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Preachers or Teachers? Parish Priests and their Sermons in the Late Enlightenment Habsburg Empire
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 June 2019
Abstract
This article explores the role parish priests were expected to play in educating the populace of the Habsburg empire at the end of the eighteenth century, and especially how this was manifested in the form and content of their sermons. Emperor Joseph II took a keen interest in the education of future priests and expected them to be good shepherds (pastores boni) and educators to their parishioners. To this end, together with his mother, he carried out several reforms in their education (such as changing theology faculty curricula, introducing pastoral theology as a new subject and establishing general seminaries) and even issued a special decree on 4 February 1783, providing detailed instructions for preachers. The article outlines how future priests were taught to educate their parishioners through their sermons, concentrating on how they followed these instructions in their homiletic practice, which changed the form and content of sermons radically. It is based on archival material concerning the education of future priests (such as court decrees, governmental orders and university curricula), pastoral theology textbooks used at the Prague faculty of theology, and selected printed sermons.
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- Research Article
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- Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 2019
Footnotes
This article was prepared with support from the Grant Agency of the Czech Republic, project 17-06507S, ‘Bohemical Hagiography of Czech Saints from Tridentine to Enlightenment Reforms’, and the Charles University project Progres Q09, ‘History: Key for the Understanding of the Global World’.
References
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2 According to John W. O'Malley, the emphasis on movere is typical for the Jesuit tradition: The First Jesuits (Cambridge, MA, 1993), 96. Delectare was emphasized, for example, by the Austrian Augustinian preacher Abraham a Santa Clara (1644‒1709): Udo Sträter et al., ‘Predigt’, in Grigor Kalivoda et al., ed., Historisches Wörterbuch der Rhetorik, 12 vols (Tübingen, 1992‒2015), 7: 45‒96, at 86‒7.
3 For the general characteristics of Baroque and Enlightenment homiletics, see Schneyer, Johann Baptist, Geschichte der katholischen Predigt (Freiburg, 1969)Google Scholar, especially 267‒302, 305‒26; Schütz, Werner, Geschichte der christlichen Predigt (Berlin and New York, 1972)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, especially 140‒5, 159‒71; Eijnatten, Joris van, ‘Reaching Audiences: Sermons and Oratory in Europe’, in Brown, Stewart J. and Tackett, Timothy, eds, CHC, 7: Enlightenment, Reawakening and Revolution 1660‒1815 (Cambridge, 2008), 128‒46Google Scholar; Edwards, O. C. Jr, ‘Varieties of Sermon: A Survey of Preaching in the Long Eighteenth Century’, in van Eijnatten, Joris, ed., Preaching, Sermon and Cultural Change in the Long Eighteenth Century (Leiden and Boston, MA, 2009), 3‒53Google Scholar, especially 5‒11; Sträter et al., ‘Predigt’, 65‒96.
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16 von Aretin, Karl Otmar Freiherr, ‘Einleitung’, in idem, ed., Der Aufgeklärte Absolutismus (Köln, 1974), 11‒51Google Scholar, at 33.
17 For example, from 1804 priests in the empire were obliged to preach several times a year about the beneficial effects of vaccination: Rainer Bendel, ‘Liturgie, Predigt und Gebet’, 146‒7.
18 See Chládek, Jiljí, Počátkowé Opatrnosti Pastýřské (Prague, 1780/1), 29‒30Google Scholar, Knihopis K03309, Knihopis = KPS ‒ Knihopis Database, online at: <http://www.knihopis.cz/knihopis-eng.html>.
19 Compare the objections of Jesuit provincials against the 1752 reforms of the gymnasia summarized in Wotke, Karl, Das oesterreichische Gymnasium im Zeitalter Maria Theresias, 1: Texte nebst Erläuterungen, Monumenta Germaniae paedagogica 30 (Berlin, 1905), xv–xviGoogle Scholar.
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21 Court decree, 7 October 1784: Peter Karl Jaksch, Gesetzlexikon im Geistlichen, Religions- und Toleranzsache, wie auch in Güter-, Stiftungs-, Studien- und Zensursachen für das Königreich Böhmen von 1601 bis Ende 1800. Aus den Originalakten des k. k. Gubernialarchivs ausgezogen und geordnet, 6 vols (Prague, 1828), 4: 509; court decree, 28 December 1788: ibid. 527.
22 ‘In den Predigten, besonders auf dem Lande, mehr den Ton eines freundschaftlichen Gespräches, als eines Redners annehmen’: ibid. 507–8.
23 General seminaries were centrally established schools for the education of all future Catholic priests, which replaced a variety of monastery and episcopal schools and were managed by the emperor himself. They were established by the decree of 30 March 1783, with teaching commencing that November, and abolished shortly after the emperor's death in 1790. The students were to enter them after completing their philosophical studies, and were to complete a six-year theological course and one year of practical training: Winter, Der Josefinismus, 134–62.
24 A court decree of 1 June 1779 gives detailed instructions for class exercises: Jaksch, Gesetzlexikon, 4: 512–13.
25 Court decree, 7 October 1784: ibid. 509.
26 Governmental order, 18 July 1800: ibid. 510. Rhetoric is not mentioned here, because it was taught at secondary school (gymnasium) and in the philosophical faculty, but not in the faculty of theology or the general seminary.
27 Ibid. 527.
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33 ‘Nie wieder hat das Wort Lehrer einen so hohen Rang bekommen wie in dieser Zeit’: Schütz, ‘Die Kanzel’, 143.
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35 Vienna, 1782; 2nd revised edn 1784. A brief synopsis was published as [Franz Stephan Rautenstrauch], Theologiae pastoralis et polemicae delineatio tabellis proposita (Vienna, 1778); and [idem], Tabellarischer Grundriß der in deutscher Sprache vorzutragenden Pastoraltheologie (Vienna, 1778), repr. as [idem], ‘Tabellarischer Grundriß der Pastoraltheologie’, in Josef Dobrovský, ed., Böhmische und mährische Litteratur auf das Jahr 1780, 2/i (Prague, 1780), 12‒25. For Rautenstrauch, see Křišťan, Alois, Počátky pastorální teologie v českých zemích (Prague, 2004), 34–9Google Scholar; Karel Beránek, ‘Teologická fakulta’, in Čornejová, ed., Dějiny Univerzity Karlovy II, 69–98, at 94–5.
36 For the beginnings of pastoral theology in Prague, see Křišťan, Počátky. See also Müller, Josef, Der pastoraltheologisch-didaktische Ansatz in Franz Stephan Rautenstrauchs ‘Entwurf zur Einrichtung der theologischen Schulen’ (Vienna, 1969)Google Scholar.
37 This opinion was shared by the neo-classicists and the advocates of concetto: see, for example, the textbook by the Czech Jesuit Bohuslav Balbín, Verisimilia humaniorum disciplinarum seu Judicium privatum de omni litterarum (quas humaniores appellant) artificio (Prague, 1666), 239.
38 Zschokke, Hermann, Die theologischen Studien und Anstalten der katholischen Kirche in Österreich. Aus Archivalien (Vienna and Leipzig, 1894), 198‒200Google Scholar; Beránek, ‘Teologická fakulta’, 95; Křišťan, Počátky, 73.
39 Pitroff, Franz Christian, Anleitung zur praktischen Gottes Gelahrheit nach dem Entwurfe der Wiener Studien-Verbesserung verfasset, und zum Gebrauche akademischer Vorlesungen eingerichtet (Prague, 1783 first publ. 1778/9)Google Scholar; Chládek, Počátkowé; Giftschütz, Franz, Leitfaden für die in den k. k. Erblanden vorgeschriebenen deutschen Vorlesungen über die Pastoraltheologie (Vienna, 1785)Google Scholar; Giftschütz, Franz and Stach, Václav, Počátkowé k Weřegnému w Cýs. Král. zemjch předepsanému wykládanj Pastýřské Theologie (Prague, 1789/90)Google Scholar, Knihopis K02705, KPS ‒ Knihopis Database, online at: <http://www.knihopis.cz/knihopis-eng.html>.
40 ‘[D]ie Art, und Regeln …, gute, dem Volksunterrichte angemessene Predigten zu verfassen, und vorzutragen … die Kunst … populär zu predigen’: Rautenstrauch, Entwurf, 106–7.
41 Ibid. 107.
42 Chládek, Počátkowé, 73–116, at 81.
43 Pitroff, Anleitung, 353‒6; Giftschütz, Počátkowé, 144‒8.
44 Chládek, Počátkowé, 91.
45 Ibid. 91‒3.
46 Ibid. 92.
47 Ibid. 92‒3.
48 Ibid. 94‒5.
49 Ibid. 95‒6.
50 Ibid. 97.
51 Ibid. 98.
52 Ibid. 98‒9.
53 This requirement is usually interpreted as a ‘remnant of baroque rhetorical theory’ in Chládek's homiletical concept: Zdeněk Nešpor, ‘Výchova kněží a jejich působení na přelomu 18. a 19. století’, Lidé města 8/2 (2006) [online journal], at: <http://www.lidemesta.cz/archiv/cisla/8-2006-2/vychova-knezi-a-jejich-pusobeni-na-prelomu-18.-a-19.-stoleti.html>, last accessed 22 November 2018. However, it is in full agreement with Rautenstrauch's recommendations that sermons should touch listeners’ hearts and capture their imagination and that the preacher should be moved himself (selbst gerührt): Rautenstrauch, Entwurf, 110‒12.
54 Chládek, Počátkowé, 99‒102.
55 Ibid. 102.
56 Ibid. 103.
57 Ibid. 104.
58 Ibid. 104‒7.
59 Ibid. 109‒10.
60 Miloš Sládek, Slovo ze srdce jejich aneb Nedělní kázání v pobělohorských bohemikálních postilách a tradiční perikopní systém (Prague, 2017), 53. The same opinion was shared by Enlightenment critics of Czech Baroque homiletics.
61 See Václav Pumprla, Knihopisný slovník českých, slovenských a cizích autorů 16.‒18. století (Prague, 2010), 1106; Sládek. Slovo ze srdce jejich, 277‒84.
62 Knihopis K16037, KPS ‒ Knihopis Database, online at: <http://www.knihopis.cz/knihopis-eng.html>.
63 See Otruba, Mojmír, ‘Nejedlý, Vojtěch’, in Opelík, Jiří et al. , eds, Lexikon české literatury, 4 vols (Prague, 2000), 3/1: 461‒3Google Scholar; Václav Pumprla, Knihopisný slovník, 774.
64 Knihopis K06124, KPS ‒ Knihopis Database, online at: <http://www.knihopis.cz/knihopis-eng.html>.
65 Rybička, Antonín, ‘Vojtěch Nejedlý. Kněz a básník’, in idem, ed., Přední křísitelé národa českého, 2 vols (Prague, 1884), 2: 315‒32Google Scholar, at 318.
66 Jacoebee, W. Pierre, ‘The Classical Sermon and the French Literary Tradition’, Australian Journal of French Studies 19 (1982), 227‒42CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at 231.
67 Van Eijnatten, ‘Reaching Audiences’, 140.
68 Schneyer, Geschichte der katholischen Predigt, 270.
69 Ibid. 270‒1.
70 Van Eijnatten, ‘Reaching Audiences’, 140.
71 For characteristics of Baroque sermons for saints’ days, see the afterword in Welzig, Werner, Lobrede. Katalog deutschsprachiger Heiligenpredigten in Einzeldrucken aus den Beständen der Stiftsbibliothek Klosterneuburg (Vienna, 1989)Google Scholar; for a short summary, see Edwards, ‘Varieties of Sermon’, 22‒7.
72 Táborský, Chrysostomus X. I., Tria tabernacula in Monte Thaboreo exstructa … seu Sermones LXI. de Sanctis (Olomouc, 1738), 799‒814Google Scholar, with a lengthy Latin title.
73 Nejedlý, Vojtěch, Swátečnj Kázanj na celý rok, 2 vols (Prague, 1807), 2: 139‒62Google Scholar.
74 ‘So werden Aufklärung und Predigt geradezu identische Begriffe’: Schütz, ‘Die Kanzel’, 143.
75 Ihalainen, ‘Enlightenment Sermon’, 217.
76 Forster, ‘With and without Confessionalization’, 343.
77 On the important role of popular religious practice, see Forster, Catholic Revival.
78 Forster, ‘With and without Confessionalization’, 331.
79 Sträter et al., ‘Predigt’, 86.