Abstract:

This project tells the story of Roman Catholic counter-reform on the Nikolsburg estate in southern Moravia and in the nearby Lower Austrian town of Feldsberg between the years 1575 and 1615 from the perspective of two parish priests, Christoph Erhard and Christoph Andreas Fischer. Working in the aftermath of the Council of Trent, these priests were trying to create a Roman Catholic identity for their parishioners while living and working in the midst of various Reformation sects. Anabaptists in particular found patronage under local lords willing to tolerate them for a number of reasons, including economic utility and personal conviction.

An examination of the writings of Erhard and Fischer reveals a number of issues that permeated the course of Catholic counter-reform in this area of confessional pluralism. In the absence of support from their overlords, these priests relied heavily on persuasive strategies in their fight against heresy. They drew upon a genealogy of heresy grounded in the history of the Roman Church, sought to "trouble" the consciences of those lords who tolerated confessional pluralism in their domains, and attempted to establish a Roman Catholic identity made visible in ritual practice. Their work in this region therefore serves as an excellent point of departure for understanding how the Roman Church defined itself against "heretics" in the Holy Roman Empire and the Hapsburg hereditary lands in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, especially in regions where its authority was contested. After all, it was still unclear in the late sixteenth century whether Rome would regain its spiritual authority over the people of central Europe in the post-Reformation era.