Austria, one of the principal states of modern Eu- rope (q. v.), with an area of 11,751 geogr. sq. miles, and a population in 1857 of 35,040,810 souls.
I. Church History. — For the introduction of Chris- tianity into those countries which now constitute Aus- tria, and for their early church history, we refer to the articles Germany; Sclavonians: and to those on the several provinces of Austria (see below). The Reformation spread at first in Austria with great rapid- it}'. In Bohemia, Moravia, Austria Proper (the arch- duchy), Styria, Carinthia, and the Tyrol, it soon be- came very powerful. See Reformation. Even one of the emperors, Maximilian II, favored it, and was believed secretly to belong to it. But Ferdinand II
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(1G19-37), the most fanatic adherent of the Church of Kome in the entire series of Austrian rulers, initiated a period of long and cruel persecution, by which thou- sands were frightened into apostasy, and many more thousands expelled from their native land. This rig- orous legislation lasted until the accession of Joseph II (1765-90), who not only endeavored to loosen the connection of the Roman Catholic Church with the Pope, but who gave also to the Protestants, by his cel- ebrated Edict of Toleration, Oct. 31,1781, protection of their religious worship, and declared them admissi- ble to the highest civil offices. Still, in those provinces where they were merely tolerated, they were not al- lowed to have churches, but only chapels without steeples and bells ; nor could they have, independent parishes, but they had to pay the fees for ecclesiastical functions to the Roman Catholic parish priest. In Hungary and Transylvania, they possessed from the time of the Reformation, and preserved unimpaired, much greater rights. The successors of Joseph II re- voked a part of his legislation, and, in general, sec- onded the diplomacy of the Pope abroad, but continued to withhold from the Roman Church in Austria many rights which she possessed in most other states (as holding of councils, connection of the monastic orders with their several superiors in Rome, formations of religious associations, etc.). The year 18-18 brought to all the religious denominations the promise of self- government, and independence of both the state and other denominations. The '-Provisional Decrees" of 1849 redressed several of the Protestant grievances; thus, e. g., the term "acatholic," by which Protest- ants had before been officially designated, was abol- ished, the official character of the lists of baptisms, marriages, and deaths kept by Protestant clergymen was recognised, and the taxes which Protestants had to pay to Catholic priests were abolished. Notwith- standing these partial concessions made to the spirit of the times, the emperor Francis Joseph openly fa- vored the schemes of the ultramontane party. The Concordat, signed on Aug. 18, 1855 [see Concordat]. did away with the whole Josephine legislation, and recognised, in its first article, all the rights and pre- rogatives which the R. C. Church derived from the canon law. Through the Concordat the R.C. Church reobtained the right of holding councils (a conference of fourteen archbishops and forty-eight bishops met in 185G), a great influence on public education, an exten- sive jurisdiction in marriage affairs, and, in general, a vigorous support on the part of the government. The relation between the monastic orders of Austria and their superiors was also restored, and the bishops, at the wish of Rome and with the aid of the government, commenced to enforce again the old strict monastic disciplines. A majority of the members of every or- der which was thus to be brought back to its former condition opposed this plan, but unsuccessfully. The reformatory measures were carried through in all the monastic orders in 1850. The Protestants received. after the publication of the Concordat, the promise that also their church should receive a greater independence and a higher degree of self-government ; but, in fact, their grievances became much greater under the influ- ence which tin' ( !oncorda1 gave to the priests. Impor- tant decrees concerning the reorganization of the Prot- estanl i hurches "I" Hungary Mere issued on Aug. 21, tl Sept. 1, 1859, for which we refertothe article Hdugari . For the Protestants in the provinces form- ing pari of the German Confederacy it was, in 1859, d that in future the Protestant < lonsistoryof Vi- enna should always be presided over by a Protestant, and not, as had been the custom until "that date, by a Roman I latholic. On April 8, 1861, an imperial letter was issued, and on April 9 a draft of a church constitu- tion, to regulate provisionally the affairs of the Luther- an and the Reformed Churches in tin- German and Slavic provinces. Each of these two churches was to
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have a general synod, which was to revise the draft of church constitution prepared by the government, and have hereafter the chief control of the ecclesias- tical affairs of the two churches. The convocation of the first general synod was delayed no less than three years, and did not take place until the 22d of May, 18G4. The synods of both the churches met in Vi- enna on the same day. Both synods passed a reso- lution to discuss such topics as are not of a strictly denominational character in joint session. The pro- visional draft of a church constitution was adopted in all its essential points. The synods resolved to present conjointly to the emperor the following memo- rial, containing the chief demands of the Protestants of the empire : The General Synod protests — 1. Against the denomination of non-catholic, which is the term used in the decrees and ordinances of the political authorities to designate the adherents of the two Pro- testant confessions, the Augsburg and the Helvetian ; 2. The Synod demands that those obstacles which, in some parts of the monarch}', are still presented to the establishment of Protestant congregations, shall be re- moved ; 3. That booksellers shall be allowed to deal in Protestant books : 4. A community of cemeteries ; 5. The admission of Protestant pastors, as of priests, into houses of retirement and charitable institutions, to ex- ercise their functions in them ; 6. The establishment of the equality of the Protestant and the Catholic fes- tivals, in order that the authorities may be bound to protect the festivals of the Protestants in the localities in which they are the most numerous; 7. The Synod protests against all interference by the subordinate political authorities in the affairs of the schools' of the Protestant congregations ; 8. It protests against the ordinance which prohibits the children of Jews from frequenting Protestant, if there are Catholic schools in existence in the same locality ; as it also protests against tho ordinance which forbids Catholic parents placing their children with Protestant foster-parents;