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 THURIBLE

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THURINGIA

Shortly afterwards he entered political life and be- came a member of the Bohemian Diet. He also in- terested himself in the revival of the Czech language and literature, and in 1S42 pubhshed a treatise en- titled: "Ueber den gegenwartigen Stand der bohmi- schen Literatur und ihre Bedeutung ". In 1S46 a revolt broke out in Galicia, and Thun was appointed a mem- ber of the administrative board under Francis Sta- dion. He took up his residence at Lemberg with his wife, Countess Caroline Clam-Martinitz, whom he had recently married. At the outbreak of the revolution in the spring of 1S4S, Thun wa.s appointed president of the administrative board and became the actual ruler of Bohemia, for the .\rchduke Francis Joseph, who had been selected as viceroy, was unable to as- sume the position. During the outbreak at Prague Thun was captured by the insurgents and impris- oned; they were willing to release him if he would give certain assurances, which he refused to do. When finally set free he supported the commander of the troops in Prague in quelling the revolt by force of arms.

Thun rose rapidly, and in July, 1849, was ap- pointed by the emperor minister of worship and edu- cation, the two offices being united for the first time in the person of Thun. He immediately set about reforming the methods of instruction to meet the de- mands of the times. He improved the primary schools and practically reorganized the administra- tion and courses of study of the gymnasia and the universities. He took a special interest in industrial education and was the first to place trade and tech- nical schools on a firm basis. He also did much to encourage art, especially by making an art university of the Academy of Fine Arts, and by giving employ- ment to artists. Thun's work as minister of worship deserves equal attention. In his memorials to the emperor of 7 and 13 April, 18.50, on the religious con- dition, he made his first attempt to loosen the fetters in which Josephinism had bound the Church. In his first paper he demanded the annulment of the Pla- citum regium, in the second he insisted that no teacher of religion or professor of theology should be appointed without the consent of the bishop. In September, 1852, the emperor appointed Archbishop Rauscher as his plenipotentiary for drawing up a concordat, and Pius IX appointed the mmcio Viale Prela as his representative. The agreement between the two was laid before the committee of ecclesiastical affairs composed of five members, among which the predominating influence was naturally that of the minister of worship and education. Thun said him- self that his share in the drawing up of this agreement was one of the "proudest and happiest recollections" of his life.

Thun acted both in his capacity as minister of edu- cation and minister of worship entirely in accordance with a rigid sense of duty, but he kept the two de- partments during his administration entirely distinct, so that Rauscher, who was associated a great deal with Thun, said of him: "Thun has a Cathohc heart anda Protestant head." Grillparzer, who was less in agreement with Thun's poUcy, said: "I haveasuicide to announce. The minister of worship has killed the minister of education." Austria now entered on a new era; it became a constitutional monarchy on 20 October, 1860, and Thun's office was abolished. The next year, however, the emperor apjjointed him a life member of the Upper House of the Imperial Parlia- ment and he was a member of the Bohemian Diet for several terms. In both bodies he was always the pillar of the conservative Catholic party, was the leader of the Federalist party in Bohemia, and upheld the claims of Bohemia for a full autonomy. He founded the "Vaterland", the organ of the Federalist party, and a powerful influence in the politics of the day.

Frankfttrter in Atlgemeine deulsche Biographie, XXXVIII (Leipzig, 1894), 178-212; Helfeht, Graf Leo Thun (1S91).

COLESTIN WOLFSGRUBER.

Thurible. See Censer.

Thuringia. — The name Thuringia is given to a large part of Central Germany, bounded on the west by the Werra River, on the east liy the Saale, on the north by the Harz Mountains, and on the south by the Thuringian Forest. The extent of territory is not exactly defined. Besides the Thuringian states, which include the Grand Duchy of Saxe-Weimar- Eisenach, the Duchies of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Saxe-Altenburg, and Saxe-Meiningen, Thuringia comprises some parts of Prussian territory, as the cities of Erfurt, Sipr.soburg, Naumburg, etc.; the two principalities of Schwarzburg and the two princi- palities of Reuss extend beyond the natural limits of Thuringia, especially in the south and east. The early inhabitants of Thuringia were a German tribe called Hermunduri; about .\. D. 420 they became known as Thuringians. The powerful kingdom of the Thuringians. which at the beginning of the sixth century extended to the Danube, was overthrown in 531 by the Franks. Christianity had been introduced in various places through the intermarriage of the royal families of the Thuringians and the Visigoths. The Gospel was preached in Southern Thuringia by the Apostles of the Franks, Kilian and his two com- panions Coloman and Totnan, and in Northern Thur- ingia by Willibrord, the Apostle of the Frisians; but these missionaries had little success. The real Apos- tle of Thuringia is St. Boniface. From the monas- teries of Fulda and Hersfeld in Hesse, Christianity spread throughout this region. In 742 St. Boniface established Erfurt as the See of Thuringia, making it an important centre of civiUzation. After the death of the first Bishop of Erfurt, St. Adelar, the diocese was suppressed and Thuringia was united with the Archdiocese of Mainz. The episcopal assistants of the Archbishop of Mainz, who since the fourteenth century had been auxihary bishops, resided at Erfurt and in the course of time became almost entirely independent of Mainz. The extreme southern part of Thuringia always belonged to the Diocese of Wtirz- burg, the extreme northern to the Diocese of Halber- stadt, and the central or main part to Erfurt-Mainz; in the tenth century Eastern Thuringia was divided between the newly-found Dioceses of Merseburg and Zeitz-Naumburg.

The first monastery established by St. Boniface in Thuringia proper was Ohrdruf, now a city of the Duchy of Saxe-Gotha. Contrary to canon law, no church tithes were paid by the inhabitants of Thurin- gia up to the time of the Reformation, and they obstinately maintained this right, that had become theirs by custom, against the Archbishop of Mainz. The tribal characteristics of the Thuringians gradu- ally disappciired. The southern Thuringians were absorbed by the Franks, the northern Thuringians adopted the character and racial peculiarities of the Saxons, whose territory closely adjoined theirs. In 804 Charlemagne established tiie Thuringian mark as a defence against the advance of the Slavs. In the tenth century the country was seized by the Duke of Saxony, and during the reign of Emperor Otto I it came under the suzerainty of the Margraves of Meis- sen. The Saxon dynasty founded the monasteries of Nordhausen, Memleben, and Wahlbeck. In the eleventh century a family of counts from Franconia arose to great importance in Thuringia. The ances- tor of this family was Louis the Be.arded (d. 1056). His son Louis the Springer built the Castle of Wart- burg near Eisenach. In 1089 he founded the Bene- dictine Abbey of Reinhardsbrunn near Friedriehroda, which wjis the burial place of the Thuringian land- graves until 1440. This monastery, which has