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The Impact of the Counter-Reformation on the Styrian Estates, 1578–1628

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 February 2009

Hans-Bernhard Neumann
Hans-Bernhard Neumann
Affiliation:
University of Toronto
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Abstract

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Type
The Counter-Reformation and the Styrian Estates
Information
Austrian History Yearbook , Volume 15 , January 1979 , pp. 46 - 59
Copyright
Copyright © Center for Austrian Studies, University of Minnesota 1979

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References

1 Zöllner, Erich, Geschichte Österreichs (Vienna: Verlag für Geschichte und Politik, 1961), p. 191;Google ScholarLoserth, Johann, Die Reformation und Gegenreformation in den innerösterreichischen Ländern im sechzehnten Jahrhundert (Stuttgart: J.G. Cotta'sche Buchhandlung, 1898), pp. 597–598.Google Scholar

2 For more detail concerning these aspects of the Styrian Counter-Reformation, see Loserth, Johann, “Wie Steiermark, Kärnten, und Krain wieder katholisch wurden,” Preussisches Jahrbuch, Vol. CXXXIII (July–September, 1908), pp. 252–272.Google Scholar

3 Fontes Rerum Austriacarum, Section 2, Vol. L (Vienna: C. Gerolds Sohn, 1898), Doc. No. 47, pp. 78–83; Doc. No. 296, pp. 376–378;Google ScholarLoserth, Johann, “Die protestantischen Schulen der Steiermark im sechzehnten Jahrhundert,” Monumenta Germaniae Paedagogica, Vol. LV (1916), p. 80.Google Scholar

4 Zöllner, Geschichte Österreichs, p. 202; Landschaftliches Archiv (Graz), Section 3, Subsection 3, Landtagshandlungen, No. 46 (1600–1603), Fo. 103.

5 Dedic, Paul, Der Protestantismus in der Steiermark im Zeitalter der Reformation und Gegenreformation (Vienna: M. Heinsius Nachfolger, 1930), p. 51;Google Scholar Loserth, Die Reformation und Gegenreformation in den innerösterreichischen Ländern, pp. 597–598.

6 A copy of the Brucker Libell, known as the Schärffenberg copy, can be found in the Landschaftliches Archiv in Graz. See Abteilung Landschaftliche Urkunden. Group A, No. 56b, Copy B.

7 Limitations of space have required that archival references be compressed to a minimum in this article. Full archival references are given in my dissertation entitled “The Styrian Estates during the Counter Reformation” (University of Toronto, 1976).Google Scholar The bulk of the archival references pertaining to the development of the Protestant Church and school system in Styria is contained in the following sections of the Landschaftliches Archiv in Graz: Section 11, Subsection lb, Schuber 84, 85, 93, and 94; and Subsection lc, Schuber 139.

8 Fontes Rerum Austriacarum, Section 2, Vol. LVIII (Vienna: Alfred Hölder, 1906), Doc. No. 466, p. 333, and Doc. No. 485, p. 361;Google Scholar report of the executive committee, February 2, 1599, Landschaftliches Archiv (Graz), Section II, Subsection la, Schuber 18; archducal decree, April 23, 1599, Ibid., Subsection lc, Schuber 139; letter to the executive committee, October 17, 1599, Ibid., Subsection 1b, Schuber 94.

9 The instructions given to these officials of the estates are contained in the following sections of the Landschaftliches Archiv (Graz); Section 3, Subsection 5, Schuber 617 (Verordneten); Section 7-d, Subsection 1, Schuber 2 (Einnehmer); and Section 6-d, Unterabteilung 3, Schuber 546A (Rentmeister).

10 Landschaftliches Archiv (Graz), Section 3, Subsection 3, Landlagshandlungen, Nos. 45–55 (1598–1628), Verordnetenrelationen, Landtagsratschläge.

11 Ibid., Landlagshandlungen. Nos. 31–55 (1578–1628), Landtagspropositionen, Landtagsverhandlungen, Landtagsratschläge, Landtagsschlüsse.

12 Ibid.,Landtagshandhmgen, No. 46 (1600–1603), Fos. 196–197, 290, 295, 300, and 357; Fontes Rerum Austriacarum, Section 2, Vol. LX (Vienna: Alfred Hölder, 1907), p. xvii and Doc. No. 2466, pp. 814–821.Google Scholar

13 Landschaftliches Archiv (Graz), Section 3, Subsection 3, Landtagshandlungen, No. 46 (1600–1603), Fos. 290 and 357; Fontes Rerum Austriacarum, Section 2, Vol. LX, Doc. No. 2,466, pp. 814–821.Google Scholar According to Josef Wodka, 754 Styrian nobles of the Protestant faith and their dependents were forced to leave the duchy in 1629. See his Kirche in Österreich (Vienna: Verlag Herder, 1959), p. 239.Google Scholar

14 Landschaftliches Archiv (Graz), Section 3, Subsection 3, Landtagshandhmgen, No. 46 (1600–1603), Fo. 290.

15 Fontes Rerum Austriacarum, Section 2, Vol. LX, Doc. No. 2466. p. 816.Google Scholar

16 Loserth, Die Reformation und Gegenreformation in den innerösterreichischen Ländern, pp. 572–598.

17 Landschaftliches Archiv (Graz), Section 3, Subsection 3, Landtagshandlungen, No. 65 (1624), Fo. 206; Anton Mell, Grundriss der Verfassungs und Verwaltungsgeschichte des Landes Steiermark (Graz: Styria Verlag, 1929), p. 575.Google Scholar

18 This trend was reflected in the Verordnetenrelationen, the accounts of office rendered to the Styrian diet by the executive committee (the executive organ of the estates). These accounts increasingly treated only the purely administrative aspects of the committee's functions. See Landschaftliches Archiv (Graz), Section 3, Subsection 3, Landtagshandlungen, Nos. 52–55 (1618–1628), Verordnetenrelationen.

19 Fontes Rerum Austriacarum, Section 2, Vol. LVIII, Doc. No. 618, pp. 445–466;Google Scholar Landschaftliches Archiv (Graz), Section 3, Subsection 3, Landtagshandlungen, No. 46 (1600–1603), Fo. 103; archducal declaration of December 8, 1609, Ibid., Section 11. Subsection la, Schuber 28.

20 Loserth, Die Reformation und Gegenreformation in den inneröslerreichischen Ländern, pp. 214–215.

21 For a short explanation of these reasons, see Wodka, Kirche in Österreich, pp. 223 and 214–215.

22 For his attempts to forbid meetings of the two noble estates, see Landschaftliches Archiv (Graz), Section 3, Subsection 3, Landtagshandlungen, No. 47 (1605), Landtagsproposition, Landtagsschluss. For his efforts to appoint a member of the Catholic clergy to the executive committee, see Ibid., Landtagshandlungen, No. 46 (1600–1603), Fos. 13. 57, 83, and 215. For his endeavors to form a standing committee, see Ibid., Landiagshandlungen, No. 50 (1611), Fos. 14, 55, and 87.

23 This attitude of Archduke Ferdinand is reflected in Fontes Rerum Austriacarum, Section 2, Vol. LVIII, Doc. No. 618, pp. 445–466; and Landschaftliches Archiv (Graz), Section 3, Subsection 3, Landtagshandlungen, No. 46 (1600–1603), Fo. 103.

24 Landschaftliches Archiv (Graz), Section 3, Subsection 3, Landtagshandhmgen, No. 50 (1611), Fo. 14.

25 Ibid., Fos. 55 and 87.

26 From 1601 to 1623 at least one member of the estate representing the Catholic clergy was a member of the executive committee. Landschaftliches Archiv (Graz), Section 3, Subsection 5, Schuber617, No. 61, Verordnetenverzeichnisse.

27 Members of the estate of the Catholic clergy had been included in the executive committee as early as 1555. Ibid., Subsection 3, Landtagshandlungen, No. 46 (1600–1603), Fo. 57.

28 The proposal was not even mentioned in the recess of the diet of 1605. Ibid., Landtagshandlungen, No. 47 (1605), Fo. 353.

29 After the failure of Ferdinand's initial proposal in 1611, he presented a modified one incorporating some of the elements of the initial proposal to the diet in 1612, 1613, 1621, 1622, 1624, 1625, and 1626. None of the proposals were accepted. Ibid., Landtagshandlungen, Nos. 50 (1612, 1613), 53 (1621, 1622), and 54 (1624–1626), Landtagspropositionen, Landtagsschlüsse.

30 bulk of the archival sources referring to these areas is contained in the following sections of the estates' archives (Landschaftliches Archiv) in Graz: Section 6-a, Subsection la, Gültanschlagsbücher, 1578–1628; Section 3, Subsection 5, Schuber 617; Section 6-d, Subsection 1, Schuber 2; Section 6-a, Subsection 3b, Schuber 1254; and Section 6-b, Subsection lb, Schuber 1594/95.

31 Most of the archival sources from which references were drawn that led to these conclusions are contained in the following sections of Ibid.: Section 14, Schuber 1578, No. 5; Schuber 1579; Schuber 1580; Schuber 1584, No. 2; Schuber 1592. No. 1; Schuber 1593, No. 1; Schuber 1593, No. 4; Schuber 1592, No. 2; Schuber 1616/1617; Schuber 1615/1616; Schuber 1617/1618; and Schuber 1619.

32 These conclusions have been based largely on documents in the following sections of Ibid.: Section 14, Schuber 1578, No. 5; Schuber 1583, No. 2; Schuber 1606/1607; Schuber 1609; Schuber 1610/1611; Schuber 1613; Schuber 1617/1618; Schuber 1620; Schuber 1620, No. 2; Schuber 1626, No. 1; and Schuber 1627/1628.

33 For example, the concessions in the Pacification of Bruck of 1578 had been obtained by the estates in return for their agreement to defray most of the costs of maintaining the Slavonian Military Frontier. See Landschaftliches Archiv (Graz), Section 3, Subsection 3, Landtagshandlungen, No. 31 (1578), Fo. 29.

34 Mell, Grundriss der Verfassungs- und Verwaltungsgeschichte des Landes Steiermark, p. 575.

35 Ibid., p. 587.

36 Ibid., p. 617.

37 Ibid., p. 593.

38 Ibid.,593 and 598.

39 Ibid., p. 593.

40 Carsten, F.L., “Die Ursachen des Niedergangs der deutschen Landstände,” Historische Zeitschrift, Vol. CXCII (1961), p. 273.Google Scholar

41 Ibid., pp. 273–274.

42 Christian von Arnswaldt, “Die Lüneburger Ritterschaft als Landstand im Spätmittelalter,” Göttinger Studien zur Rechtsgeschichte, Vol. II (1969), p. 17;Google Scholar Ernst Schubert, “Die Landstände des Hochstiftes Würzburg,” Veröffentlichungen der Gesellschaft für Fränkische Geschichte, Vol. XXIII (1967), pp. 172–176.Google Scholar

43 For example, no sessions of the French estates general were held between 1615 and 1789.

44 For the situation in Normandy, see Villers, Robert, “Le Ròle financier des états de Normandie,” Travaux et Recherches de la Faculté de Droit el des Sciences Économiques de l'Université de Paris, Sciences Historiques series, Vol. VIII (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1966), p. 128.Google Scholar For the diet of Basse Auvergne, see François Dumont, “Les États particuliers du centre de la France et l'impòt,” ibid., p. 151.

45 Carsten, , “Die Ursachen des Niedergangs der deutschen Landstände,” p. 273; Adolph Gasser, “Die landständische Staatsidee und der schweizerische Bundesgedanke,” L'Organisation Corporative du Moyen Âge à la Fin de l'Ancien Régime, Vol. III (Louvain: Bibliothèque de l'Université, 1939), pp. 123–124.Google Scholar

46 For more detail concerning the resistance in Upper Austria, see Czerny, Albin, Der zweite Bauernaufstand in Oberösterreich (Linz: F.I. Ebenhöch'sche Buchhandlung, 1890);Google Scholar and Stieve, Felix, Der Bauernaufstand in Oberösterreich 1626 (2 vols., Munich: M. Riegersche Buchhandlung, 1891).Google Scholar

47 Landschaftliches Archiv (Graz), Abteilung Landschaftliche Urkunden, Group A, No. 56b, Copy B, Fos. 43, 52, and 58.

48 Loserth, “Wie Steiermark, Kärnten, und Krain wieder katholisch wurden,” pp. 233–279.

49 For a short summary of the major points of Loserth's argument, see Ibid., p. 250.

50 For more details concerning the disputes between the Styrian nobility and the towns and markets, see Mell, Grundriss der Verfassungs- und Verwaltungsgeschichte des Landes Steiermark, pp. 314–318 and 329–331.

51 Mensi, Franz von, Geschichte der direkten Steuern in Steiermark bis zum Regierungsantritte Maria Theresias, Vol. III (Graz: Verlagsbuchhandlung Styria, 1922), p. 118;Google Scholar Mell, Grundriss der Verfassungs- und Verwaltungsgeschichte des Landes Steiermark, pp. 324 and 329.

52 Fontes Rerum Austriacarum, Section 2, Vol. LVIII, Doc. No. 618, pp. 445–465;Google Scholar petition of the Styrian nobility, November 24, 1609, Statthaltereiarchiv (Graz), Meiller-Akten, Section 19, Subsection f-15.

53 For an excellent treatment of Tschernembl's activities, see Sturmberger, Hanns, Georg Erasmus Tschernembl (Graz: H. Böhlaus Nachfolger, 1953).Google Scholar

54 For examples, see Landschaftliches Archiv (Graz), Section 3, Subsection 3, Landtagshandlungen. No. 31 (1578), Fos. 32, 309, and 338; and No. 48 (1606), Fo. 293.

55 There is little reason to believe that Ferdinand would have treated the Styrian nobles differently than those of Bohemia after 1620. The lands of most of the Bohemian nobility who participated in the revolt of 1618 were confiscated after the defeat of the rebel forces in the Battle at White Mountain in 1620.