Febronianism

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Febronianism describes an Enlightenment- oriented inner-Catholic reform movement of the second half of the 18th century .

Church historical classification

The term owes its name to the work “De statu ecclesiae et legitima potestate Romani Pontificis” published by the Trier auxiliary bishop Johann Nikolaus von Hontheim (* 1701, † 1790) under the pseudonym Justinus Febronius (5 vols. 1763–1773, vol -II 1763). The first German translation appeared in 1764 with the full title: "Book of the State of the Church and the Legitimate Power of the Roman Pope to Unite Christians who are opposed to religion". The work goes back to the commission given to Hontheim, on the occasion of the emperor election of Charles VII (1742), to compile the “ Gravamina of the German Nation against the Roman Court”, the complaints of the German imperial church against Rome from the 15th century (cf. also Emser Congress 1786). The early indexing of the book by Pope Clement XIII. (February 17, 1764) could not prevent the effectiveness of the writing - well into the 19th century - and the extensive dispute that followed it in almost all of Europe. Hontheim itself made a formal revocation in 1778 under massive pressure.

Even Emperor Joseph II. Rejected the signature of Febronius because their rich religious trends were contrary to the territorial-state-church views.

Historically, Febronianism can be seen in the tradition of episcopalism and various late medieval reform councils and various resistance movements against the growing papal centralism. Gallicanism has strong influences on Febronianism in view of the state church tendencies, but also Jansenism in its opposition to the primacy of the Pope.

aims

In terms of content, a threefold objective of Febronianism can be identified:

1. Febronianism can almost be understood as a frontal attack on the institution of the papacy and its claim to the primacy of jurisdiction. The key power therefore falls to the universal Church, which it transfers to the bishops. The highest instance of church legislation and jurisdiction is the general council. Neither the appointment nor the confirmation by the Pope is required. The bishops are the actual bearers of church power. The Pope has no jurisdiction over the whole of the Church, nor the right to appoint bishops. He has to protect the independence of the episcopal jurisdiction and decide in religious disputes, so there are only unifying and regulating tasks left to him. The papal primacy is thus effectively reduced to an honorary primacy [centrum unitatis ecclesiae].

2. The strengthening of the position of the bishops vis-à-vis Rome implies the attempt to grant the secular rulers greater rights within the Church in order to realize reform concerns, especially with regard to the extended privileges of the Catholic nobility in the cathedral chapters, but also, for example, in the desired right of appeal the bishops [appellatio ab abusu] to secular power.

3. Finally, but not least, the concern of Febronianism was also the possible reunification of the separated churches. Greater distance from Rome, steps towards a national church, also based on the model of the Protestant regional churches, and church reforms should pave this way, admittedly with neglect of almost all theologically dividing questions.

Impact history

Febronianism has not been successful in any of the three goals. The theses on the position of the Pope met with widespread rejection of the episcopate, who preferred to be subordinate to the jurisdiction of the Pope rather than that of the Metropolitans. As far as the tendencies towards the state church are concerned, the threatening disintegration of the Roman Catholic Church into individual regional churches endangered the church as a whole in the 18th century, but they too remained only an episode, like the intention of a possible reunification of the church, despite the extensive overcoming of denominationalism in the 18th century. However, the indirect contribution of Febronianism on the way to the beginning of the secularization of the spiritual principalities (1803) should have been really “successful” .

literature

  • Karl Otmar Freiherr von Aretin : From the German Empire to the German Confederation , in: German History, Bd. II, early modern times, ed. by Bernd Moeller , Martin Heckel, Rudolf Vierhaus , Karl Otmar Frhr. von Aretin, Göttingen 1985
  • V. Pitzer: Justinus Febronius. The wrestling of a Catholic. Irenikers on the unity of the Church in the Age of Enlightenment , Göttingen 1971
  • Gustav Schnürer: Catholic Church and Culture in the 18th Century , Paderborn 1941