Maximilianus Hell (1720-1792) - Munin

Catholic cities and provinces, at the Honourable Father Preachers’ and ex-Jesuit
Missionaries’”. 295
The reference to Hell as “Honourable Father … of the Society of Jesus”, the naming of
canonised representatives of the same Society (Xavier, Aloysius and Ignatius Loyola), the
supposed existence of a Jesuit press and even of ex-Jesuit missionaries – all was neatly
phrased in order to nail the Viennese court astronomer as a spearhead of anti-tolerant schemes
against the freemasons. Other attacks on Hell’s reputation came in newspapers and other
ephemeral publications such as the Oesterreichische Biedermanns-Chronik, Wienerische
Kirchenzeitung, Briefe aus dem Himmel and Phantasten- und Prediger-Almanach in the mid-
1780s. In one of these series, he was even listed as having died – morally speaking – in the
year 1773, in the midst of his “struggle for the good cause”. 296 Freedom of press took its toll
on the ex-Jesuit.
A visitor to Vienna in the autumn of 1784, the German-speaking Danish citizen Friedrich
Münter (1761-1830) has left a detailed diary that can be compared to the testimony of Hviid
from six years earlier. Like Hviid, Münter was on a study trip, transcribing old manuscripts
and visiting libraries and archives. Unlike Hviid, however, Münter was a freemason, and on
the very day of his arrival in Vienna, he visited Ignatius a Born. In fact, during his seven
weeks in the Austrian capital (from 30 August to 20 October 1784), Münter paid visits to the
Born family virtually every day. He also visited the papal nuntius, Garampi, whom he appears
to have sympathised with despite his papal allegiance. It was through Garampi that Münter
was introduced to Father Hell, “a thin, deteriorated little man, in whom the sly Jesuit is at the
same time before one’s eyes”. 297 Münter paid only three visits to him, but heard from various
sources enough sensational rumours about this famous ex-Jesuits to fill several pages of his
diary.
According to Münter, the Society of Jesus was never really suppressed. It still prospered not
only in Russia, but even in the Austrian lands, where there were supposed to exist four large
prelatures – in Oenipontum, Leopolis, Vienna and a fourth (unnamed) place. The Jesuits were
295 [Born] 1786, p. 231: “Acceptabuntur autem Subscriptiones in omnibus catholicis urbibus & provinciis, apud
RR. PP. Concionatores & Missionarios Exjesuitas.”
296 See Steinmayr 2010e, esp. pp. 271-273, here p. 272.
297 Münter, Tagebuch 1937, p. 62 (entry 7 September 1784): “einen magern verfallenen kleinen Mann, dem man
aber den pfiffigen Jesuiten gleich ansieht”.
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