Catholic Enlightenment
Encyclopedia
The term Catholic Enlightenment refers to a heterogeneous phenomenon in Ancien Régime Europe and Latin America. It stands for the Church policy pursued by a Catholic enlightened monarch and/or his ministers as well as for a "reform movement" (which was a watchword for the adoption of Protestant assertions e principles of Enlightenment philosophers) within the Roman Catholic clergy to find answers to the ever-growing secularism
of that period: In contrast to the zeitgeist
of rationalism
, which in its pure form rejects revelation
as contrary to reason, Catholic Enlightenment is characterised by the attempt of "reform-oriented" parts of the church to counter the onrush of mainstream Enlightenment
. They endeavoured to reconcile what they saw as conflicting concepts of reason, which is seen as the sole source of truth
by rationalists, and revelation as a disclosure of information by divine agency. It is by definition beyond the ordinary course of a rationalist conception of nature
and was ipso facto a prime target for "enlightened" intellectuals and statesmen. In doing so, they challenged the very foundations of Christianity
, and that consequently culminated in the complete suppression of Catholicism in favour of a Cult of Reason
during the Reign of Terror
in the French Revolution.
The secular Enlightenment was, however, by no means atheistic, but it declaimed certain tenets crucial to the Catholic Church as merely historic and man-made and therefore fictitious. Many of the most influential philosophers of that time, like the Encyclopédistes, Voltaire
or Reimarus, were secularists or promoted a deist view: In a nutshell, they proclaimed that nature was the only revelation God has ever made and thus the preoccupation with any other alleged revelation was superfluous. Additionally the Bible
(and the Old Testament
in particular) was considered contradictory in itself to pure reason and to the perfection of God. Others, like Lessing
, agreed with respect to biblicism and revelation, but he was more lenient toward "emotional (i.e. unenlightened) Christs" who were in need of the gospels to do good. Still, he detested what he perceived as ecclesiastical obscurantism
and intolerance
: He postulated a "Christianity of Reason" without the Tradition and dogma
ta of the Church, which he rejected. For Lessing it was all about the Education
of Humankind and this very attitude was actually a stereotype of the "enlightened" elite: They saw themselves as guardians of reason and lowered Christ to principally a useful educator of virtue who was - in their opinion - just to be "freed" from what they saw as a fake and superstitious church-masquerade of the so-called "Dark Ages".
While basically under the same rationalistic pressure, the Protestant churches of Northern Europe could react a bit more flexibly to the rational challenge of the Enlightenment, because they already had suppressed the Church, monasticism
, and the veneration of the Saint
s. Protestant thinkers joined forces with the "enlightened" critics of their Catholic rival and in that way Protestantism could evade harsh criticism of their own doctrine of sola scriptura
to a certain degree.
The self-conception of Roman Catholicism on the other hand was (and is) not only the opposite of the Protestants' dry plainness and austerity, but also of their deliberate provinciality of independent national churches. The Catholic Church is supranational and was, especially since the Counter-Reformation
, flamboyant and splendidly baroque
in appearance. With respect to its colourful feast
s, processions and iconodule venereration it was in charge of everything extraordinary in community life. But this kind of devoutness was in the eyes of its critics rather anxious for effect and created some collective identity through a joint experience, which made a Catholic a Catholic, but it wasn't so much aimed at the inner persuasion of the faithful based on reason and natural "virtue
", which the proponents of the Enlightenment, but not the Church, saw as the only two means of personal formation. Instead, so thought the so-called "enlightened" men, it was an utterly visual world, and that was in the conceptual and iconophobic context of philosophy an illusionary world.
Furthermore, the opponents of the Church claimed that the abbey
s started to look like pompous baroque castles which were anything but humble. The clergy, they said, was enormous and the hierarchy Byzantine
and incomprehensible with almost all senior jobs being reserved for the aristocracy as secundogeniture
Combined with its supranational nature, all of these things made the Church extremely inflexible, because with any unnecessary Protestant change, which the Church dismissed as absurd to even desire, the prominence of the Church was at risk of being supplanted by the ambitions of statesmen and the liberal intelligentsia.
But for most so-called "enlightened" thinkers, the point at issue was the freedom of thought: In spite of all perceived progress they had made in science and in the arts, they complained that theology was still in the very centre of academic life, with the Jesuits controlling the universities almost everywhere. In the eyes of their critics - and much to the chagrin of "enlightened" monarchs who competed with their Protestant peers for prestige - the Jesuits failed to embrace modernity the way Protestant universities and academies did.
Apart from ignoring the problem, there were two possible ways to confront the criticism: To fight it off in order to protect the Church's traditional position and role or to act as if the Church was in need of reform and disengange it from what the "enlightened" critics saw as outdated ballast, either to appease the critics or out of real persuasion.
The group of apologists abode by Rome, because any reformatory change of the status quo would have weakened the Papacy and its natural primacy
consequentially, not to mention that it would have opposed the Catholic Faith. The ultramontane camp was spearheaded by the Society of Jesus
which first came into being as the Catholic fortress against the Reformation and rose to the occasion impressively. Since that time the Jesuits played key roles in the administrative machinery of State, university, and Church in every Catholic nation and they were often most influential confessors at court. They were answerable to the Pope only and had a reputation of being elitist, unscrupulous, and obesessed with power. They were clouded in secrecy and thus people were fascinated with their alleged intrigues to defend the Papacy. Given the crucial influence of the Society of Jesus and their obstructionism against any kind of reform, be it modest or radical, they attracted most of the critics' attention: It was necessary to break their firm resistance to change Catholicism if the motives of the Church's enemies were to avail in any way.
The camp that desired to secularise and Protestantise the Church's position, on the other hand, had no visual spearhead and was very heterogeneous, and they found themselves in the company of Protestant and "enlightened" critics in their effort to overcome the Jesuits, and in doing so they all can be described as anti-Jesuits. So it's not wrong to state that the alleged antagonism between Enlightenment and Catholicism was in fact overshadowed by a severe conflict about the Jesuit influence. Those who took part in the suppression of the Jesuits
included:
Richard van Dülmen. Religion und Gesellschaft. Frankfurt, 1989.
Samuel J. Miller. Portugal and Rome - An Aspect of the Catholic Enlightenment. Rome, 1978.
Ernst Cassirer. Philosophy of the Enlightenment. 1932.
Ulrich L. Lehner and Michael Printy (eds.), "Brill's Companion to the Catholic Enlightenment in Europe. Leiden and Boston, 2010.
Ulrich L. Lehner, 'What is Catholic Enlightenment?' in: History Compass 8 (2010): 166–178.
Ulrich L. Lehner, Enlightened Monks. The German Benedictines 1740-1803 Oxford, 2011.
Secularism
Secularism is the principle of separation between government institutions and the persons mandated to represent the State from religious institutions and religious dignitaries...
of that period: In contrast to the zeitgeist
Zeitgeist
Zeitgeist is "the spirit of the times" or "the spirit of the age."Zeitgeist is the general cultural, intellectual, ethical, spiritual or political climate within a nation or even specific groups, along with the general ambiance, morals, sociocultural direction, and mood associated with an era.The...
of rationalism
Rationalism
In epistemology and in its modern sense, rationalism is "any view appealing to reason as a source of knowledge or justification" . In more technical terms, it is a method or a theory "in which the criterion of the truth is not sensory but intellectual and deductive"...
, which in its pure form rejects revelation
Revelation
In religion and theology, revelation is the revealing or disclosing, through active or passive communication with a supernatural or a divine entity...
as contrary to reason, Catholic Enlightenment is characterised by the attempt of "reform-oriented" parts of the church to counter the onrush of mainstream Enlightenment
Age of Enlightenment
The Age of Enlightenment was an elite cultural movement of intellectuals in 18th century Europe that sought to mobilize the power of reason in order to reform society and advance knowledge. It promoted intellectual interchange and opposed intolerance and abuses in church and state...
. They endeavoured to reconcile what they saw as conflicting concepts of reason, which is seen as the sole source of truth
Truth
Truth has a variety of meanings, such as the state of being in accord with fact or reality. It can also mean having fidelity to an original or to a standard or ideal. In a common usage, it also means constancy or sincerity in action or character...
by rationalists, and revelation as a disclosure of information by divine agency. It is by definition beyond the ordinary course of a rationalist conception of nature
Nature
Nature, in the broadest sense, is equivalent to the natural world, physical world, or material world. "Nature" refers to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general...
and was ipso facto a prime target for "enlightened" intellectuals and statesmen. In doing so, they challenged the very foundations of Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
, and that consequently culminated in the complete suppression of Catholicism in favour of a Cult of Reason
Cult of Reason
The Cult of Reason was an atheistic belief system established in France and intended as a replacement for Christianity during the French Revolution.-Origins:...
during the Reign of Terror
Reign of Terror
The Reign of Terror , also known simply as The Terror , was a period of violence that occurred after the onset of the French Revolution, incited by conflict between rival political factions, the Girondins and the Jacobins, and marked by mass executions of "enemies of...
in the French Revolution.
The secular Enlightenment was, however, by no means atheistic, but it declaimed certain tenets crucial to the Catholic Church as merely historic and man-made and therefore fictitious. Many of the most influential philosophers of that time, like the Encyclopédistes, Voltaire
Voltaire
François-Marie Arouet , better known by the pen name Voltaire , was a French Enlightenment writer, historian and philosopher famous for his wit and for his advocacy of civil liberties, including freedom of religion, free trade and separation of church and state...
or Reimarus, were secularists or promoted a deist view: In a nutshell, they proclaimed that nature was the only revelation God has ever made and thus the preoccupation with any other alleged revelation was superfluous. Additionally the Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
(and the Old Testament
Old Testament
The Old Testament, of which Christians hold different views, is a Christian term for the religious writings of ancient Israel held sacred and inspired by Christians which overlaps with the 24-book canon of the Masoretic Text of Judaism...
in particular) was considered contradictory in itself to pure reason and to the perfection of God. Others, like Lessing
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing was a German writer, philosopher, dramatist, publicist, and art critic, and one of the most outstanding representatives of the Enlightenment era. His plays and theoretical writings substantially influenced the development of German literature...
, agreed with respect to biblicism and revelation, but he was more lenient toward "emotional (i.e. unenlightened) Christs" who were in need of the gospels to do good. Still, he detested what he perceived as ecclesiastical obscurantism
Obscurantism
Obscurantism is the practice of deliberately preventing the facts or the full details of some matter from becoming known. There are two, common, historical and intellectual, denotations: 1) restricting knowledge—opposition to the spread of knowledge, a policy of withholding knowledge from the...
and intolerance
Religious intolerance
Religious intolerance is intolerance against another's religious beliefs or practices.-Definition:The mere statement on the part of a religion that its own beliefs and practices are correct and any contrary beliefs incorrect does not in itself constitute intolerance...
: He postulated a "Christianity of Reason" without the Tradition and dogma
Dogma
Dogma is the established belief or doctrine held by a religion, or a particular group or organization. It is authoritative and not to be disputed, doubted, or diverged from, by the practitioners or believers...
ta of the Church, which he rejected. For Lessing it was all about the Education
Education
Education in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...
of Humankind and this very attitude was actually a stereotype of the "enlightened" elite: They saw themselves as guardians of reason and lowered Christ to principally a useful educator of virtue who was - in their opinion - just to be "freed" from what they saw as a fake and superstitious church-masquerade of the so-called "Dark Ages".
While basically under the same rationalistic pressure, the Protestant churches of Northern Europe could react a bit more flexibly to the rational challenge of the Enlightenment, because they already had suppressed the Church, monasticism
Monasticism
Monasticism is a religious way of life characterized by the practice of renouncing worldly pursuits to fully devote one's self to spiritual work...
, and the veneration of the Saint
Saint
A saint is a holy person. In various religions, saints are people who are believed to have exceptional holiness.In Christian usage, "saint" refers to any believer who is "in Christ", and in whom Christ dwells, whether in heaven or in earth...
s. Protestant thinkers joined forces with the "enlightened" critics of their Catholic rival and in that way Protestantism could evade harsh criticism of their own doctrine of sola scriptura
Sola scriptura
Sola scriptura is the doctrine that the Bible contains all knowledge necessary for salvation and holiness. Consequently, sola scriptura demands that only those doctrines are to be admitted or confessed that are found directly within or indirectly by using valid logical deduction or valid...
to a certain degree.
The self-conception of Roman Catholicism on the other hand was (and is) not only the opposite of the Protestants' dry plainness and austerity, but also of their deliberate provinciality of independent national churches. The Catholic Church is supranational and was, especially since the Counter-Reformation
Counter-Reformation
The Counter-Reformation was the period of Catholic revival beginning with the Council of Trent and ending at the close of the Thirty Years' War, 1648 as a response to the Protestant Reformation.The Counter-Reformation was a comprehensive effort, composed of four major elements:#Ecclesiastical or...
, flamboyant and splendidly baroque
Baroque
The Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music...
in appearance. With respect to its colourful feast
Feast
Feast may refer to:* Banquet, a large meal* A Festival or feria* Ramadan, Muslim's holy month* Nineteen Day Feast, a monthly meeting held in Bahá'í communities to worship, consult, and socialize....
s, processions and iconodule venereration it was in charge of everything extraordinary in community life. But this kind of devoutness was in the eyes of its critics rather anxious for effect and created some collective identity through a joint experience, which made a Catholic a Catholic, but it wasn't so much aimed at the inner persuasion of the faithful based on reason and natural "virtue
Virtue
Virtue is moral excellence. A virtue is a positive trait or quality subjectively deemed to be morally excellent and thus is valued as a foundation of principle and good moral being....
", which the proponents of the Enlightenment, but not the Church, saw as the only two means of personal formation. Instead, so thought the so-called "enlightened" men, it was an utterly visual world, and that was in the conceptual and iconophobic context of philosophy an illusionary world.
Furthermore, the opponents of the Church claimed that the abbey
Abbey
An abbey is a Catholic monastery or convent, under the authority of an Abbot or an Abbess, who serves as the spiritual father or mother of the community.The term can also refer to an establishment which has long ceased to function as an abbey,...
s started to look like pompous baroque castles which were anything but humble. The clergy, they said, was enormous and the hierarchy Byzantine
Byzantinism
Byzantinism or Byzantism is a term used in political science and philosophy to denote the political system and culture of the Byzantine Empire, and its spiritual successors, in particular, the Balkan states, the Ottoman Empire and Russia. The term byzantinism itself was coined in the 19th century...
and incomprehensible with almost all senior jobs being reserved for the aristocracy as secundogeniture
Appanage
An apanage or appanage or is the grant of an estate, titles, offices, or other things of value to the younger male children of a sovereign, who would otherwise have no inheritance under the system of primogeniture...
Combined with its supranational nature, all of these things made the Church extremely inflexible, because with any unnecessary Protestant change, which the Church dismissed as absurd to even desire, the prominence of the Church was at risk of being supplanted by the ambitions of statesmen and the liberal intelligentsia.
But for most so-called "enlightened" thinkers, the point at issue was the freedom of thought: In spite of all perceived progress they had made in science and in the arts, they complained that theology was still in the very centre of academic life, with the Jesuits controlling the universities almost everywhere. In the eyes of their critics - and much to the chagrin of "enlightened" monarchs who competed with their Protestant peers for prestige - the Jesuits failed to embrace modernity the way Protestant universities and academies did.
Apart from ignoring the problem, there were two possible ways to confront the criticism: To fight it off in order to protect the Church's traditional position and role or to act as if the Church was in need of reform and disengange it from what the "enlightened" critics saw as outdated ballast, either to appease the critics or out of real persuasion.
The group of apologists abode by Rome, because any reformatory change of the status quo would have weakened the Papacy and its natural primacy
Primacy
Primacy Effect may refer to:The tendency to form impressions of people based on the first information we receive about them. The primacy effect has most effect during repeated message when there is little or no delay between the messages....
consequentially, not to mention that it would have opposed the Catholic Faith. The ultramontane camp was spearheaded by the Society of Jesus
Society of Jesus
The Society of Jesus is a Catholic male religious order that follows the teachings of the Catholic Church. The members are called Jesuits, and are also known colloquially as "God's Army" and as "The Company," these being references to founder Ignatius of Loyola's military background and a...
which first came into being as the Catholic fortress against the Reformation and rose to the occasion impressively. Since that time the Jesuits played key roles in the administrative machinery of State, university, and Church in every Catholic nation and they were often most influential confessors at court. They were answerable to the Pope only and had a reputation of being elitist, unscrupulous, and obesessed with power. They were clouded in secrecy and thus people were fascinated with their alleged intrigues to defend the Papacy. Given the crucial influence of the Society of Jesus and their obstructionism against any kind of reform, be it modest or radical, they attracted most of the critics' attention: It was necessary to break their firm resistance to change Catholicism if the motives of the Church's enemies were to avail in any way.
The camp that desired to secularise and Protestantise the Church's position, on the other hand, had no visual spearhead and was very heterogeneous, and they found themselves in the company of Protestant and "enlightened" critics in their effort to overcome the Jesuits, and in doing so they all can be described as anti-Jesuits. So it's not wrong to state that the alleged antagonism between Enlightenment and Catholicism was in fact overshadowed by a severe conflict about the Jesuit influence. Those who took part in the suppression of the Jesuits
Suppression of the Jesuits
The Suppression of the Jesuits in the Portuguese Empire, France, the Two Sicilies, Parma and the Spanish Empire by 1767 was a result of a series of political moves rather than a theological controversy. By the brief Dominus ac Redemptor Pope Clement XIV suppressed the Society of Jesus...
included:
- The Portuguese prime minister Marquês de Pombal suppressed the Jesuits as early as 1759 in Portugal and its colonial empire. He broke off the diplomatic relations with the Papacy until 1770 and reorganized the educational system and modernised the teachings by spending more tax money: He added faculties of natural science to the University of Coimbra, introduced general vocational education and increased the number of teachers. To rival the Jesuits' alleged obscurantism the Order of the Oratorians presented themselves markedly progressive with a huge modern library and a prominent experimental laboratory to entertain and impress the nobility.
- The Austrian chancellor Wenzel Anton von Kaunitz and Kaiser Joseph IIJoseph II, Holy Roman EmperorJoseph II was Holy Roman Emperor from 1765 to 1790 and ruler of the Habsburg lands from 1780 to 1790. He was the eldest son of Empress Maria Theresa and her husband, Francis I...
claimed that a sovereign state's authority also covers ecclesiastical affairs. With their reforms, generally referred to as JosephinismJosephinismJosephinism is the term used to describe the domestic policies of Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor . During the ten years in which Joseph was the sole ruler of the Habsburg Monarchy , he attempted to legislate a series of drastic reforms to remodel Austria in the form of the ideal Enlightened state...
, the borders of the dioceses were adjusted to the Archduchy of Austria, the Jesuits's influence was reduced and a Patent of Tolerance of 1781 allowed some freedom of worship.
- The French prime minister Étienne-François, duc de ChoiseulChoiseul-People:*Choiseul . Holders include:-** Caesar, duc de Choiseul , French marshal and diplomat, generally known for the best part of his life as marshal du Plessis-Praslin** Claude de Choiseul , marshal of France in 1693...
allowed the EncyclopédieEncyclopédieEncyclopédie, ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers was a general encyclopedia published in France between 1751 and 1772, with later supplements, revised editions, and translations. It was edited by Denis Diderot and Jean le Rond d'Alembert...
to be published and was on good terms with the philosophes. With the backing of the royal maîtresse Madame de PompadourMadame de PompadourJeanne Antoinette Poisson, Marquise de Pompadour, also known as Madame de Pompadour was a member of the French court, and was the official chief mistress of Louis XV from 1745 to her death.-Biography:...
, who was denied absolution by the Jesuits for being an adulteress, Choiseul was a declared opponent of the Society of Jesus and the obsolete baroque Catholicism he thought they represented.
- As prime minister in the kingdom of Naples Bernardo TanucciBernardo TanucciBernardo Tanucci was an Italian statesman, who brought enlightened government to the backward Kingdom of the Two Sicilies for Charles III and his son Ferdinand IV.-Biography:...
successfully reduced the ecclesiastical influence and played a crucial role in the suppression of the Jesuits in all Bourbon states (France, Spain, Parma and all their colonies) in 1767.
Further reading
Kenneth Maxwell. Pombal - Paradox of the Enlightenment. Cambridge, 1995.Richard van Dülmen. Religion und Gesellschaft. Frankfurt, 1989.
Samuel J. Miller. Portugal and Rome - An Aspect of the Catholic Enlightenment. Rome, 1978.
Ernst Cassirer. Philosophy of the Enlightenment. 1932.
Ulrich L. Lehner and Michael Printy (eds.), "Brill's Companion to the Catholic Enlightenment in Europe. Leiden and Boston, 2010.
Ulrich L. Lehner, 'What is Catholic Enlightenment?' in: History Compass 8 (2010): 166–178.
Ulrich L. Lehner, Enlightened Monks. The German Benedictines 1740-1803 Oxford, 2011.