Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 11.djvu/573

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PASSAU


519


PASSAU


Augustine, with copious notes (Naples, 1847); "De prEerogativis b. Petri" (Rome, 1850); "Conferences" given at the Gesu and published in "Civilt^ Catto- lioa" (1851); " Commentariorum theologicorum partes 3" (1 vol., Rome, 1850-51); "De eoclesia Christi" (3 vols., Ratisbon, 1853 — incomplete); "De setemi- tate poenarum" (Ratisbon, 1854).

The trouble between Passaglia and his superiors grew steadily more serious ; he finally left the Society in 1859. Pius IX gave him a chair at the Sapienza. Then he came in contact with the physician Panta- leoni, Cavour's agent; Cavour summoned him to Turin for a personal interview (February, 1861). Afterwards, at Rome, he held several conferences with Cardinal Santucci, and, persuaded that the ground was ready, he wrote "Pro causa italica" (1861), which was placed on the Index. Passaglia fled to Turin, where he held the chair of moral philosophy until his death. Ignorant of the world and men, he be- lieved that the opponents of temporal power were guided by the best of intentions. He founded the weekly, " II Medicatore" (1862-66), in which he wrote long articles full of undigested erudition, and to which he welcomed the contribution of any priest with a grievance. From 1863 to 1864 he edited the daily, "La Pace", and in 1867 "II Gcrdir', a weekly theo- logical review. He could not say Mass at Turin, and put off the clerical dress. But as regards dogma, he never swerved from the true Faith; nevertheless he criticized the Syllabus. We have still to mention his book, "Sul divorzio" (1861), and his refutation of Renan (1864). In 1867 the Bishops of Mondovi and Clifton tried to reconcile him with the Church, but he did not retract imtil a few months before his death.

BiGlNELLi, Biografia del sacerdnte C. Passaglia (Turin, 1887); d'Ercole, C. Passaglia in Anrtu/uio delV Universitd di Torino (1887-88).

U. Benigni.

Passau, Diocese of (Passaviensis), in Bavaria, suffragan of Munich-Freising, including within its boundaries one district and one parish in Upper Bavaria and the City of Passau and 10 districts in Lower Bavaria (see Germany, Map).

History. — The Diocese of Passau may be con- sidered the successor of the ancient Diocese of Lorch {Laureacum). At Lorch, a Roman station and an im- portant stronghold at the junction of the Enns and the Danube, Christianity found a foothold in the third century, during a period of Roman domination, and a Bishop of Lorch certainly existed in the fourth. Dur- ing the great migrations, Christianity on the Danube was completely rooted out, and the Celtic and Roman population was annihilated or enslaved. In the region between the Lech and the Enns, the wandering Baju- vari were converted to Christianity in the seventh century, while the Avari, to the east, remained pagan. The ecclesiastical organization of Bavaria was brought about by St. Boniface, who, with the support of Duke Odilo, erected the four sees of Freising, Ratisbon, Passau, and Salzburg. He confirmed as incumbent of Passau, Bishop Vivilo, or Vivolus, who had been or- dained by Pope Gregory III, and who was for a long time the only bishop in "Bavaria. Thenceforth, Vivilo resided permanently at Passau, on the site of the old Roman colony of Batavis. Here was a church, the founder of which is not known, dedicated to St. Stephen. To Bishop Vivilo's diocese was annexed the ancient Lorch, which meanwhile had become a small and unimportant place. By the duke's generosity, a cathedral was soon erected near the Church of St. Stephen, and here the bishop lived in common with his clergy. The boundaries of the diocese extended westwards to the Isar, and eastwards to the Enns. In ecclesiastical affairs Passau was probably, from the beginning, suffragan to Salzburg. Through the favour of Dukes Odilo and Tassilo, the bishopric received many costly gifts, and several monasteries arose — e. g.


Niederalteich, Niebernburg, Mattsee, Kremsmiinster — which were richly endowed. Under Bishop Walt- reich (774-804), after the conquest of the Avari, who had assisted the rebellious Duke Tassilo, the district between the Enns and the Raab was added to the diocese, which thus included the whole eastern part (Ostmark) of Southern Bavaria and part of what is now Hungary. The first missionaries to the pagan Hungarians went out from Passau, and in 866 the Church sent missionaries to Bulgaria.

Passau, the outermost eastern bulwark of the Ger- mans, suffered most from the incursions of the Hun- garians. At that time many churches and monasteries were destroyed. When, after the victory of Lech, the Germans pressed forward and regained the old Ost- mark, Bishop Adalbert (946-971) hoped to extend his spiritual jurisdiction over Hungary. His successor Piligrim (971-91), who worked zealously and success- fully for the Christianization of Pannonia, aspired to free Passau from the metropolitan authority of Salz- burg, but was completely frustrated in this, as well as in his attempt to assert the metropolitan claims which Passau was supposed to have inherited from Lorch, and to include all Hungary in his diocese. By found- ing many monasteries in his diocese he prepared the way for the princely power of later bishops. It is im- doubtedly to his credit that he built many new churches and restored others from ruins. His suc- cessor, Christian (991-1002) received in 999 from Otto III the market privilege and the rights of coin- age, taxation, and higher and lower jurisdiction. Henry II granted him a large part of the North Forest. Henceforward, indeed, the bishops ruled as princes of the empire, although the title was used for the first time only in a document in 1193. Under Berengar (1013-45) the whole district east of the Viennese forest as far as Letha and March was placed under the jurisdiction of Passau. During his time the cathedral chapter made its appearance, but there is little information concerning its beginning as a dis- tinct corporation with the right of electing a bishop. This right was much hampered by the exercise of imperial influence.

At the beginning of the Conflict of Investures, St. Altmann (q. v.) occupied the see (1065-91) and was one of the few German bishops who adhered to Greg- ory VII. Ulrich I, Count of Hofft (1092-1121), who was for a time driven from his see by Henry IV, fur- thered the monastic reforms and the Crusades. Re- ginmar (1121-38), Reginbert,Count of Hegenau (1136- 47) who took part in the crusade of Conrad III, and Conrad of Austria (1 149-64), a brother of Bishop Otto of Freising, were all much interested in the foundation of new monasteries and the reform for those already existing. Ulrich, Count of Andechs (1215-21), was formally recognized as a prince of the empire at the Reichstag of Nuremberg in 1217. The reforms which were begun by Gebhard von Plaien (1221-32) and Riidiger von Rodeck (1233-12.50) found a zealous pro- moter in Otto von Lonsdorf (12.54-65), one of the greatest bishops of Passau. He took stringent meas- ures against the relaxed monasteries, introduced the Franciscans and Dominicans into his diocese, pro- moted the arts and sciences, and collected the old documents which had survived the storms of the pre- ceding period, so that to him we owe almost all our knowledge of the early history of Passau. (See Schmidt, "Otto von Lonsdorf, Bischof zu Passau", Wiirzburg, 1903.) Bi.shop Peter, formerly Canon of Breslau, contributed much to the greatness of the House of Habsburg by bestowing episcopal fiefs on the sons of King Rudolph. Under Bernhard of Brambach (1285-1313) began the struggles of Passau to become a free imperial city. After an uprising in May, 1298, the bishop granted the burghers, in the municipal ordinance of 1299, privileges in conformity with what was called the Bernhardine Charter. The cathedral