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 KREMSMtJNSTER

701

KREMSMTJNSTER

education at Munster and Amiens, he liegan iiis piiilo- sophical and theological studies at Maria Laaeh in 1868, but was compelled to interrupt them the follow- ing year on account of ill-health. From 1S69 to 1871 he pursued literary studies at Munster. When the Jesuits were expelled from Germany, in 1872, Kreiten was sent to Aix in Provence, where he completed his theological studies and was ordained priest on 8 June, 1873. From 1876 to 1878 he was on the editorial staff of "Stimmen aus Maria Laach" at Tervueren near Brussels. In 1878 ill-health compelled him to retire to Kerkrade, where he spent the remaining twenty- tliree years of his life in literary pursuits. Though continiially suffering, he was one of the chief workers on "Stimmen aus Maria Laach", to which he contrib- uted numerous essays on literary subjects and most of the reviews of current Catholic literature from 187-1 to 1902. His larger works in the field of literary history and criticism are "Voltaire, Ein Beitrag zur Entstehungsgeschichte des Liberalismus" (Freiburg im Br., 1S78; 2nd ed.. 1884); " Molieres Leben und Werke" (Freiburg im Br., 1887; 2nd ed., 1897); "Le- brecht Dreves. Ein Lebensl)ild" (Freiburg im Br., 1897); a critical edition of the poems of Annette von Droste-Hiilshoff with an exhaustive biography of the great Westphalian poetess (Munster, 1884-6; 2nd ed., 1900 — ) ; a series of twenty-one articles in " Stimmen aus Maria Laach " on Blaise Pascal and his works. His poetical works are " Heimatweisen aus der Fremde " (Aachen, 1882), the second edition of which has many additional poems and is entitled " Den Weg entlang" (Paderborn, 1889; 10th ed., 1904); translations of selections from the modern Proven9al Christmas hymns of Louis Simon Lambert, entitled "Bethle- hem " (Freiburg im Br., 1882; 2nd ed., 1895). Further- more, Kreiten completed and published a biography of Klemens Brentano which had been begun by the friend of his youth, J. B. Diel, S.J., 2 vols. (Freiburg im Br., 1877); edited the other posthumous works of Diel, 2 vols. (Freiburg im Br., 1882), and Brentano's " Die Chronik des fahrenden Schiilers " (Munich, 1883; 2nd ed., 1888). His last work was a collection of eight hundred aphorisms entitled " Allerlei Weisheit " (Paderborn, 1901).

Stimmm aus Maria Laach. LXIII (Freiburg, im Br., 1902), 1-11; Deutscher HausschaU. XXVIII (Ratisbon, 1901-2), sup- plement, 113; GuLDNER in The Messenger, XXXVIII (New York, 1902). 471-3.

Michael Ott.

Kremsmiinster, Benedictine abbey in Austria, on the little river Krems, about twenty miles south of Linz; founded a. d. 777 by Tassilo II Duke of Bavaria, who richly endowed it, as did subsequently Charle- magne and liis successors. The first colony of monks came from Lower Bavaria, and Fatericus was the first abbot. The position and reputation of the monastery soon iaecame such that its abbots, in the absence of the bishop of the diocese (Passau), exercised the episcopal jurisdiction. In the tenth century the abbey was destroyed in an incursion of the Hungarians, and its possessions divided among the Duke of Bavaria and other nobles and the bishops; but it was restored, and recovered its property, under the Emperor Henry II, when the holy and zealous Gothard became abbot. In the following century KremsmOnster shared the gen- eral decadence of religious houses, and fell into decay, which was fortunately arrested by the action of the excellent Bishop .\ltmann of Passau. who brought a community from Gottesau, and introduced the re- formed observance of Cluny into the abbey. After this it became known as one of the most flourishing houses in Germany, "excelling all other abbeys", says an anonymous chronicler, "in observance and piety, also in respect to its lands, buildings, books, paintings, and other possessions, and in the number of its members prominent in learning and in art". The monastic library was famous, and drew eminent

scholars to study at Kremsmunster, where several important historical works were written, including liistories of the bishops of Passau and of the dukes of Bavaria, and the clu-onicles of the abbey itself. Schrodl (Kirchenlex., VII, 1053) gives a list of writers connected with Kremsmunster from the eleventh to the sixteenth centuries, and of their literary labours. One of the most distinguished abbots was Ulrich Schoppenzaun (1 454-1484), and it was owing to his attainments and zeal, and those of his disciple and successor Johann Schreiner (1.505-1524), that at the critical time when the Reformation errors were begin- ning to spread in Germany, Kremsmiinster held firmly to the okl faith and doctrines.

From the Reformation period onwards nearly every abl>ot who ruletl the monastery proved himself pious and learned, zealous and patriotic, ready to make all needful sacrifices for his country and his emperor. Abbot Lechner, towards the middle of the sixteenth century, constituted the hitherto private monastic school "into a public school, and did much to preserve Catholicism in the district, where the Protestant doc- trines had Ijecome widely prevalent. Abbot Weiner (1558-1565) unfortunately favoured the new teach- ing, thus introducing into the abbey dissension which nearly developed into disruption. This was, however, prevented by the zeal of succeeding abbots; and Abbot Wolfradt especially (1613-1639) brought the monas- tery into so highly flourishing a condition that he was known as its third founder; while its reputation as a house of studies and learning was even increased under his successor. Placid Buchauer (1644-1669). Among the abbots of the eighteenth century the most prominent and distinguished was Alexander FLxl- millner (1731-1759), who built the great observatory, constructed many roads on the monastic estate, and was a man of most edifying life and unbounded eliarity to the poor. Towards the end of this century the drastic and innovating policy of the Emperor Joseph II, especially with regard to the religious houses of his dominions, brought Kremsmiinster, like other great foundations, to the verge of suppression ; but it happily escaped this fate. The house suffered much during the long Napoleonic wars, and was slow in re- covering its position. It was not until the abbacy of Thomas Mitterndorfer (1840-1860) that, with its ma- terial position reinforced, and learning and discipline again flourishing within its walls, it regained all its former prestige. One of the most illustrious abbots in recent times was Dom Celestine Ganglbauer, who cele- brated in 1877 the eleven-hundredth anniversary of the foundation, became Archliishop of Vienna in 1881, and was raised to the cardinalate in 1884 (d. 1SS9). The present abbot is Dom Leander Czerny, who suc- ceeded Alibot Achleutner in 1905.

The community of Kremsmiinster Abbey numbers about a hundred members. The abbey has the cure of souls of twenty-six parishes (population over 42,000), and within the precincts are a Gymnasium, or boys' school (300 pupils), of high reputation, and a school of philosophy. The imposing pile of buildings, as they now stand, are mostly of the eighteenth century. The valuable library contains some 70,000 volumes, 1700 manuscripts, and nearly 2000 incunabula. There is an interesting collection of objects of natural history in the lower part of the observatory, which is eight stories high; and a curious feature is the series of fish- tanks decorated with statues and a colonnade.

LosERTH, Die Geschichtsquellen von Kremsmiinsler im XJII. und XIV Jahrhumlert (Vienna, 1S77): Histor. Patav. et Cremi- fnnens in Pertz, Mon. Germ. Hist., XXV (1880), 610- 67S)- Pachmatr, Htstor.-chroTioJoB. series . . . monasl. Cremi- fan '(4 vols., Steyr, 1777-1782); Hartenschneideh, Darstel- lung des Stifles Kremsmiinster (Vienna, 1830); Hagn, Das Wirken der BenedictineraUei Kremsmiinster (Linz, 1S4S); Ret- tenp^cheh, .\nnalcs monast. Cremifanensis (Salzburg, 1677); Fez, Script, ver. Austria (Leipzig, 1725), II, 57.

D. O. Hunter-Blair.