Publication at Faculty of Arts |
2011
Abstract
The Emperor Joseph II required a clergy that matched his conception of the state in order to realise his reforms. For this reason, he cancelled the diocesan orders role in theological training institutions and founded the general seminars in 1783, despite protests on the part of the Catholic Church.
The general seminars were aimed at bringing up priests as the servants of the Church and at the same time as state officers. These institutions were subordinate only to the state.
Although the general seminars were cancelled after his death in 1790 and the education of clergy was returned to the diocesan bishops and orders, the state retained a certain supervisory role over the upandcoming generations within the priesthood.