Frederick the Great, and tried to copy him, but, as Frederick said,
Joseph always began where he ought to leave off. He had no sooner become
Emperor (1780) than he began a multitude of reforms, with headlong
impetuosity. He supposed that every abuse was to be rooted up by an
exercise of despotic power, and that his subjects would hail freedom and
enlightenment with enthusiasm. Regardless of the power of hereditary
association, he arbitrarily upset existing institutions, in the
conviction that he was promoting the welfare of his subjects. He
emancipated the Jews, and proclaimed liberty of worship to all religious
bodies except the Deists, whom he condemned to receive five-and-twenty
strokes of the cane. He abolished the use of torture, and reorganised
the courts of justice.
The Pope, alarmed at the reforming spirit of Joseph, and the innovations
he was introducing into the management of the Church, crossed the Alps
with the hope that in a personal interview he might moderate the
Emperor's zeal. He arrived only a few days after Joseph had received the
letter of Ignatius Fessler, which was calculated to spur him to enact
still more sweeping reforms, and to steel his heart against the papal
blandishments. Nothing could have come to his hands more opportunely.
In Vienna, in St. Stephen's, the Pope held a pontifical mass. The
Emperor did not honour it by his presence. By order of Joseph, the back
door of the papal lodging was walled up, that Pius might receive no
visitors unknown to the Emperor, and guards were placed at the entrance,
to scrutinize those who sought the presence of the Pope. Joseph lost
dignity by studied discourtesy; and Kaunitz, his minister, was allowed
to be insulting. The latter received the Pope when he visited him, in
his dressing-gown, and instead of kissing his hand, shook it heartily.
Pius, after spending five weeks in Vienna without affecting anything,
was constrained to depart.
Fessler saw him thrice, once, when the Pope said mass in the Capuchin
Church, he stood only three paces from him. "Never did faith and
unbelief, Jansenism and Deism, struggle for the mastery in me more
furiously than then; tears flowed from my eyes, excited by my emotion,
and at the end of the mass, I felt convinced that I had seen either a
man as full of the burning love of God as a seraph, or the most
accomplished actor in the world." Of the sincerity and piety of Pius VI.
there can be no question. He was a good man, but not an able man. "At
the conclusion he turned to us young priests, asked of each his name,
length of time in the Order, and priesthood, about our studies, and
exhorted us, in a fatherly tone, to be stout stones in the wall of the
house of Israel, in times of trouble present and to come."
Before Pius departed, he gave his blessing to the people from the
balcony of the Jesuit Church. "The Pope was seated on a throne under a
gold-embroidered canopy. Fifty thousand persons must have been assembled
below. Windows were full of heads, every roof crowded. The Pope wore his
triple-crowned tiara, and was attended by three cardinals and two
bishops in full pontificals. He intoned the form of absolution, in
far-reaching voice, which was taken up by the court choir of four
hundred voices. When this was done, Pius rose from his throne, the tiara
was removed from his head, he stepped forward, raised eyes and arms to
heaven, and in a pure ecstasy of devotion poured forth a fervent prayer.
Only sighs and sobs broke occasionally the perfect silence which
reigned among the vast throng of kneeling persons in the great square.
The Pope seemed rather to be raised in ecstasy from his feet, than to
stand. The prayer lasted long, and the bishops put their hands to stay
up his arms; it was like Moses on the mountain top, with the rod of God
in his hand, supported by Aaron and Hur, as he prayed for his people
striving below with Amalek. At last this second Moses let his arms fall,
he raised his right hand, and blessed the people in the name of the
Triune God. At the Amen, the cannon of the Freiung boomed, and were
answered by all the artillery on the fortifications of the city."
The Pope was gone, and still no notice taken of the petition. Molinari
spoke to Fessler, who was very hot about reform, and had drawn up a
scheme for the readjustment of the Church in the Empire, which he sent
to some of the ministers of the Emperor. "My friend," said Molinari, "to
pull down and to rebuild, to destroy and to re-create, are serious
matters, only to be taken in hand by one who has an earnest vocation,
and not to be made a means for self-seeking."
Fessler admits that there was truth in the reproach, he was desirous of
pushing himself into notice, and he cared for the matter of "the lions,"
only because he thought they would serve his selfish purpose. Joseph now
issued an order that no member of a monastic order was to be admitted to
a benefice who had not passed an examination before the teachers of the
Seminaries. The superiors of the Capuchins forbade their candidates
going into these examinations. Fessler stirred up revolt, and he and
some others, acting under his advice, demanded to be admitted to
examination. His superior then informed him that he was not intended by
the Order to take a cure of souls, he was about to be appointed lecturer
on Philosophy in one of the convents in Hungary. In order to prevent his
removal, and to force the Order to an open rupture with him, Fessler had
recourse to a most unseemly and ungenerous act. Whilst in Vienna, he had
made the acquaintance of an unmarried lady, the Baroness E. He had
assisted her in her studies, giving her instructions usually by letter.
His acquaintance, Von Eybel, had written a book or tract, which had made
a great stir, entitled, "Who is the Pope?" Fessler wrote another,
entitled, "Who is the Emperor?" He sent a copy to the publisher, but
retained the original MS. Fessler now wrote under a feigned name, and in
a disguised hand, a letter to Father Maximus, guardian of the convent,
charging himself with carrying on a guilty correspondence with the
Baroness E., and with the composition of an inflammatory and
anti-religious pamphlet, "Who is the Emperor?" Maximus at once visited
the Baroness, and showed her the letter. The lady in great indignation
produced the entire correspondence, and handed the letters to him.
Maximus put them in the hands of the Lector of the convent, who visited
Fessler, and asked him if he acknowledged the authorship of "these
scandalous letters."
"Scandalous, they are not," answered Fessler.
"_Impius, cum in profundum venerit, contemnit_," roared the friar. "They
are not only scandalous, but impious. Look at this letter on platonic
love. Is that a fit letter for such as you to write to a lady?"
In consequence of these letters, and the MS. of the pamphlet being found
upon him, Fessler was denounced to the Consistorial Court of the
Archbishop. He was summoned before it at the beginning of August, when
he was forced to admit he had been wont to kiss the lady to whom he
wrote on platonic love, and the Consistory suspended him from the
exercise of his priestly functions for a month.
"I and the Lector returned to the convent silent, as if strangers. When
we arrived, the friars were at table. I do not know how I got to my
place; but after I had drunk my goblet of wine, all was clearer about
me. I seemed to hear the voice of Horace calling to me from heaven,
_Perfer et obdura!_ and in a moment my self-respect revived, and I
looked with scorn on the seventy friars hungrily eating their dinner."
Of his own despicable conduct, that he had richly deserved his
punishment, Fessler never seems to have arrived at the perception. He
was, indeed, a very pitiful creature, arousing disgust and contempt in a
well-ordered mind; and his Memoirs only deserve notice because of the
curious insight they afford into the inner life of convents, and because
he was the means of bringing great scandals to light, and in assisting
Joseph II. in his work of reform.
At the beginning of September, 1782, Fessler was the means of bringing a
fresh scandal before the eyes of the Emperor. During the preceding year,
a saddler in Schwächat had lost his wife, and was left, not only a
widower, but childless. His niece now kept house for him, and was much
afraid lest her uncle should marry again, and that thus she should not
become his heir. She consulted a Capuchin, Father Brictius. Fessler had
been in the Schwächat convent, and knew the man. Soon after, the niece
assured her uncle that the ghost of her aunt had appeared to her, and
told her she was suffering in Purgatory. For her release, she must have
ten masses said, and some wax candles burnt. The saddler was content to
have his old woman "laid" at this price. But, after the tenth mass, the
niece declared she had seen her aunt again, and that the spirit had
appeared to her in the presence of Father Brictius, and told her, that
what troubled her most of all was the suspicion she was under, that her
husband purposed marrying again; and she assured him, that were he so to
do, he would lose his soul, in token whereof, she laid her hand on the
cover of the niece's prayer-book, and left the impression burnt into it.
Father Brictius carried the scorched book all round the neighbourhood,
the marks of thumb and five fingers were clearly to be seen, burnt into
the wooden cover. Great was the excitement, and on all sides masses for
souls were in demand. Some foolish pastors even preached on the marvel.
It happened that a Viennese boy was apprenticed to a tinker at
Schwächat; and the boy came home every Saturday evening, to spend the
day with his parents, at Vienna. He generally brought Fessler some
little presents or messages from his friends at Schwächat. One day, the
boy complained to Fessler that he had been severely beaten by his
master. On being asked the reason, he replied, that he had been engaged
with the tinker making an iron hand, and that he had spoiled it. Shortly
after this, the rumour of the miraculous hand laid on the prayer-book,
reached the convent. Fessler put the circumstances together, and
suspected he was on the track of a fraud. He went at once to one of the
ministers of the Emperor, and told him what he knew.
An imperial commission was issued, the tinker, the saddler's niece, and
Father Brictius, were arrested, cross-questioned, and finally, confessed
the trick. The tinker was sent to prison for some months, the woman, for
some weeks, and the Franciscan was first imprisoned, and then banished
the country. An account of the fraud was issued, by Government
authority, and every parish priest was ordered to read it to his
parishioners from the pulpit.
The Capuchins at Vienna, after this, were more impatient than before to
send Fessler to Hungary, and he was forced to appeal to the Emperor to
prevent his removal.
Suddenly, quite unexpectedly, in the beginning of October--seven months
after Fessler had sent the Emperor an account of the prison in the
convent, and when he despaired of notice being taken of it--some
imperial commissioners visited the convent, and demanded in the name of
the Emperor to be shown all over it. At the head of the Commission was
Hägelin, to whom Fessler had told his suspicions about the iron hand.
The commissioners visited all the cells, and the infirmary, then asked
the Guardian thrice on his honour, and in the name of the Emperor,
whether there was a prison in the convent. Thrice the Guardian replied
that there was not. "Let us now visit the kitchen," said Hägelin, and in
spite of the protests and excuses of the Guardian, he insisted on being
taken there. Beyond the kitchen was the wash-house. The commissioners
went further, and found a small locked door. They insisted on its being
opened. Then the Guardian turned pale and nearly fainted. The door was
thrown open, the cells were unlocked, and the lay brothers ordered to
bring the prisoners into the refectory. There the commissioners remained
alone with the unfortunates to take down their depositions. It was found
that three, Fathers Florentine, and Paternus, and the lay brother,
Nemesian, were out of their minds. The "lion-ward" was summoned to
answer for them. From his account, it transpired that Nemesian had gone
out of his mind through religious enthusiasm; he was aged seventy-one,
and had been fifty years in the dungeon. Father Florentine was aged
seventy-three, he had been in confinement for forty-two years for boxing
the Guardian's ears in a fit of temper. Father Paternus was locked up
because he used to leave his convent without permission, and when
rebuked would not give up his independent conduct. He had been fifteen
years in prison. His confinement had bereft him of his senses. As the
remaining two were in full possession of their faculties, the
"lion-ward" was now dismissed. The lay brother Barnabas said he had been
a shopkeeper's servant in Vienna, he had fallen in love with his
master's daughter. As his master refused to have him as his son-in-law,
out of despair he had gone into the Capuchin Order. During his
noviciate, the master died; the master of the novices stopped the letter
informing him of this, and he took the vows, to discover, when too late,
that the girl loved him, and was ready to take him. In his mad rage, he
flung his rosary at the feet of the Guardian, declaring he would never
confess to, or receive the communion from the hands of a father of this
accursed Order. He had been nine years in prison, and was thirty-eight
years old.
Father Thuribius had been caught reading Wieland, Gellert, Rabener, &c.;
they had been taken from him. He got hold of other copies, they were
taken away a second time. A third time he procured them, and when
discovered, fought with his fists for their retention. He had been
repeatedly given the cat o' nine tails, and had been locked up five
months and ten days. His age was twenty-eight.
The commissioners at once suspended the Provincial and the Guardian till
further notice, and the five unfortunates were handed over to the care
of the Brothers of Charity.
That same day, throughout the entire monarchy, every monastery and
nunnery was visited by imperial commissioners.
At the same time, the Emperor Joseph issued an order that Fessler was on
no account to be allowed to leave Vienna, and that he took him under his
imperial protection against all the devices of his monastic enemies.
"Now came the sentence on the Guardian and the Provincial from the
Emperor. They were more severely punished than perhaps they really
deserved. I felt for their sufferings more keenly, because I was well
aware that I had been moved to report against them by any other motive
rather than humanity; and even the consequences of my revelation, the
setting at liberty of a not inconsiderable number of unfortunate monks
and nuns throughout the Austrian Empire, could not set my conscience at
rest. Only the orders made by the Emperor rendering it impossible to
repeat such abuses, brought me any satisfaction. The monastic prisons
were everywhere destroyed. Transgression of rules was henceforth to be
punished only by short periods of seclusion, and cases of insanity were
to be sent to the Brothers of Charity, who managed the asylums."
If Joseph II. had but possessed commonsense as well as enthusiasm, he
would have left his mark deeper on his country than he did.
Fessler laid before him the schedule of studies in the Franciscan
Convents. Joseph then issued an order (6th April, 1782), absolutely
prohibiting the course of studies in the cloisters. When Fessler saw
that the Guardian of his convent was transgressing the decree, he
appealed against him to the Emperor, and had him dismissed. Next year
Joseph required all the students of the Capuchin Order to enter the
seminaries, and pass thence through the Universities. But,
unfortunately, Joseph had taken a step to alienate from him the bishops
and secular clergy, as well as the monks and friars. He arbitrarily
closed all the diocesan seminaries, and created seminaries of his own
for the candidates for Orders, to which he appointed the professors,
thus entirely removing the education of the clergy from the hands of the
Church. When the Bishop of Goritz expressed his dissatisfaction, Joseph
suppressed his see and banished him. The professors he appointed to the
universities, to the chairs which were attended by candidates for
Orders, were in many cases free-thinkers and rationalists. The professor
of Biblical Exegesis at Vienna was an ex-Jesuit, Monsperger, "His
religious system," says Fessler, who attended his course, "was simply
this,--a wise enjoyment of life, submission to the inevitable, and
prudence of conduct. That was all. He had no other idea of Church than a
reciprocal bond of rights and duties. In his lectures he whittled all
the supernatural out of the Old Testament, and taught his pupils to
regard the book as a collection of myths, romance, and contradictions.
His lectures brought me back from my trifling with Jansenism to the
point I had been at four years before under the teaching of Hobbes,
Tindal, and the Wolfenbüttel Fragments. I resolved to doubt everything
supernatural and divine, without actually denying such thing.--Strange!
I resolved to disbelieve, when I never had believed."
On Feb. 6th, 1784, he received the Emperor's appointment to the
professorships of Biblical Exegesis and Oriental languages in the
University of Lemberg. On the 20th Feb., on the eve of starting for
Lemberg, for ever to cast off the hated habit of S. Francis, and to
shake off, as much as he dare, the trammels of the priesthood, Fessler
was in his cell at midnight, counting the money he had received for his
journey. "To the right of me, on the table was a dagger, given me as a
parting present by the court secretary, Grossinger. I was thinking of
retiring to rest, when my cell door was burst open, and in rushed Father
Sergius, a great meat-knife in his hand, shouting, _Moriere
hoeretice!_ he struck at my breast. In an instant I seized my dagger,
parried the blow, and wounded my assailant in the hand. He let the knife
fall and ran away. I roused the Guardian, told him what had occurred,
and advised what was to be done. Sergius, armed with two similar knives,
had locked himself into his cell. At the command of the Guardian six
lay-brothers burst open the door, and beat the knives from his hands
with sticks, then dragged him off to the punishment-cell, where they
placed him under watch. Next morning I went with the Guardian, as I had
advised, to the president of the Spiritual Commission, the Baron von
Kresel, to inform him that Father Sergius had gone raving mad, and to
ask that he might be committed to the custody of the Brothers of Mercy.
This was at once granted; and I left the Guardian to instruct the
fanatic how to comport himself in the hospital as a lunatic, so as not
to bring his superiors into further difficulties."
The first acquaintance Fessler made in Lemberg, was a renegade
Franciscan friar, who had been appointed Professor of Physic, "He was a
man of unbounded ambition and avarice, a political fanatic, and a
complete atheist." Joseph afterwards appointed this man to be mitred
abbot of Zazvár. He died on the scaffold in 1795, executed for high
treason.
The seminarists of the Catholic and of the Uniat Churches as well as the
pupils from the religious Orders were obliged to attend Fessler's
lectures. These were on the lines of these of Monsperger. Some of the
clergy in charge of the Seminarists were so uneasy at Fessler's teaching
that they stood up at his lectures and disputed his assertions; but
Fessler boasts that after a couple of months he got the young men round
to his views, and they groaned, hooted and stamped down the
remonstrants. He published at this time two works, _Institutiones
linguarum orientalium_, and a Hebrew anthology for the use of the
students. In the latter he laid down certain canons for the
interpretation of the Old Testament, by means of which everything
miraculous might be explained away.
It was really intolerable that the candidates for orders should be
forcibly taught to disbelieve everything their Church required them to
hold. In his inspection of the monasteries, in the suppression of many,
Joseph acted with justice, and the conscience of the people approved,
but in this matter of the education of the clergy he violated the
principles of common justice, and the consequence was such wide-spread
irritation, that Joseph for a moment seemed inclined to give way. That
Joseph knew the rationalism of Fessler is certain. The latter gives a
conversation he had with the Emperor, in which they discussed the
"Ruah," the Spirit of God, which moved on the face of the waters, as
said in the first chapter of Genesis. Fessler told him that he
considered "the expression to be a Hebrew superlative, and to mean no
more than that a violent gale was blowing. Possibly," he added, "Moses
may have thought of the Schiva in the Hindoo Trimurti; for he was reared
in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, who were an Ethiopic race, which was
in turn an Indian colony." Dr. Fessler's Ethnology was faulty, whatever
may be thought of his Theology.
After having given this explanation to the Emperor, Fessler boldly asked
him for a bishopric--he who loathed his priesthood and disbelieved in
revealed religion!
Joseph did not give him a mitre, but made him Professor of Doctrinal
Theology and Catholic Polemics as well as of Biblical Exegesis. This did
not satisfy the ambitious soul of Fessler, he was bent on a mitre. He
waited with growing impatience. He sent his books to Joseph. He did his
utmost to force himself into his notice. But the desired mitre did not
come.
Fessler complains that scandalous stories circulated about him whilst at
Lemberg, and these possibly may have reached the imperial ears. He
asserts, and no doubt with perfect truth, that these were unfounded. He
had made himself bitter enemies, and they would not scruple to defame
him. He boasts that at Lemberg he contracted no Platonic alliances; he
had no _attachements de coeur_ there at all.
The Emperor seemed to have forgotten him, to have cast aside his useful
tool. Filled with the bitterness of defeated ambition, in 1788 he wrote
a drama, entitled James II., a covert attack on his protector, Joseph
II., whom he represented as falling away in his enthusiasm for reform,
and succumbing to the gathering hostility of Obscurantists and Jesuits.
This was not the case, but Joseph was in trouble with his refractory
subjects in the Low Countries, who would not have his seminaries and
professors, who subscribed for the support of the ousted teachers, and
rioted at the introduction of the new professors to the University of
Louvain.
The play was put into rehearsal, but the police interfered, and it was
forbidden. Fessler either feared or was warned that he was about to be
arrested, and he escaped over the frontier into Prussian Silesia. Joseph
II. died in 1790, broken in spirit by his failures.
Fessler, after his escape from Austria, became a salaried reader and
secretary to the Count of Carolath, whose wife was a princess of
Saxe-Meiningen.