process but now reduced to a subordinate role, tended to be seen by the mediating Powers and the key German States as mere constitutional window dressing. This was demonstrated with the Franco-Prussian agreement of 23 May 1802 which, ignoring the Imperial Deputation that has not yet convened, stated that both

12328-672: The ire of Protestant reformers, such as pilgrimages , the veneration of saints and relics , the use of venerable images and statuary , and the veneration of the Virgin Mary were strongly reaffirmed as spiritually commendable practices. The council, in the Canon of Trent , officially accepted the Vulgate listing of the Old Testament Bible, which included the deuterocanonical works (called apocrypha by Protestants) on

12462-447: The key German rulers entitled to compensation moved quickly to secure their compensation directly with France, and Paris was soon flooded with envoys bearing shopping lists of coveted territories. The French government encouraged the movement. Bonaparte left the details to his foreign minister Talleyrand , who famously lined his pockets with bribes. Meanwhile, Bonaparte, who had been courting the new Tsar Alexander I , replied favourably to

12596-645: The king of Prussia, who actively defended his interests, would be compensated with the Prince-Bishoprics of Würzburg and Bamberg if his loss of the Dutch hereditary stadtholdership , which followed the creation of the French-backed Batavian Republic , was to become permanent. Likewise, the peace treaties France signed with Württemberg and Baden the same month contained secret articles whereby France committed to intercede to obtain

12730-502: The latter's wish to become involved in the process as co-mediator. On 19 October 1801 the two countries signed an agreement to act jointly as the "mediating Powers". Essentially, Alexander, whose wife and mother belonged to the princely houses of Baden and Württemberg, wanted to favor his various German relatives and this concurred with France's long-standing aim to strengthen the southern states of Baden, Württemberg, Hesse-Darmstadt and Bavaria, strategically located between France and Austria,

12864-496: The most extensive redistribution of property and territories in German history prior to 1945. Although most of its neighbors coalesced into relatively centralized states before the 19th century, Germany did not follow that path. Instead, the Holy Roman Empire remained a feudal patchwork comprising "polyglot congeries of literally hundreds of nearly sovereign states and territories ranging in size from considerable to minuscule". From

12998-655: The occasion of the 200th anniversary of the Final Recess, Cardinal Karl Lehmann , bishop of Mainz, pointed out that the secularization of 1803 had brought about the greatest territorial upheaval that Germany had experienced up to then, "more drastic than the Protestant Reformation and the Peace of Westphalia" and he emphasized that its implementation had taken place with brute force and reckless violation of religious feeling, at its most brutal in Bavaria, Württemberg and Baden. Monks were dispersed without pension and nuns were parked in central "Aussterbeklöstern". In

13132-471: The ones that pre-occupied the Hussites (e.g., communion under both kinds , married priests) and later Protestants (e.g., indulgences , justification). Ending schism and war (especially papal war) was regarded by some prelates as the pre-condition for reformation. At times, the reform talk in the councils tended to lack enough specificity to result in an effective program—except for a tendency to follow

13266-405: The other hand, Hildesheim and Paderborn – under Protestant administration for decades and given up for lost – were restored as prince-bishoprics. In addition, the Peace conclusively reaffirmed the imperial immediacy, and therefore the de facto independence, of the prince-bishops and imperial abbots, free imperial cities, imperial counts, as well as the imperial knights. According to one authority,

13400-507: The other minor imperial estates , and the bishops discussed raising an army of 40,000 to defend themselves against the Emperor who contemplated grabbing ecclesiastical land that his coronation oath committed him to protect. Although the sudden death of Charles VII put an end to this scheming, the idea of secularisation did not fade away. It was actively discussed during the Seven Years' War , and again during Joseph II 's maneuverings over

13534-631: The pre-war balance of power between the key German rulers", two goals that were somewhat contradictory.The mediating Powers had decided right from the beginning of the process that income rather than population and size was to be the determining factor in estimating the losses. As Austria had been excluded from the discussions, its envoy at Paris only learned of the plan when he read it in Le Moniteur . He swiftly negotiated revisions which confirmed both Francis II's Imperial prerogatives and his rights as ruler of Austria. The Habsburgs' compensation package

13668-442: The prelates (abbots) was not always clear since there were some who, although recognized as immediate, had not been enfeoffed directly by the king. In the end, for the Middle Ages, the formal grant of immediacy was of relative importance; the decisive factor was the capacity to assert and enforce one's claim to immediacy against competing claims. The position of the princes with regard to the crown had strengthened progressively since

13802-598: The prince-bishops of their political power and abolished their principality, they were still bishops and they retained normal pastoral authority over their diocese, parishes and clergy. Some, such as Bishop Christoph Franz von Buseck of Bamberg, adjusted to their diminished circumstances and stayed in their diocese to carry on their pastoral duties; others, such as Archbishop Hieronymus von Colloredo of Salzburg, abandoned their pastoral duties to auxiliary bishops and went to live in Vienna or on their family estates. In principle,

13936-400: The reign of Frederick Barbarossa (1152–1190) who restricted the immediate crown vassalage to the archbishops, bishops and imperial abbots, roughly ninety of them, and to distinguish most dukes and a selection of reliable margraves, landgraves and counts as maiores imperii principes . They were intended to be the only direct vassals, apart from the Imperial ministeriales who did homage within

14070-418: The royal household, and the royal towns which offered collective fealty. From the thirteenth century onward, the growing exclusiveness of the princes derived from their determination to enforce their preeminence and make the other lords feudally dependent on themselves, and to incorporate them into their own territorial lordships, thus making them 'mediate' by cutting them off from direct legal relationship with

14204-570: The second class listed heretical works, and the third class listed forbidden writings which were published without the name of the author. The Index was finally suspended on 29 March 1967. The 1566 Roman Catechism provided material in Latin to help the clergy catechize in the vernacular. The 1575 Nova ordinantia ecclesiastica was an addendum to the Liturgia Svecanæ Ecclesiæ catholicæ & orthodoxæ conformia , also called

14338-508: The secularization process only targeted the ecclesiastical principalities – including the 40-odd imperial abbeys – that were immediate and were represented at the Imperial Diet. However, due to the influence of the Enlightenment, growing anticlericalism and a desire to strengthen and modernize the state, exemplified by the policies of Count Maximilian von Montgelas , the influential minister of Elector Max Joseph of Bavaria , as well as

14472-476: The several hundred tiny immediate estates of the Imperial knights of only a few square kilometers or less, which were by far the most numerous. The criteria of immediacy varied and classification is difficult especially for the Middle Ages. The situation was relatively clear in the case of the cities: imperial cities were directly subject to the king's jurisdiction and taxation, and a first list can be found in

14606-540: The simultaneous secularization of so many monasteries by Bavaria and other states and the hurried sale of their assets, including monastic buildings and lands, the market was saturated and the expected financial gain did not materialize. The process resulted in huge losses and the destruction of cultural assets All rulers did not act at once but by 1812, all but a handful of monasteries and religious houses – about 400 – had been dissolved in South Germany. In 2003, on

14740-473: The sixty-five ecclesiastical rulers then controlled one-seventh of the total land area and approximately 12% of the Empire's population, perhaps three and a half million subjects. Due to the traumatic experience of the Thirty Years' War and in order to avoid a repetition of this catastrophe, the German rulers great or small were now inclined to value law and legal structures more highly than ever before in

14874-469: The smaller imperial cities. On 8 October 1802, the mediating Powers transmitted to the Deputation their second general compensation plan whose many modifications reflected the considerable number of claims, memoirs, petitions and observations they had received from all quarters. A third plan was transmitted in November and a final one in mid-February 1803. It served as the basis for the Final Recess that

15008-484: The so-called Blutgericht ("blood justice") through which capital punishment could be administered. These rights varied according to the legal patents granted by the emperor. As pointed out by Jonathan Israel , the Dutch province of Overijssel in 1528 tried to arrange its submission to Emperor Charles V in his capacity as Holy Roman Emperor rather than as Duke of Burgundy . If successful, that would have evoked Imperial immediacy and would have put Overijssel in

15142-532: The spiritual life and the theological traditions of the Church, the reform of religious life by returning orders to their spiritual foundations, and new spiritual movements focusing on the devotional life and a personal relationship with Christ , including the Spanish mystics and the French school of spirituality . It also involved political activities and used the regional Inquisitions . A primary emphasis of

15276-484: The strong Protestant majority within the new College of Princes (77 Protestant vs 53 Catholic votes, plus 4 alternating votes), where traditionally the Emperor's influence had been the most strongly felt, and he proposed religious parity instead. Discussions regarding this matter were still ongoing when the Empire was dissolved in 1806. Under the terms of the Final Recess, all the ecclesiastical principalities – archbishoprics, bishoprics and abbeys – were dissolved except for

15410-566: The subject. The term ‘Catholic Reformation’ appealed to Catholic historians because it offered them the possibility of avoiding the term ‘Counter-Reformation’, with its problematic connotation of a mere reaction to Protestantism. But it was rejected by Protestant historians – largely because they did not want the term ‘Reformation’ to be used for anything other than the Protestant Reformation. Catholic historians tend to emphasize them as different. The French historian Henri Daniel-Rops wrote: The term ('counter-reformation'), however, though common,

15544-406: The territories and at the Imperial Diet. Among other arguments, the defenders of the ecclesiastical states insisted that it was fundamentally illegal and unconstitutional to dissolve any imperial estates, and that the notion of compensating rulers for lost territory was contrary to all past treaties, where "each had to bear his own fate". They contended that even if circumstances now made it necessary,

15678-511: The time, added the Archbishopric of Salzburg and a portion of Bavaria as additional compensation. The treaty also provided for the holding of a congress at Rastatt where delegates of the Imperial Diet would negotiate a general peace with France. It was widely and correctly anticipated that France would demand the formal cession of the entire west bank, that the dispossessed secular princes be compensated with ecclesiastical territories east of

15812-466: The time, whether the mediatised states persisted in some form or lost all individuality. The secularisation of ecclesiastical states took place concurrently with the mediatisation of free imperial cities and other secular states. The mass mediatisation and secularisation of German states that took place at the time was not initiated by Germans. It came under relentless military and diplomatic pressure from revolutionary France and Napoleon . It constituted

15946-704: The title and ranking of prince-bishop or prince-abbot for life and were entitled to a number of honors and privileges (art. 50). However, the prince-bishops' palatial residences, such as the Würzburg Residence and Schloss Nordkirchen , passed to new owners and the bishops were granted more modest lodgings as well as the use of a summer residence. The former prince-bishops, prince-abbots and imperial abbots and abbesses were entitled to an annual pension ranging from 20,000 to 60,000 gulden, 6,000 to 12,000 gulden and 3,000 to 6,000 gulden respectively, depending on their past earnings (art. 51). While secularisation stripped

16080-434: The treaty not only on Austria's behalf but also on behalf of the Empire, which officially conceded the loss of the Austrian Netherlands and the left bank of the Rhine. The sudden realization in the wake of Campo Formio that the Empire was on the threshold of radical changes initiated a debate on the issues of compensation and secularisation conducted in pamphlets, in the press, in the political correspondence within and amongst

16214-567: The two Habsburg archdukes who had been dispossessed of their Italian realms (the Grand Duchy of Tuscany and the Duchy of Modena) were also compensated even though their realms were not part of the Holy Roman Empire. Likewise, the King of Prussia was able to obtain a generous territorial compensation for the dynastically related Prince of Orange-Nassau for the loss of the hereditary stadtholdership of

16348-401: The wake of secularization and the dissolution of monasteries, people were left more socially disadvantaged than before, and the education system in rural areas collapsed. Among the positive sides he pointed out the improved image of bishops and a Church freed of a power-hungry aristocracy which had seen the Church primarily as a source of wealth. The 51 free imperial cities had less to offer in

16482-519: The way of territory (7,365 square kilometres (2,844 sq mi)) or population (815,000) than the ecclesiastical states but the secular princes had long resented the independence of the ones enclaved within their territory. With a few exceptions, they suffered from an even worse reputation of decay and mismanagement than the ecclesiastical states. A few imperial cities had been included in some of 18th century stillborn secularisation plans, chiefly because they were either contiguous to or enclaved within

16616-418: Was "centered on the care of souls ..., episcopal residence, the renewal of the clergy, together with the charitable and educational roles of the new religious orders", whereas the specific "Counter-Reformation" was "founded upon the defence of orthodoxy, the repression of dissent, the reassertion of ecclesiastical authority". Other relevant terms that may be encountered: The 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries saw

16750-408: Was also augmented with additional secularized bishoprics. Francis II had been hostile to secularisation, but once it became clear that near complete secularisation was unavoidable, he fought as hard as any other ruler to obtain his share of former church states. He was particularly adamant that his younger brother Ferdinand , who had been dispossessed of his secundogeniture Grand Duchy of Tuscany by

16884-472: Was an effort to detect fictitious or exaggerated claims. The Imperial Deputation very seldom examined the claims and grievances, which were almost automatically transferred to the local French officials for decision or referral to Talleyrand in Paris. A "general compensation plan" combining the various formal and informal accords concluded in Paris was drafted by Talleyrand in June 1802, approved by Russia with minor changes, and submitted almost as an ultimatum to

17018-477: Was decisively rejected at the Council of Constance. Issues such as papal nepotism and the wealth, dioscese-absenteeism, and pre-occupation with secular power of important bishops were recognized as perennial and scandalous problems. These resisted serious reform (by successive popes and councils with those bishops, unable to compromise their own interests) for centuries, causing friction as radical reformers periodically arose in response, such as Savonarola . In

17152-560: Was no longer tolerated. In the past, the large landholdings forced many bishops to be "absent bishops" who at times were property managers trained in administration. Thus, the Council of Trent combated " absenteeism ", which was the practice of bishops living in Rome or on landed estates rather than in their dioceses. The Council of Trent gave bishops greater power to supervise all aspects of religious life. Zealous prelates, such as Milan 's Archbishop Carlo Borromeo (1538–1584), later canonized as

17286-501: Was the Catholic response to the Lutheran Augsburg Confession . Pope Paul III (1534–1549) is considered the first pope of the Counter-Reformation, and he also initiated the Council of Trent (1545–1563), tasked with institutional reform, addressing contentious issues such as corrupt bishops and priests , the sale of indulgences , and other financial abuses. The council upheld the basic structure of

17420-437: Was to be consistently hostile to secularisation, particularly in its wholesale form, since it realized it had more to lose than to gain from it as it would result in the disappearance of the ecclesiastical princes and prelates from the Imperial Diet and the loss of their traditional support for the Emperor. Likewise, the Electors of Hanover and Saxony opposed the principles of compensation and secularization, not out of sympathy for

17554-458: Was to have grave consequences for the small princes of the Empire. With the effective end of imperial governance following the Treaty of Pressburg in 1805, the violence done unto the knights and counts was extended to these defenseless princes, resulting in a second great mediatisation in 1806. The formal mediatisation of the imperial knights and counts was legalized by Article 25 of the Treaty of

17688-507: Was to provide livings for some of the 700 noble members of the cathedral chapters whose property and estates had been expropriated when the prince-bishoprics were secularized. Some prince-bishoprics were transferred whole to a new owner while others, such as Münster, Trier, Cologne, Würzburg, Augsburg, Freising, Eichstätt, Passau and Constance, were either split between two or several new owners or had some districts or exclaves allotted to different new owners. The substantial property and estates of

17822-479: Was transferred to new rulers. The position of the established Roman Catholic Church in Germany, the Reichskirche , was not only diminished, but nearly destroyed. The Church lost its crucial constitutional role in the Empire; most of the Catholic universities were closed, as well as hundreds of monasteries and religious foundations. It has been said that the Final Recess of 1803 did to German land ownership what

17956-482: Was used by Protestant historians as a negative and one-dimensional concept that stressed the aspect of reaction and resistance to Protestantism and neglected that of reform within Catholicism. The term was understandably shunned by Catholic historians. Even when the Protestant historian Wilhelm Maurenbrecher introduced the term ‘Catholic Reformation’ in 1880, German historiography remained confessionally divided on

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