Book Review

Europe: Early Modern and Modern

Once a sleepy corner of early modern studies, Austria in the past several years has received significant new attention from a talented group of historians in the English-speaking world. There have been a prize-winning biography of Emperor Maximilian II (Paula Sutter Fichtner, Emperor Maximilian II [2001]), an insightful examination of the Austrian nobility (Karin MacHardy, War, Religion and Court Patronage in Habsburg Austria [2002]), and a thoughtful consideration of the Catholic Reformation in Styria (Regina Pörtner, The Counter Reformation in Central Europe: Styria 1580–1630 [2001]). Joseph F. Patrouch's book belongs to this growing body of literature that examines what is arguably the most critical period in the development of the Habsburg lands. The dramatic spread of Protestantism combined with the political aspirations of the Austrian nobility led to a great crisis of authority that culminated in the early seventeenth century. In an effort to understand how the Habsburgs and their allies confronted this challenge, Patrouch has turned to the region of Upper Austria, where he has carefully sifted through the records of local archives to present a fascinating story of how authority was constructed in this troubled period.	1
Patrouch organizes his study into five major divisions. He first presents an overview of the Upper Austrian lands. In a discussion ranging from peasant life to characteristics of the local dialect, he sets the context in which religious and political leaders endeavored to preserve Catholicism in a territory dominated by a Protestant nobility. Patrouch argues that the fragmented nature of authority in Upper Austria made it impossible to reimpose the old faith unilaterally. As he illustrates in the chapters that follow, the religious question was carefully negotiated between various centers of power in the region. Visitation records in Upper Austria clearly reflect tensions between these groups. Conflict between the Habsburgs and the diocesan leaders of Passau often meant that the actual administration of ecclesiastical affairs was left to the local seigneuries. Patrouch devotes the third and fourth section of his monograph to these regional centers of power. In a useful contrast to the better known efforts of the Jesuits, he focuses on the contributions of the Benedictines. He first turns to the abbey of Gleink, where he discovers that financial pressure drove many of the confessional reforms of its energetic abbot, Georg Andreas. He then shifts his attention to the larger abbey of Kremsmüunster and discusses the expanding power of its judges. Patrouch contends that the reforms of these often neglected bureaucrats were essential for the success of the Counter-Reformation in Upper Austria. The final section of the book is devoted to the experience of women, who often first felt the newly expanded powers of church and state during this period.	2
This is not a standard narrative of events in Upper Austria in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. There are only passing references to this region's most important political leader, Georg Erasmus Tschernembl, and no substantive discussion of the critical 1619 revolt, when the fiery Calvinist and his Upper Austrian allies joined forces with the Bohemian rebels against the Habsburgs. In terms of religion, Patrouch does not focus on many of the traditional concerns of the Catholic Reformation. The cults of local saints, the activities of confraternities, the revival of pilgrimage routes—themes that were more central to Philip Soergel's investigation (Wondrous in His Saints: Counter-Reformation Propaganda in Bavaria [1993])—are not featured here. It is in some respects better to see Patrouch's book as an extended reflection on the problem of lordship or Herrschaft in the Habsburg lands. The groundbreaking work of Otto Brunner fifty years ago has inspired a whole generation of historians to examine issues of authority in various regional contexts. Patrouch is part of this cohort of scholars, and his investigation of the Upper Austrian setting provides us with an important analysis of the complex workings of power in Central Europe.	3
Howard Louthan University of Florida

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