GREAT
734
GREAT
payment of duties and taxes. He obtained from
Pope Clement VIII a confirmation of the Miihlstatt
grant, with which the college of Graz had been given
diocesan rights over the whole of that principality.
He founded a burse for poor students, which was
called the Ferdinandeum. Another and similar
foundation was the Jnxcphinum, which was raised by
private subscriptions ( 1743-49). It was not long be-
fore the cathedral chapter of Salzburg claimed for
itself diocesan powers in the district of Miihlstatt; but
a settlement was reached at a trial held in 1659,
whereby on the one hand the ordinariate powers and
independent jurisdiction of the college of Graz were
recognized, while on the other certain concesssions
were made to the Diocese of Salzburg. Legal pro-
ceedings with the Kiirnten authorities regarding the
exemption of the Muhlstatt district from property
taxes, which proceedings lasted more than one hundred
years, resulted in a defeat for the Jesuit Order in 1755.
This institution of Graz w-as the Jesuits' centre of
activity in their labours for the reclaiming of Steier-
mark to Catholicity. Here was prepared all the mate-
rial necessary for such a mission, here Catholic influence
found a new source of strength in the founding of
academic sodalities of Mary and other societies of like
import. Its school festivals were celebrated with
dramas of a spiritual as well as profane character and
with farces and comedies in Latin and German, which
were produced in the college theatre. The chief aim
of the.se plays was to awaken sentiments of faith and
patriotism, and they formed a notable addition to the
dramatic literature of the day.
As early as the year 1604, Georg Stobaus von Palm- burg, Bishop of Lavant, advocated the further Ijroad- ening of the University of Graz by the addition to its staff of a faculty of jurisprudence. But though negotiations were undertaken to this end between the institution and the Government, the former's insist- ence that its autonomy should remain unimpaired caused these negotiations to be suspended until the dissolution of the Jesuit Order. After the establish- ment, in Graz, of private courses in jurisprudence out- side of the university, and the execution of a reform in theological and philosophical studies by the appoint- ment of State Directors of Studies and the altermg of examination methods, the imiversity was placed in 1760 under the supervision of a State Commission of Studies designated for this purpose, and therefore lost almost entirely its monastic character of the Josephine period. The year 177.3 proved to be, owing to the suppression of the Jesuits, the last school year of the Jesuit college at Graz. The university became a State institution, its material possessions were seized upon for the public treasury, and its course of instruc- tion was remodelled to conform with that laid down by the newly-established imperial Commission of Studies tor the University of Vienna. The winter of 1778 saw the inauguration of a faculty of jurisprudence which consisted of two professors, while higher in- struction in medicine was likewise introduced, which received gradual development. At the end of 1782 Joseph II issued a decree converting the university into a lyceum with four faculties and the right to award degrees in theology and philosophy. The number of instructors was restricted to twelve. But the Lycevun of Graz recovered in the summer of 1827 its former rank and name as a university, through a grant of the Emperor Francis. Its faculty of philoso- phy grew steadily, and a duly organized faculty of medicine was added by an imperial decree of January, 186.'1. The Alma Mater Gr<rcensis has since then occupied the third place among the institutions of learning in German-speaking Austria,. The technical liigh school which had been founded in 1814 was taken over by the State in 1874.
Kkonbs, Oeachichte tier Karl-Frajizens-Universitiit in Graz
C^^^^)- Kakl Hoebek.
Great Council. See Sanhedrin.
Great Falls, Diocese of (Greatgrmensis), cre- ated by Pope Pius X, 18 May, 1904, comprises the following coimties in the State of Montana: Carbon, Cascade, C'houteau, Custer, Dawson, tergus, Park, Ro.sebud, Sweet Grass, Valley, and Yellowstone. It is in the eastern part of the State of Montana, U. S. A.; total area is 94,158 square miles.
The titular city. Great Falls, is most appropriately named, as the Missouri River at this point falls 53.3 feet in a series of cascades, giving an equivalent of 340,000 h. p., and thus ranking next to Niagara, both in scenic beauty and mechanical value. This cheap power is utilized by large manufacturing plants — flour mills, plaster mills, iron works, smelting and reduction works, etc. The annual output of one smelter alone is over 100,000,- 000 pounds of copper, with large quantities of gold, silver, and lead as by-products. ( )ver 5,000,000 acres of rich farmland are tributary to the city; 1,000,000 acres being irri- gated by the U.S. Reclamation Ser- vice and private enterprises. The region adjacent to the city is also rich in minerals — cop- per, sapphires, gold, silver, lead, iron, gypsum, limestone, and bituminous coal (the output of this last for 1907 being 1,240,000 tons). Besides its impor- tance as a manu- facturing centre, Great Falls ranks next to Butte as the most populous city in Montana, and is generally re- garded as pre-eminently the home city of the Rocky Mountain region.
In the year 1850 Father De Smet, S.J., and his com- panions were the first missionaries to celebrate the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass in the territory now cov- ered by the Diocese of (!reat Falls. This notable event took place at Fort Benton, the head of naviga- tion of the Missouri River, 2600 miles from its mouth, at its junction with the Mississippi. The Jesuit Fa^ thers established missions to the Indians in Montana as early as 1841, and most of these missions are still in a flourishing condition. At St . Peter's Mission, which is now the mother-house of the I'rsuline Order of Mon- tana, 2732 baptisms of Indians were recorded in the Baptismal Register from 1855 to 1879. The early missionaries made many converts among the different tribe.i of Indians, and established among the white settlers a healthy Catholic influence the effects of which are still noticeable. The non-Catholics are re- spectful, and most generous in contributing towards the erection of churches and charitable institutions. The Catholics are well represented in different sec- tions, in the social, commercial, and professional life of the community. The Very Rev. Mathias Clement Lenihan, vicar forane and missionary rector, of Mar- shalltown, Iowa, was appointed first Bishop of Great Falls, 20 May, and coiisfcratcd 21 September, 1904, at St. Kapliaef's Catlicdral, Duhuquo, Iowa. He was born 6 October, I8.')4, at 1)u1>ui|up, Iowa, U. S. A., was educated at St. Joseph's College, Dubuque, where he
St. Ann's Cathedral, Great Falls,
Montana
