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“Acatholic” Foundations: the Emergence of Charitable Endowments in the Greek Orthodox and Protestant Communities of Vienna (18Th Century)

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“Acatholic” Foundations: the Emergence of Charitable Endowments in the Greek Orthodox and Protestant Communities of Vienna (18Th Century) endowment studies 1 (2017) 223-256 brill.com/ends “Acatholic” Foundations: The Emergence of Charitable Endowments in the Greek Orthodox and Protestant Communities of Vienna (18th Century) Stefano Saracino University of Vienna, Department of Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies, Postgasse 7/1/3, 1010 Vienna [email protected] Abstract This article aims at comparing the endowments founded during the 18th century by wealthy members of the Greek Orthodox and Protestant (Lutheran, Calvinist) com- munities in Vienna. Charitable endowments in fact offer a paramount example of the entanglement of economic, confessional and migration issues, which played an im- portant role in the non-Catholic communities in the Habsburg capital before and after the Proclamation of Toleration in 1781. The analysis of relevant sources gives the im- pression that these endowments had a massive (material as well as symbolic) impor- tance for these communities and shaped their relationship to a political regime that, even while performing enlightened reforms in the fields of culture and confession, was strengthening its control over the sector of charity. Keywords confessionalization – interconfessionality – tolerance – Crypto-Protestantism – Josephinism * For support and help during my research in the archives I would like to express my deep gratitude to Father Ioannis Nikolitsis from the Metropolitanate of Austria, to Dr. Hannelore Köhler from the archive of the Lutheran Community of Vienna, to Dr. Waltraud Stangl from the archive of the Evangelische Kirche in Österreich and to the former Superintendent of the Calvinist Church of Austria Mag. Peter Karner. Material for this article is based on joint research with Dr. Nathalie Soursos in the project “Social Commitment in the Greek Communities of Vienna (18th–20th century)” (fwf ap 2714021); project leader: Prof. Maria A. Stassinopoulou. © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2018 | doi 10.1163/24685968-00102006Downloaded from Brill.com09/30/2021 05:38:52AM via free access <UN> 224 Saracino In his testament from the year 1800, Emmerich Karl Heinrich von Calisch (1724–1801), a Protestant and former military officer, landowner in Hungary and benefactor of the Lutheran community of Vienna, devoted some thoughts to the rationale for founding charitable endowments. Whereas by bequeath- ing one’s property to relatives the testator performs a good deed a single time, by depositing capital for an endowment he will (potentially) practice charity forever.1 The possibility of dedicating a defined amount of capital, whose rev- enues are used for charitable ends but which itself is not at the disposal either of the administrators or of its beneficiaries, a sort of perpetuum mobile of char- ity, might be recommendable for economic, as well as for religious, confession- al and philanthropic reasons. Herein lies the appeal of endowments, which as a diachronic and universal phenomenon can be encountered in different cultures, religions, including Christian confessions, and historical epochs.2 Combining the macrohistorical research concerning the diachronic patterns of endowments and a microhistorical enquiry into the motivations and prac- tices of both founders and administrators of endowments seems most promis- ing for the research on issues concerning the cultural and confessional aspects of endowment history, which I am interested in in the present paper. This paper analyses and compares the charitable endowments, which were founded by members of the two Protestant communities of Vienna (the Lu- theran as well as the Calvinist) and of the two Greek Orthodox communities of Vienna (St. George, Holy Trinity). I will focus predominantly on the last two decades of the 18th century, after the Patent of Toleration (1781) decreed by Joseph ii had created a new legal basis for the religious life and organisa- tion of these non-Catholic confessional groups. One goal will be to explore the importance that the charitable endowments under examination had for these “acatholic” (this is the term used in the Patent of Toleration and in the govern- mental sources) communities in the first years of their existence ( Section ii). Besides the institution of charitable endowments (“Stiftung”) in its strict tech- nical sense, with its features of providing a predetermined sum of capital to be invested in a stable form, whereof only the revenues are used for charitable ends, donations as well will be taken into consideration here, which were or- dered by testators in their last wills for charitable ends and were paid out by the testament executors only once (“Legat”). 1 aeg, A.B., Akt 136, p. 6. Pammer’s research on testaments from Upper Austria from the 18th century comes, however, to the conclusion that the testators’ altruism towards relatives, non- relatives, and charitable institutions did not cause any conflict (Pammer 2007: 84). Also in Calisch’s testament there is no such conflict. 2 Borgolte 1993; Borgolte 2000; Borgolte 2012; Borgolte 2016a; Borgolte 2016b. endowmentDownloaded studies from 1 Brill.com09/30/2021 (2017) 223-256 05:38:52AM via free access <UN> “Acatholic” Foundations 225 Comparing the ways in which endowments were founded and admin- istered by members of different Christian confessions is not a new theme.3 The present study puts the focus on endowments, whose founders belonged not only to different confessional minorities, but were at the same time and in the same place members of migrant groups. I hope therefore to come to conclusions that combine issues of endowment history and of migration his- tory. Furthermore, the primary interest of the following investigations is not only in the consequences the process of early modern confessionalization had for the culture of charity and the organization of endowments. Following new approaches which try to supplement the paradigm of “Konfessionalisierung”,4 as it has been developed by Heinz Schilling and Wolfgang Reinhard with the focus on processes of differentiation and separation between the three west- ern confessions in the Holy Roman Empire and Europe as a whole, I will look as well at phenomena of interconfessionality and transconfessionality. Besides looking at how endowments were used by their founders and administrators for the end of strengthening confessional identities I will also analyse how the endowments of the Protestants and the Greek Orthodox in Vienna were used for interconfessional scopes or how they exhibited transconfessional similari- ties (Section iii). 1 Comparing the “Acatholics” in Vienna: Some Remarks on the Development of the Protestant and the Greek Orthodox Communities in Vienna during the 18th Century Until the end of the 18th century, the official policy of the Habsburgs towards the Greek Orthodox and the Protestants was in many ways different. After the Peace of Westphalia (1648) and despite its aim of establishing an equilibrated 3 Michael Borgolte and other scholars inspired by his work have studied endowments in the context of different medieval and early modern religions and confessions, see Borgolte 2016a. For the consequences of the Reformation, as well as Counter-Reformation and confessional- ization, on endowments and donations: Göttler 2000; Scheller 2004; Hahn 2007. 4 Whether an analogous process of confessionalization occurred, as it has been described by Schilling and Reinhard for the three Western confessions, in early modern Greek Orthodoxy as well is a matter of debate. The Greek Orthodox in the Ottoman Empire never experienced a confessionalization pushed forward by the political authorities, as was the case in the Habsburg Empire according to the principle of cuius regio, eius religio. Furthermore, written confessional texts did not have the same crucial importance for the development of confes- sional identity as they had in the Western confessions. endowment studies 1 (2017) 223-256 Downloaded from Brill.com09/30/2021 05:38:52AM via free access <UN> 226 Saracino order between the Christian confessions in the Holy Roman Empire, it re- mained the goal of the Habsburg emperors to restore or maintain confessional homogeneity, at least in their Hereditary Lands. From the reign of Ferdinand iii (1637–1657) onwards measures like the strict prohibition of religious prac- tices for Protestants (even in private spaces) and the forced conversion or transmigration of obstinate Protestants were used in order to achieve this goal. The keyword used in the traditional historiographical narrative and also by contemporary historians to describe the religious situation of the Protestant minorities in the Hereditary Lands of the Habsburgs during the 17th and 18th century has been “Kryptoprotestantismus”.5 One should not forget that still during the reigns of Charles vi (1711–1740) and Maria Theresa (in the Heredi- tary Lands, Bohemia and Hungary from 1740–1780) commissions, the so-called “Religionskommissionen”, moved through territories where “Cryptoprotestant- ism” had its strongholds (Upper Austria, Styria, Carinthia), with the aim of unmasking and punishing secret Protestants.6 In 1777 it was only the veto of her co-regent and son Joseph that stopped Maria Theresa from putting into action her plans for further transmigrations. On the other hand, the situation of the Protestants in the capital of the Habsburg Empire Vienna had always been different. Even during the heyday of the Counter-Reformation, the mem- bers of the diplomatic embassies of Protestant powers were tolerated, as were also the Protestant judges of the Reichshofrat
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