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Chapter 8: Beda Mayr (1742–1794)
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8 R Beda Mayr (174 2 –17 9 4 ) Ecumenism and Dialogue with Modern Thought ULRICH L. LEHNER In the German-speaking lands of the eighteenth century, it was the Benedictines who spearheaded the dissemination of Enlightenment ideas (Lehner 2011). one of the most intriguing figures among these enlightened Benedictines was Beda Mayr (1742–1794), because he was probably the first Catholic theologian to propose publicly an ecumenical theology. Contemporaries praised Mayr as a keen, enlightened, and pious thinker. Among them were such prominent figures as Johann Michael Sailer (1751–1832), the future bishop of Regensburg and groundbreaker for Romanticism in German theology; and Johann Sebastian Drey (1777–1853), the leading figure of the Catholic “tübingen School.” Beda Mayr was born on 17 January 1742 in taiting, near Augsburg , to an upper-middle-class family of farmers. His baptismal name was Felix Nolanus. After attending the abbey school at Scheyern and the high school in Augsburg, he studied philosophy in Munich for 191 192 Ulrich L. Lehner two years and then mathematics in Freiburg/Breisgau. In 1761, he entered the abbey of the Holy Cross in Donauwörth, where he professed his solemn vows on 29 September 1762 and received the name Beda. After three years of studying theology at the common college for Bavarian Benedictines in Benediktbeuern, he was ordained in 1766. Just a year later, he was appointed to serve as professor of philosophy and theology in Donauwörth, a duty that he fulfilled until 1785. occasionally he also taught natural sciences and mathematics. From 1772 until 1776, Mayr worked as a pastor in the village of Mündling, where he made friendly contacts with Protestant clergy. It must have been here that he came to realize the scandal of the divided Christian confessions and the need for a reunion of the churches. Like many others, he saw the major obstacle to such a reunion not in the beliefs about the sacraments, nor even holy orders, but in the papacy and in ecclesiastical infallibility. He was thoroughly acquainted with the writings of German, French, and even English Enlighteners . His zeal to reform Catholicism to make it more attractive to Catholics, and especially to Protestants, motivated him to argue for the vernacular in the Roman Mass as early as 1777 (1777). that same year, Mayr even found time to translate a number of volumes of Condillac ’s (1714–1780) monumental Modern History. one year later, Beda caused an enormous scandal when an essay he had sent to a friend of his, the school reformer and former Benedictine (Abbey of tegernsee ) Heinrich Braun (1732–1792), was published without his knowledgeorconsentunderthetitleFirstSteptowardtheFutureReunification of the Catholic and Protestant Churches (Der erste Schritt zur künftigen Vereinigung der katholischen und der evangelischen Kirche; 1778a). It was placed on the Index of Prohibited Books on 31 July 1783. the uproar over this twenty-two-page pamphlet was so great that a number of theologians started to conspire against Mayr, because they considered the essay to be downright heretical. As a result, episcopal investigators were sent to the monastery of Donauwörth to interrogate Mayr and all members of the community. only the protection of his abbot, Gallus Hammerl (1776–1793), saved Mayr from punishment. the abbot also resisted pressure from the bishop’s office to remove Beda as professor in the monastery. Instead, Abbot Hammerl permit- [44.200.101.170] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 09:23 GMT) Beda Mayr (1742–1794) 193 ted Mayr to continue his work and granted him vast amounts of money to buy every book he regarded necessary for his work, whether written by the French philosophes, an English freethinker, or a saint. Under Abbot Gallus’s leadership, the monastery flourished as a center of liberal arts and a place where the dialogue between Catholicism and modern thought was sincerely attempted. However, one small concession was made to the bishop: in the future, Mayr was required to send his lecture notes and theses to the episcopal chancery for approval. In these notes, however, the censors could never find anything questionable because Mayr cited only such approved authors as Augustin Calmet, o.S.B. (1672–1757), Petrus Gazzaniga, o.P. (1722–1799), and Joseph Bertieri (1734–1804). He never taught his students his new ideas or lectured on the problems he was working on, such as how one could rebuke Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729–1781) or Anthony Collins (1676–1729). He reserved his creative work for the academic circles outside...