Maximilianus Hell (1720-1792) - Munin

estore the studies at the universities of our hereditary realms, which now lie
with their backs broken, to their ancient status and spirit in the same manner as
the university studies were restored during the reign of the pious Emperor
Ferdinand II, at first in Vienna in the year 1623, and thereafter in all the cities of
the Austrian hereditary realms.
Finally, in a particularly long and bitter letter to the bishop, Hell laments over the dissolution
of the Society of Jesus, and what he calls the seminaria Antichristi (‘seminars of Antichrist’)
that had replaced the theology studies at the university since the Jesuit professors were
removed from their posts. As a result of the implementation of compulsory teaching in
German, knowledge of Latin had seen such a rapid decline among university students that
even mass at the University Church was now held in the vernacular. As a result, young
women attended, and flirted overtly with the (male) students. The fair sex would not have
been present, Hell argues, if only the masses had been celebrated in Latin as they used to be in
the ‘good old days’ before the suppression of the Society of Jesus. 321
In the elderly Hell’s arguments for the preservation (or restoration) of Latin, his old loyalties
ran together. As a Hungarus, he wished to see Latin prevail as the lingua franca of his
multiethnic fatherland. As a partisan of the conservative forces of the Catholic church, he
savoured a glorious past in which there existed a single, universal language for the servants of
God. As a representative of the Republic of Letters, he saw the benefits of the Latin language
for communication across linguistic and political boundaries. In this sense, he was indeed
facing backwards. But he was also a pragmatic.
Hell’s promotion of the Magyar language has been discussed in Section I.2.3 above. Given his
position as a mentor, and almost even a ‘censor’, of Sajnovics’ Demonstratio, certain
formulations are worth pointing to. The Sámi dialect, with its rich and to a large extent
protected vocabulary thanks to its isolation in the High North, ought to be used to enrich the
Hungarian language, it is argued. 322 Furthermore, the Demonstratio claims that Hungarian
(and Lappish) is a language that is inferior to no other language, even superior to many others
320 Hell to Bishop Eszterházy in Agria, dated Vienna 1 November 1790 (Vargha priv.): “[…] si inquam fructum
tulerit speratum, ut studia Universitatum in Regnis nostris hæreditariis penitus prostrata, ad statum, et spiritum
primævum restaurentur eo modo, quo sub pio Jmperatore Ferdinando II anno 1623 restaurata fuere Viennæ, et
subinde in aliis Urbibus Regnorum hæreditariorum Austriæ.”
321 Hell to Bishop Eszterházy in Agria, dated Vienna 11 November 1791 (Vargha priv.).
322 Aspaas in press (in Finnish).
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