EphemeridesTheologicaeLovanienses 91/2 (2015) 281-293. doi: 10.2143/ETL.91.2.3085094 © 2015 by Ephemerides Theologicae Lovanienses. All rights reserved. The Role of Giuseppe Garampi in the Hontheim Case1 Dries VANYSACKER KULeuven The tract De statu Ecclesiae by Johann Nikolaus von Hontheim, the suffragan bishop of Trier, published in 1763, was put on the Index in 1764, 1766, 1771 and 1773, because it contained, in the eyes of the Roman Con- gregation of the Index, “heretical” tenets of canon law which put forth an ecclesial system in which the pope had only a honorary primacy2. In 1777, Hontheim circulated an abbreviated version of his tract; in 1778, he was forced by the Elector of Trier to make a retraction; and in 1781, he wrote a not so welcome comment on his retraction. Only two years after Hon- theim’s death in 1790, Rome reacted upon the latter’s comment via Car- dinal Gerdil. A complex and strange story indeed! In the introduction of his recent editions of the abbreviated tract of 1777 and Hontheim’s later commentary of 1781, Ulrich L. Lehner, studied in detail the condemnation based on the official documents3. In these pages, I want to state that an exclusive use of official documents risks to deny the complexity of the context and the possible effects of such condemna- tions. By ignoring the role of some persons and their networking behind the scenes in the Hontheim case, Lehner misses, according to me, the real background of the story. In mid-August 1764, the prefect of the Vatican Archives, Canon Giuseppe Garampi (1725-1792)4, wrote in his travel journal that he spent some days 1. Abbreviations: ANV = Archivio della Nunziatura di Vienna; ASV = Archivio Segreto Vaticano; FG = Fondo Garampi. 2. See H. WOLF (ed.), RömischeBücherverbote:EditionderBandivonInquisitionund Indexkongregation1701-1813 (Römische Inquisition und Indexkongregation. Grundlagen- forschung, I: 1703-1813), Paderborn, 2009, pp. 236-239 (1764), 247-252 (1766), 275-277 (1771), 281-283 (1773). 3. U.L. LEHNER (ed.), JohannNikolausvonHontheim,JustinusFebroniusabbreviatuset emendatus(1777) (Religionsgeschichte der frühen Neuzeit, 5), Nordhausen, Traugott Bautz, 2008, LXVIII-312 p.; ID. (ed.), JohannNikolausvonHontheim,JustiniFebroniicommentarius insuamretractionem(1781) (Religionsgeschichte der frühen Neuzeit, 6), Nordhausen, Trau- gott Bautz, 2008, LXVIII-328 p. 4. On Garampi, see D. VANYSACKER, Cardinal Giuseppe Garampi (1725-1792): An EnlightenedUltramontane (Institut Historique Belge de Rome. Bibliothèque, 33), Brussels – Rome, 1995; ID., The Garampi Correspondence: A Chronological List of the Private CorrespondenceofCardinalGarampi(1741-1792)(Instrumenta Theologica, 19), Leuven, 998150.indb8150.indb 228181 118/06/158/06/15 110:540:54 282 D. VANYSACKER with the Jesuit fathers in Mannheim. There, he took his time studying certain recent books on canon law, and by his own account, he cross-read for the second time the “disturbing” book by a certain Justinus Febronius, DestatuEcclesiaeetlegitimapotestateRomaniPontificis, published in Frankfurt in 17635. Justinus Febronius was the pseudonym of Johann Nikolaus von Hontheim (1701-1790), professor of Canon Law at the University of Trier, suffragan bishop and Vice-Chancellor of the University. His DestatuEcclesiaewas indeed the pre-eminent handbook of Canon Law in the Holy Roman Empire in the 18th century. Hontheim exhorted the bishops to bring together a united German national Church and to dissociate themselves from the domination of the pope. The author maintained that such an Imperial Church would stop states from seceding from the federation. Hontheim also sought a stronger political consolidation and called upon the Catholic bishops to unite with the Protestants. In his opinion, it was exactly those Roman juris- dictional claims and the way in which papal primacy was exercised which deterred the Protestants. According to Hontheim, the oecumenical council was the highest authority of the Church; the pope was only the centrum unitatis of the Church. This concept of honorary primacy was built on the situation of the Church in the first eight centuries. Curial usurpation wanted to neglect this since the Collectio Pseudo-Isidoriana6. Garampi was in the company of the Frankfurt Canon Damian Friedrich Dumeiz and the nuncio at Lucerne, Niccolò Oddi (1715-1767), one of the first to discover that Hontheim was the author of DestatuEcclesiae7. As 1997. See also M. CAFFIERO, Garampi,Giuseppe, in DizionarioBiograficodegliItaliani, Rome, 1999, vol. 52, 224-229; U. DELL’ORTO, LanunziaturaaViennadiGiuseppeGarampi, 1776-1785, Vatican City, 1995. 5. DiarioeViaggiodelCardinaleGarampiperlaGermanianel1764,allorchèaccom- pagnoinqualitàdiUditoreMonsignoreOddi,chedaNunziostraordinarioallaDieta diFrancfortperl’ElezionediGiuseppeII.inRede’Romani (Vatican City, ASV, FG 77, 256r-262r). 6. See M. WEITLAUFF, VonderReichskirchezur“Papstkirche”:Revolution,Säkulari- sation,kirchlicheNeuorganisationundDurchsetzungderpapalistischenDoktrin, in Zeit- schriftfürKirchengeschichte 113 (2002) 355-354; K.O. VON ARETIN, DieUnionsbewegungen des18.JahrhundertsunterdemEinflussvonKatholischerAufklärung,deutschemProte- stantismusundJansenismus, in E. KOVÁCS (ed.), KatholischeAufklärungundJosephinis- mus, Vienna, 1979, 197-208; V. PITZER, JustinusFebronius:DasRingeneineskatholischen Irenikers um die Einheit der Kirche im Zeitalter der Aufklärung, Göttingen, 1976; ID., Febronius/Febronianismus, in TheologischeRealenzyklopädie 11 (1983) 67-69; J. STEINRUCK, JohannNikolausvonHontheim:EinGelehrterimSpannungsfeldvonKircheundStaat, ZentralgewaltundpartikularerSelbständigkeit, in TrierertheologischeZeitschrift 100 (1991) 187-204; D. VANYSACKER, DerWiderrufdes“Febronius”undKardinalGiuseppeGarampi inRom:EineaufklärerischeultramontaneBekämpfungdesFebronianismus,1764-1792, in Kurtrierisches Jahrbuch 43 (2003) 125-141. For Hontheim’s biography, see H. RAAB, Hontheim,Nikolausv., in NeueDeutscheBiographie, Berlin, 1972, vol. IX, 604-605. 7. See H. RAAB, DamianFriedrichDumeizundKardinalOddi:ZurEntdeckungdes FebroniusundzurAufklärungimErzstiftMainzinderReichsstadtFrankfurt, in Archivfür mittelrheinischeKirchengeschichte 10 (1958) 217-240. 998150.indb8150.indb 228282 118/06/158/06/15 110:540:54 THE ROLE OF GIUSEPPE GARAMPI IN THE HONTHEIM CASE 283 time progressed Garampi became a key figure in an international network which set about refuting policies favouring the rights of national churches. His actions against Hontheims’ book and the further development of Febronianism have to be considered in three steps. I. GARAMPI AS THE LEADER OF AN “ANTI-FEBRONIST” NETWORK, 1764-17768 As a consequence of his long sojourns at the German electoral courts and monasteries between 1761 and 1764, Garampi had become a special- ist on the ecclesiastical-political situation of the Holy Roman Empire9. He had come to the region well-prepared, and he had gained a rich assortment of experiences and contacts. His letters and reports to the Holy See present a lucid and articulate overview of the situation, which he concurrently placed in a historical perspective. The general picture of Germany he pre- sented was not a particularly positive one. Everywhere – especially in the Catholic principalities – the anti-ecclesiastical views of the Enlightenment were rampant, and Garampi considered the German nation’s attachment to the Holy See a thing of the past. In his account of the religious situation, DelstatodellareligioneincodestipartidellaGermania10, dating from his 1764 mission, Garampi writes that the German Electors were already busy devising limits which they intended to impose upon the rights of the pope. Furthermore, there was a general distrust of the Holy See’s diplomatic envoys, which were characterised as sly Italians. In particular, during his numerous assignments to settle legal disputes between the princes and the Holy See, Garampi came to find just how contrary the intentions of those bishops were to the rights of the pope. The cleft between the national Church and Rome was continuously widening. In addition, it had struck Garampi that in the monasteries – with the exception of the Benedictine abbeys of Sankt Blasien and Kremsmünster – little or no effort was made to further scholarly research in philosophy or theology. He found a com- parable situation at the Catholic universities: there was too much dictation and learning by rote; attempts at reform were obstructed by the censorship exerted by the theological faculties; nor was methodical research fostered. In Garampi’s view, learning was stagnating in Catholic Germany, while the Protestant universities – manned by excellent professors who were better paid – flourished. The latter were bulwarks of ever-increasing rationalistic 8. This paragraph is based upon VANYSACKER, CardinalGiuseppeGarampi(1725-1792) (n. 4), 106-117, 132-134. 9. See also I.P. DENGEL, DiepolitischeundkirchlicheTätigkeitdesMonsignoreJosef GarampiinDeutschland1761-1763:GeheimeSendungzumgeplantenFriedenskongress inAugsburgundVisitationdesReichsstiftesSalem, Rome, 1905. 10. ASV, FG 77, 364r-367r. 998150.indb8150.indb 228383 118/06/158/06/15 110:540:54 284 D. VANYSACKER bias, where the new state functionaries, who would later enter into the service of the Catholic princes, were being trained. To combat the dangerous superiority of the Protestants and the unreli- ability of the Catholic princes, Garampi proposed two measures. First, he envisaged the installation of a permanent papal secret minister in Regensburg to keep a close eye on the discussions and the