RAUSCHER
661
RAUSCHER
of five members for the settlement of the memorials
and the arrangement of all cm'rcnt affairs. As the
reporter of this committee, he acted at times as its
sole agent.
Rauscher was the father of the Austrian Concordat. On 14 Sept., 1852, a cabinet order appeared, naming him imperial plenipotentiary for the conclusion of a concordat. The negotiations were long and trouble- some; during them Rauscher was named Prince- Archbishop of Vienna, and made his solemn entry into the Cathedral of St. Stephen on 15 Aug., 1853. To promote the Concordat he found it necessary to visit Rome, where he was engaged in the most dif- ficult negotiations for seven months. He was thus able to take part in the solemnities in connexion with the Definition of the Immaculate Conception. Finally, on 18 Aug., 1855, the Concordat was signed and on 5 Nov. it was published as a law "applicable through- out the empire". For the homogeneous introduc- tion of the concordat sixty-six bishops assembled in Vienna in 1856. Rauscher was raised to the cardinalate in 1855. By 1 Jan., 1857, ecclesiastical courts, for which Rauscher composed the celebrated instructions ("Instructio pro indiciis ecclesiasticis"), were established in all the episcopal sees. Pro- vincial synods prescribed the special application of the Concordat to the individual dioceses. The de- crees of the Viennese CouncU of 1858, skilfully direct- ed by Rauscher and ratified by Rome, still serve as an important form of clerical life and ecclesiastical activity. The sciences, both religious and general, as well as the religious orders and associations and art, flourished during the concordat era. Rauscher's magnanimity is revealed by his foundation of the Austrian house for pilgrims at Jerusalem, thus giving the citizens of the Hapsburg Empire a home in the Holy Land.
Up to this period Rauscher's zeal had been con- structive; after the unfortunate Austrian wars of 1859-66, he found himself compelled to adopt the defensive, since the blame for the defeats was most unjustifiably referred to the Concordat. The arch- bishops and prince-bishops are members of the House of Peers ; thus, when the war on the Concordat opened in the Reichstag in 1861 and its revision was de- manded, Rauscher with the other episcopal members of the Upper House deliberated concerning an address to the emperor. When the House of Delegates de- manded the removal of the religious orders from the penitentiaries, hospitals, and other state institutions, he declared in the House of Peers: "Since 1859 no effort of artificial agitation has been spared to open a campaign against defenceless women, who ask of this earthly life only necessities, and serve their fellow-creatures in privations and discomforts. This unworthy agitation bears the stamp of hatred towards Christianity, but it has Ukewise in it something cowardly and ignoble, of which even one estranged from Christianity should be ashamed." In conse- quence of the events of 1866, the storm against the Concordat and the Church broke out violently, and the Press added to its power. When the drafts of the new laws concerning marriage, the schools, and the interconfessional relations, in respect to which points there were many gaps in the Concordat, came up for discussion in the House of Peers, Rauscher im- mediately arose and delivered his celebrated speech on the Concordat, urging harmony between the spiritual and secular powers. When the decrees had been sanctioned, and the new laws had been vig- orously condemned by the pope, there arose great dissatisfaction and turmoil. To demonstrate the illogical nature of this agitation Rauscher demanded: "Is it not permissible for a pope to pronounce a law unjust? Every newspaper arrogates to itself the right of stigmatizing the injustice of all laws, which do not agree with its partisan views". A little later
the pastoral of Bishop Rudigier of Linz was seized,
and the bishop himself subsequently condemned to
fourteen days' imprisonment with costs; the pas-
toral was to be suppressed. However, Rauscher im-
mediately obtained from the emperor the annulment
of the sentence and of the consequences which it
entailed with respect to civil rights and relations.
Still greatly excited, the Austrian bishops proceeded to the Vatican Council immediately after the raging fight about the Concordat. Rauscher regarded the assembly with the greatest hopes and issued two pastorals dealing with the council on 15 Nov., 1869. Pius IX appointed him to the important commission pro recipieiidis, which had to investigate all motions submitted. At the first real session of the council (the General Congregation of 28 Dec.) he delivered the first address, and twice spoke against the op- portuneness of a universal catechism; the needs and the degrees of culture of the individual peoples were too different. As to the question which finally most strongly stirred the minds of those in and outside the council, that of the infallibility of the pope teaching ex cathedra, Rauscher was the leader of the bishops who combatted the expediency of the definition. His work, " Observationes quaedam de infallibilitatis ecclesiae subjecto", appeared at Naples, and was re- printed at Vienna; the author later explained that it "was especially intended to emphasize the fact that the proposed decision would afford parties hostile to the Church those subterfuges of which they were in need". In the general debate Rauscher, who was ill, had his speech read by Bishop Hefele; it lasted over an hour, and ends characteristically: "But always shall I adore the ways of the Lord". He repeatedly took part in the special debates (8, 9, and 15 June), and at the ballot in the General Congrega- tion of 13 July he voted non placet. However, he did not sign the memorial of the fifty-five bishops of the minority to Pius IX on 17 July, believing he had done all that he should. On 17 July he took leave of the pope, and later, as Archbishop of Vienna, pro- mulgated the doctrinal decrees of the Vatican Coun- cil. None of the violations of justice and abuses of power, which resulted in the complete suppression of the Papal States on 20 September, 1870, passed without Rauscher raising a protesting voice. In May, 1874, the laws concerning the external legal position of the Catholic Church, the contributions to the religious funds, and the legal recognition of religious societies were issued (see Austro-Hun- GARiAN Mon.vbchy). With these laws the religious legislation of Austria has found a temporary con- clusion.
The term "providential personality", so often misused, may be with complete justice applied to Cardinal Rauscher; he saved the monarchy the suf- ferings of a KuUurkampf . He was a true patriot. Austria's greatness, power, and glory were the guiding stars of his political activity. Daily he prayed: "Lord, let me not die before I have fulfilled the task with which Thou hast entrusted me". This moment was now come. On the eve of the Feast of St. Catherine of Alexandria, patroness of philosoph- ical studies, he had always received the Sacrament of Penance; on the eve of this feast in 1875 he also died. His body rests in Our Lady's Choir of the Stephanskirche before the steps of the altar. At the wall beneath the Rauscher window is his monument. The statue of the cardinal, representing him with his hands crossed over the breast and clothed in episcopal vestments, portrays his principal character- istic, charity. Besides the monument are the pic- tures of his patron saints, Joseph and Othmar, while all is crowned by a representation of the Risen Redeemer.
Racbcheh, Hirtenbriefe, Predigten, Anreden (Vienna, 1858); Idem, Hirlenbriife, Reden, ZuschriJUn, new ed., I-U (Vicuna,
