Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 2.djvu/157

AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN study. While on their way, they were obliged to spend a night in the open and fell to speaking of the future. Each wished to become a bishop, and each vowed that, if ever a bishop, he would found a monastery. One, Gebhard, became Archbishop of Salzburg and founded Admont and the Diocese of Gurk; another, Adalbero, Bishop of Würzburg, founded the monastery of Lambach; while the third, St. Altmann of Passau, founded Göttweig for twelve canons under the Rule of St. Augustine. The canons at Göttweig were replaced after the lapse of ten years by Benedictines from St. Blasien in the Black Forest. All three of these bishops remained true to Gregory VII in the controversy of investitures. The Crusades began during the reign of the Margrave Leopold II, the Saint, and many of the crusading armies traversed Austria. Leopold's mother, Ida, took part in a pilgrimage of which Thieno, Archbishop of Salzburg, was the leader. The archbishop met the death of a martyr, and Ida was made a prisoner. Leopold erected a church on the Kahlenberg and founded the monasteries Klosterneuburg and Heiligenkreuz. His wife, Agnes, widow of the Hohenstaufen Duke Frederick, bore him eighteen children. Their third son, Otto, studied at Paris, entered the Cistercian monastery of Morimond, became Bishop of Freising, and wrote a chronicle, "De Duabus Civitatibus", and a second work, "Libri Duo de Gestis Friderici I". By reason of these two works he is the most noted German historian of the Middle Ages.

After a hard struggle, the saintly King Ladislaus (d. 1095) succeeded in regulating the ecclesiastical and civil affairs of Hungary. He founded the Bishopric of Grosswardein, and summoned the dignitaries of the Church and the State to a diet at Szabolcs. This diet is often called a synod, on account of the many decisions arrived at in church matters. The priests were ordered to observe celibacy strictly, the laity were commanded to keep Sunday and feastdays and to abstain from immorality. Ladislaus conquered Croatia, whose duke, Zwonimir, had received from a legate of Gregory VII at Salona (1076) a banner, sword, crown, and sceptre, with the title of king, in return for which he had sworn fealty to the pope.

Henry II, Jasomirgott, was the first Duke of Austria. He built a residence for himself at Vienna (Am Hof), in which was the Pancraz chapel, and founded the Schottenkloster for Benedictine monks from St. Jacob's at Regensburg. Octavian Wolzner, an architect from Cracow, erected for the new duke the church of St. Stephen, to which the parish of St. Peter was added. Leopold V, the Virtuous, son of Henry II, took part in the Third Crusade and fought so bravely that, as we are told, his armour was stained blood red, and only the part under the sword belt remained white. However, Richard the Lionhearted tore down the Austrian banner at the storming of Ascalon and the enraged duke went home at once. While on his way to England, Richard was seized at Erdberg, and held a prisoner by the duke at Dürrenstein. Crusaders being under the protection of the pope, Celestine III put Leopold V under the ban. To this the duke paid no attention; but when he fell with his horse, at Graz, broke a leg, and found himself near death, his conscience smote him; he sent for Albert III, Archbishop of Salzburg, who was in the neighbourhood, and received absolution from him. Frederick I, the eldest son of Leopold V, ruled only six years and died while on a crusade. The reign of his brother, Leopold VI, the Glorious, was a brilliant one. He too went on a crusade and endeavoured first to capture Damietta, the key to Jerusalem, but was obliged to return home without having accomplished anything. He married a Byzantine princess and formed relations with men of Greek learning and culture. The duke built a new castle for himself (Schweizerhof) and the church of St. Michael. The church was intended for the benefit of the duke's attendants, retainers, servants, and the townspeople who settled around the castle. The scheme to form a bishopric at Vienna was not carried out, but Eberhard II of Salzburg founded bishoprics at Seckau and Lavant, for Styria and Carinthia. Leopold's son and successor, Frederick II, the last of the Babenberg line, was knighted with much religious pomp at the feast of the Purification of the Virgin, 1232, in the castle church. Bishop Gebhard of Passau celebrated Mass and gave the consecrated sword to the duke, two hundred young nobles receiving knighthood at the same time. After the ceremony the young duke rode at the head of the newly made knights to Penzing, where jousts were held.

Within a short space of time the national dynasties of the countries under discussion died out in the male lines: the Babenberg Dynasty (Austria) in 1246, the Arpadian (Hungary) in 1301, and the Premyslian (Bohemia) in 1306. In 1282 the German Emperor, Rudolph of Hapsburg, gave Austria in fief to his son Albrecht. To Austria and Styria the dukes of the Hapsburg line soon added Carinthia, Carniola, the Tyrol, and the Mark of the Wends. The rulers of this line are deserving of great praise for their aid in developing church life in these territories. Albrecht I founded the court (Hofburg) chapel in his castle; Duke Rudolph IV in 1359 laid the corner-stone of the Gothic reconstruction of the church of St. Stephen. A hundred and fifty years elapsed before the great tower of the church was completed. With the consent of the pope the same duke founded the University of Vienna in 1365. The university was modelled on the one at Paris and possessed great privileges (freedom from taxation, right of administering justice). When part of the Council of Basle separated from Eugenius IV and set up Felix V as antipope, the theological faculty of the university, of which at that time the celebrated Thomas Ebendorffer of Haselbach was a member, sided with the antipope. But the papal legate, John Carvajal, and Æneas Sylvius Piccolomini, the emperor's governmental secretary, prevailed upon Frederick III to espouse the cause of Eugenius and to sign the Concordat of Vienna (1448). The concordat provided that the annates and the confirmation dues should be restored to the pope, that the pope should have the right to appoint to the canonries in the uneven months, and that the filling of ecclesiastical vacancies at Rome should be reserved to him. The concordat was gradually accepted by all of the German rulers, and up to the present time the relations between the German Church and the papacy are regulated by its provisions. In 1452 Frederick was crowned emperor at Rome, being the last emperor to be crowned in that city. In his reign the Bishoprics of Laibach (1462), Vienna, and Wiener-Neustadt (both the latter in 1469) were founded. During this period a great many monastic houses were founded in Austria, especially by the more recently established orders: Carthusian houses were founded at Mauerbach, Gaming, Agsbach; Franciscan at Vienna, Klosterneuburg, St. Pölten, Maria Enzersdorf, Pupping; Dominican at Graz and Retz.

Under the Luxembourg line Bohemia attained a high degree of material and spiritual prosperity. Charles IV, before his reign began, succeeded in having Prague raised to an archbishopric (1344), and in this way made the country ecclesiastically independent of Germany. Charles had been a student at Paris, and immediately upon ascending the throne he founded the University of Prague (1348), the first university on German soil. Master Matthias of Anras and Peter Parler from Schwäbisch-Gmund began the erection of the stately Cathedral of St.