whose policy and legislation embodied these ideas. Maria Theresa forbade the sale of the book written by Febronius, but soon its sale to the learned and discreet was permitted. Urged by her council, Maria Theresa issued the "Placitum regium", made a stole-tax ordinance and obtained from Benedict XIV a reduction of the feast days. By this last regulation all the Apostles are commemorated on the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, and all the martyrs in the Mass and Breviary on the feast of St. Stephen. The empress also abolished the convent prisons, and ordered that passages in the Breviary lessons for the feast of St. Gregory VII which are opposed to the increase of the secular power should be covered over with paper. She also put a stop to public excommunications and public penances. The last public penance (1769) was that of a merchant at Pyrawart in Lower Austria who had struck an ecclesiastic. He stood for an hour at the church door holding a black candle. When Clement XIV suppressed the Society of Jesus, the Archbishop of Vienna, Cardinal Migazzi, sought to save that order in Austria. "If the members of the order should be scattered, it would not be easy to fill their places; it would cost much expense and time to bring conditions back to the point at which these priests had left their work if they were forced to abandon it." Just twenty years later Migazzi begged the Emperor Francis II to reestablish the order. "I can prove to Your Majesty", he said, "that even the late French ambassador, who was certainly an unprejudiced witness, did not hesitate to say that but for the suppression of the Jesuits France would never have suffered from the Revolution, which brought such terrible results in its train. Three months before the death of Your Majesty's grandmother I heard her say, 'Oh, if I had only followed your advice and had availed myself of your statements!'" After the suppression of the Jesuits their property was converted into a fund for the aid of students, and the whole system of education was remodelled from top to bottom. Rautenstrauch, Abbot of Braunau, drew up a new scheme for a theological course, in which there should be "no squabbles of schools and scholastic chaos". Father Gratian Marx, of the Congregation of the Pious Schools, planned a Realgymnasium (high school without Greek) with six classes, which proved very successful. The common schools, which Maria Theresa had called a political necessity, were reorganized by Abbot John Ignaz Felbiger of Sagen in Prussian Silesia, each parish being given a primary school, each district a high school, and the capital of each province a normal school with which an institute for training teachers was connected. Felbiger wrote the necessary school books. The school at Kaplitz in southern Bohemia, under the supervision of the parish priest, Ferdinand Kindermann, was noted as a model school.
In ten years Joseph II published 6,200 laws, court regulations, and ordinances. Even those measures which were good and appropriate in themselves generally bore the evidences of precipitancy. His very first ordinances were directed against the government of the Catholic Church and aroused discontent by their interference with the affairs of the Church. The acceptance of papal decrees without the sanction of the Government was forbidden. The bishops were forbidden to apply for, or make use of, the quinquennial faculties of the Holy See, on the ground that they had full authority to act for themselves. On the other hand, they were not allowed to issue pastoral letters or instructions without the sanction of the Government. The Government soon began to close those monasteries which were not occupied with the spiritual care of a community, teaching, or nursing, and all the brotherhoods were suspended. About 738 religious houses were closed; 13 in Vienna alone; 51 in Lower Austria. The property of these conventual institutions was turned into a fund for church expenses, which was to be administered by the several provinces. In Lower Auistria alone 231 new parishes were formed. Much discontent was caused by the appointment of an "ecclesiastical court commission" which issued a number of arbitrary regulations concerning public worship; only one Mass was to be celebrated in a church, and that at the high altar; in parish churches, during the seasons of fasting, only two fast-day sermons, on Wednesday and Friday, must be preached; afternoon devotions, the Litany of Loretto, and the Rosary were forbidden; a requiem might be celebrated in a parish church upon the occasion of a death, but not upon the anniversary; it was forbidden to expose the Blessed Sacrament in a monstrance, the ciborium must be used instead; only when the Host was displayed could more than six candles be placed on the altar. A special regulation forbade the dressing of statues of the Virgin and ordered that the bodies of the dead should be buried in sacks and covered with quicklime. Further ordinances forbade the illumination and ornamentation of sacred pictures, the exhibition of relics, and pilgrimages. The Edict of Toleration (1781) granted the private exercise of their religion to Lutherans and Calvinists. The marriage law of 1783 runs: "Marriage in itself is regarded as a purely civil contract. Both this contract and the privileges and obligations arising from it are entirely dependent for their character and force on the secular laws of the land." In 1783, also, all schools, episcopal and monastic, for the training of the clergy were abolished, and general seminaries were founded at Vienna, Budapest, Pavia, and Louvain, with branches at Graz, Olmütz, Prague, Innsbruck, Freiburg, and Pressburg. This measure was intended to check the influence of the bishops in the training of ecclesiastics, and to obtain devoted servants of the State. The Minister of State, Van Swieten, took care that the new schools were supplied with suitable teachers and superintendents.
The first lodge of Freemasons, "Zu den drei Kanonen", was formed at Vienna in 1742; a lodge called "Zu den gekrönten Sternen und zur Redlichkeit" was formed soon after at Prague. Joseph II, however, had no alliance with Freemasons. "I know little about their secrets", he said, "as I never had the curiosity to take part in their mummeries". Still, his words, "The Freemason societies increase and are now to be found in the smallest cities", show the rapid growth of the order. Although many of the representatives of the Church failed to meet the new tendencies with force and courage, the Prince-Archbishop of Vienna, Cardinal Migazzi, attacked them boldly. He wrote vigorously and defended the Church with energy. He was well supported by the Primate of Hungary, Count Joseph Batthyányi, and in the lower provinces by the Cardinal Count von Frankenberg. But their efforts were in vain; the movement continued to grow. In this condition of affairs Pius VI felt it necessary to take some action, and he resolved to visit Vienna. This visit (1782) was very oportune for the emperor and the leaders of the new tendency in the empire. Hybel issued the libellous pamphlet, "Was ist der Papst?" The value of the pamphlet literature of the Josephinist movement is not in proportion to its amount. The roads traversed by the papal cortège were lined with the faithful who were eager to obtain the blessing of the Holy Father. The emperor met the pope at Wiener-Neustadt, and on the 22d of March the two heads of the Christian world entered the imperial city. The emperor showed the pope every attention, but his chancellor of state, Prince Kaunitz, was less considerate. At Easter the pope celebrated High Mass in the church of St. Stephen
