Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 13.djvu/465

 SALZBURG

413

SALZBURG

During the Austrian, and the ahnost simultaneous German, interregna Salzburg shared in the general confusion, and had its anti-bishop. Archbishop Phihp, Count of Ortenburg, was more warrior than cleric and steadfastly refused to accept priestly ordi- nation. In foreign politics he favoured William of Holland, the candidate for the throne set up by the papal party; in Austria he espoused the cause of Premysl Ottaar favoured by the pope. The decree of Alexander IV that each bishop-elect must be conse- crated within half a year affected Philip immediately; as he paid no attention, Bishop Ulrich of Sockau was appointed in his place, and finally he himself was excommunicated and Salzburg placed under an interdict. The people thereupon drove Philip out and invited Ulrich to enter into possession ; as, how- ever, the latter was unable to repay the money which he had been compelled to borrow in Rome, he also was expelled. He was finally able to return to Salzburg, but merely celebrated the feast of Corpus Christi in 1265 (which Urban IV had extended to the whole Church the year before) and then resigned. Rudolph of Habsburg brought to a close the inter- regnum. Throughout the whole series of years and on all important occasions including the investiture of his sons, Albert and Rudolph, with Austria, Styria, Krain, and the Wendish March (27 December, 1280), Archbishop Frederick II of Walchon (Pinzgau) was a faithful supporter of Rudolph, and must thus be numbered among the founders of Habsburg rule in Austria. Human inclinations and alliances are sub- ject to rapid change. Rudolph's son, Duke Albert I of Austria, engaged in an almost uninterrupted feud for ten years with Archbi-shops Rudolph of Hoheneck and Conrad IV of Praitenfrut. Repeatedly the armies stood .so close to each other that "each could see the white in his opponents' eyes"; several towns were demolished (Friesach). The mischief- maker was Abbot Henry of Admont, who enjoyed Albert's confidence; no sooner had this warlike cleric met death from an arrow-wound received in the chase, than duke and archbishop found themselves on terms of peace and friendship (1297). During the succeeding period German history is dominated by the conflicts of the houses of Wittelsbach and Habsburg. The people of Salzburg remained true to the Habsburgs. During the struggle for the throne between Louis the Bavarian and Frederick III, Archbishop Frederick III of Leibnitz was declared an outlaw. During the seventy years' residence of the popes in Avignon subsequent to 1309, the archbishops had to i)roceed thither to receive the pallium. When, in 1347, the frightful plague known as the Black Death swept through Salzburg, the Jews there were accased of poisoning the wells and subjected to cruel persecution.

In imitation of the confederated towns in Germany, five towns in the territory of Salzburg formed the Igelbund (1403). They presented to the new arch- bishop, Eberhard III of Neuhaus, an election capitu- lation demanding, in an instrument which was sur- rounded with their seals as a boar (Igel) with bristles, the redress of their grievances (taxes). Already the Jews had been widely accused of stabbing con- secrated Hosts, which, it was said, were subsequently discovered emitting blood (Lower Austria and Carin- thia). As similar desecrations were declared to have taken place in Salzburg, the Jews were ban- ished in 1404 and a synodal ordinance declared a little later that they should be distinguishable by a pointed hat. During the Western Schism the atti- tude of the archbishops towards the popes varied. Archbishop Pilgrim II of Puchheim at first supported the Roman pope. Urban VI, but subsequently espoused the cause of the Avignon pontiff, Clement VII. His successor, Gregory of Osterwitz, also obtained the pallium from Boniface IX at Rome.

When Gregory XII was pope at Rome and Benedict XIII at Avignon, the cardinals of both parties, wishing to end the Schism, summoned the Council of Pisa (1409). This assembly deposed both popes and elected Alexander V supreme pontiff, but, as the earlier popes refused to abdicate, there were now three popes. Archbishop Eberhard III sup- ported the Pisan pope, John XXIII. In his affec- tionate care for the Church, King Sigismund asso- ciated himself with John in convening the General Council of Constance. Hus was already condemned when Eberhard arrived with a large retinue; how- ever, the archbishop participated in the condemnation of Jerome of Prague. In 1428 Eberhard convened a great provincial synod of his bishops, the superiors of religious orders, and deputies of the University of Vienna; at this assembly earlier ecclesiastical regulations were renewed, and new measures adopted for the revival of ecclesiastical life. In the next year a provincial synod was again held. As the heresy of Wyclif and Hus threatened to infect the province, it was decreed that no one should per- mit a heretic to preach or harbour him: on the con- trary, he should be denounced to the people. Dukes, counts etc. were to imprison all persons suspected of heresy; Jews should wear a cornered hat and their wives should carry attached to their clothing a small bell.

The Renaissance epoch was for Salzburg an era of cultural decay, caused by the incompetence of the territorial princes and the bad conditions of Austria under Emperor Frederick IV. The first Renaissance pope, Nicholas V, sent out legates to announce the jubilee indulgence, to promote a crusade against the Turks, and to inaugurate the reform of the clergy. Nicholas of Cusa on the Mosel (Cusanus), appointed legate for Germany, held a provincial synod at Salz- burg (1451) in which monasteries were directed to return to the observance of the rule within the in- terval of a year. Three visitors (Abbot Martin von den Schotten, Abbot Laurence of Mariazell, and Prior Stephen of Melk) visited the Benedictine monasteries of Austria and Bavaria, and in about fifty established uniform obedience to the rule. Under Archbishop Bernhard the political and eco- nornic depres.sion of the archdiocese was the deepest. Seeing the Turks ravaging the archiepiscopal lands in Carinthia, and the estates of his territory making ever increasing demands and imposing taxes of various kinds, Bernhard summoned a diet in 1473 — the first held in the little archiepiscopal state. He resigned his office but recalled his resignation repeatedly, until finally, five years before his death, he really abdicated. At the close of this period Leonhard of Keutschach (d. 1519) revived religious life: with astounding energy he had the burgomasters and town councillors, who were imposing unjust burdens, arrested simultaneously and confined in the castle; all Jews were banished from the land. His closing years were embittered by his suffragan Matthajus Lang, who, although not a priest, was Bi.shop of Gurk and cardinal, and aimed at the archiepiscopal see. Lang promised the cathedral chapter (monks) to effect its transformation into a chapter of secular priests, if the canons would recog- nize him as coadjutor with right of succession. The Bulls of Leo X, decreeing these changes, soon arrived. In ecclesiastical art, late Gothic ruled at Salzburg, as is gloriously demonstrated in the church on the Nonnberg and its crypts, the Margarethenkapelle in the cemetery of St. Peter, and the Franciscan church with its magnificent vault of netted work.

The primatial see, for which Mattha^us Lang had so passionately striven, was for him a martjT's chair. Not yet a priest, the new ruler entered his episco- pal city. Although unnoticed in official circles, the