Maximilianus Hell (1720-1792) - Munin

said to hold secret nocturnal meetings in Vienna, over which Hell presided as the Superior, or
“Grosmeister”. 298 Moreover, the court astronomer allegedly cultivated close contacts with the
Jesuit order in Russia and profited from support from a network of Jesuit-friendly bishops like
the one in Agria in Hungary (see below). Throughout, Münter characterises Hell as an
extremely dishonest man, who complained about “die unglaubigen Zeiten” (‘this age of no
faith’) and saw little value in the freedom of the press, which he preferred to call
“Zügellosigkeit” (‘recklessness’). 299 In sum, Hell was one of those 300
elected munitions of God, fighting to prevent the creed of the Jesuits to become
extinct, and he really devotes himself with all his might in this struggle. A substantial
part of the pamphlets directed against the Emperor passes through his
hands. He either writes them himself, or orders others to write them, and
thereafter passes them on to his beastly-horned [i.e., Satanic] colleague, who
immediately submits them to be printed in the press of the Order.
Both Münter and Born were not only Freemasons, they were even members of the so-called
illuminati (“Illuminaten”), a secretive order of brothers who were driving forces of what some
scholars describe as the “counter-counter-Reformation” in German-speaking parts of
Europe. 301 In the face of adversaries like these, it is little wonder that Maximilianus Hell was
searching for new alliances. Not all was broken, though, and while many of the rumours
entered in Münter’s diary are no doubt exaggerations, they are in part confirmed by Hell
himself in his preserved correspondence with the historian and fellow ex-Jesuit Georgius Pray
from the years 1781-82. 302 Moreover, Hell’s contacts with several conservative bishops are
well documented. One particular contact merits special consideration.
298
Münter 1937, pp. 83-85 (entries on 26 and 27 September 1784), here p. 85.
299
Münter 1937, p. 77 (entry on 23 September 1784).
300
Münter 1937, pp. 65-66 (entry on 11 September 1784): “[…] die Auserwälten Rüstzeuge Gottes, die Lehre
der Jesuiten nicht aussterben zu lassen, u. er strebt auch pro viribus darnach. ein grosser Theil der gegen den
Kaiser gerichteten Schriften geht durch seine Hände. er schreibt sie entweder selbst, oder lässt sie schreiben, und
dann schickt er sie zu seinem theuererkohrnen Collegen, der sie gleich der Presse in der Ordensdrukerey giebt.”
301
Amongst the output of literature of a more or less academic nature on the illuminati, those who read
Norwegian are advised to consult Sørensen 2007.
302
Particularly intriguing is a letter from Hell to Pray in Buda, dated Vienna 27 June 1782 (EL Budap). Hell here
explains that he has been kept busy by a “a lot of negotiations” with the Pope when he visited Vienna earlier in
that year, and since then by partly writing, partly advicing others to write, partly facilitating the publication and
distribution of numerous pamphlets in answer to the “deluge of writings directed against the Pope, the Church,
the Ecclesiasts, the faithful, the good morale etc. that flood our city and its surroundings, even the very Empire”
= “Præsentia Pontificis, quocum mihi plurima agenda erant, tum colluvies libellorum contra Papam, Ecclesiam,
Ecclesiasticos, Religiosos, bonos mores etc: urbem nostram Viciniamque, imò ipsum Jmperium inundans”.
Moreover, Hell adds that “I say nothing about the things I am secretely doing here in Vienna for the sake of
protecting the Religion, things I do all the more safely because no one will suspect that it is an astronomer who is
treating theological and ecclesiastic subjects” = “taceo illa, quæ hic Viennæ pro servanda Religione secretissime
ago, id quod securius facio, cum nemini suspicio oriri possit, Astronomum esse, qui Theologica, et Ecclesiastica
tractet.”
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