Pietas Austriaca

3. Marian Piety (Pietas Mariana)

3 Marian Piety (Pietas Mariana) A) Mary Immaculate and the Habsburgs during the Counter Reformation First of all I want to recall here Schönleben’s dictum that there were three columns that supported Austria’s rule: Catholic religious devotion, veneration of the sacraments, and veneration of Mary Immaculate.1 This author viewed religious fervor as the general foundation of the pietas austriaca, and devotion to the sacraments was definitely first among the concrete forms of worship. Thereafter, however, he called special attention not to veneration of the cross but to veneration of the Immaculate Virgin, which, by his time, had indeed risen in prominence. Intense veneration of Mary was typical for the period of the Catholic Reformation. Whereas Protestants no longer fully acknowledged Mary’s part in the work of salvation and reduced her role to the natural motherhood of Christ, Catholics, on the other hand, following the original revelation of Genesis, portrayed her as the one who crushed the snake’s, that is, Satan’s, head, while he bit at her heel and that of her descendants. Following this line of thought, Mary was given the title of “victor in all of God’s battles” (Siegerin in allen Schlachten Gottes). To be properly understood spiritually, this title was applied and interpreted differently at the time of the religious wars and the wars against the Turks: Mary was elevated to the role of patroness of the Christian, that is, especially the Catholic armies. In this sense, she was invoked as “the help of Christians.” It is well known that the Catholic victory at Lepanto [1571] and the military conquests at White Mountain  [1620] and Vienna were attributed to her, that many thought that the rosary united a spiritual army, as it were, and that in remembrance of the victory of 1620 numerous churches were founded with the name Our Lady of Victory (Maria vom Siege). Mary was of foremost importance during the Counter Reformation and at the time of the Turkish threat.2 Without a doubt, the symbol that most effectively captured the idea of Mary victorious was the Immaculate Conception (Immaculata Concepta).3 Already in the late Middle Ages, and then again in the baroque period, there was great agitation, scarcely comprehensible to us today, concerning this concept which became a church dogma only in the nineteenth century. Following theological arguments and clarifications which we cannot pursue here, the formulation of the ecclesiastical doctrine of the Immaculate Conception was worked out at the Council of Basel (17 September 1449). It was never promulgated effectively, however, because of the schismatic ending of that council . The Council of Trent then raised the question again, but, deferring to Thomas of Aquinas’ teachings on the subject and to the Dominicans who followed them, the Council did not bring it to a conclusion. The wording of the new dogma concerning original sin, which excluded Mary from its effects, now demanded more than ever a decision on the Immaculate Conception.* Everywhere demonstrations took place demanding resolution of the question. Professors at many universities had already been compelled to take an oath to support the Immaculate Conception for quite some time (beginning in Paris in 1459). The discussion was especially lively in Spain. Spanish universities, religious orders, cities, and last, but not least, King Philip III (r. 1598-1621) himself, sent petitions supporting the declaration of the Immaculate Conception as Catholic dogma to Rome. The Papal See took a wait-and-see attitude, but substantial research continued. From this resulted the fundamental work of the Franciscan Lucas Wadding on Mary Immaculate.4 Shortly before the publication of this work, in 1622, an ecclesiastical edict had been proclaimed, which prohibited the denial of the Immaculate Conception in any public and private speech.5 This spiritual movement did not leave the German territories 46               * The Council of Trent generally avoided intra-Catholic disputes and its refusal to take a position on the Immaculate Conception illustrates this attitude. Leading Dominicans had, for a long time, opposed the Immaculate Conception, which refers not to the conception of Jesus in Mary’s womb, but to the conception of Mary herself. The Council of Trent did state that the decree on original sin did not include Mary, the mother of Jesus. of the Habsburgs untouched, and their rulers, especially Ferdinand II, personally supported the declaration of the dogma.6 In response to all these efforts , Pope Alexander...