Klöster im aufgeklärten Staat / Monasteri nello Stato illuminato

Abstract

Monasteries under the Enlightened State

This journal issue concerns itself with the dissolution of monasteries in the Habsburg monarchy in the latter part of the eighteenth century. In the course of the so-called Josephinian ‘raid on the monasteries’, between 700 and 800 out of an approximate total of 2,000 monasteries, convents and religious foundations fell victim to the enlightened state’s secularization within a period of just five years (from 1782 to 1787). Linked to this process was an extensive programme of reforms to monasteries, which unfolded in different ways in the various regions under Habsburg rule. The articles in this issue explore the differing dynamics and contours of these changes by placing the question of the function, role and reactions of monasteries and convents, as well as of former monks and nuns, at the forefront of their analysis. Taking account of the range of tensions arising between the government’s desire for reform and what actually occurred locally, the articles focus on case studies from Hungary, Inner Austria, Tyrol, Lombardy and the Grand Duchy of Tuscany (ruled by a cadet line of the dynasty).

ABSTRACTS articles (en) GRSR 31 (2022), 1