Maximilianus Hell (1720-1792) - Munin

as a result of this dissolution of the Society of Jesus, I was utterly deprived of all
those assistants and adjuncts, paid by the Society of Jesus, who used to aid me
in my astronomical duties and activities. Thus, by my own efforts solely and
uniquely I must both do the calculations for the annual Ephemerides Astronomicae
and preside their publication, as well as take care of the planning,
conducting, and continuation of astronomical observations, and even take care
of my scientific correspondence with astronomers all over Europe (in addition to
Beijing in China); and whatever other astronomical tasks that called for my
attention, must be done without any assistants or adjuncts, solely and uniquely
by myself. In this time of hardship, I was left only with two choices: either to
bid farewell to my chair as Imperial and Royal Astronomer, if I wished to finish
my vast, three-volume work Expeditio Litteraria as promised, or to suppress
this work, if I decided to continue in my chair as an astronomer, a chair in which
I, for as long as the Society of Jesus existed, was helped by assistants in my
work.
Hell’s view, that the suppression of the Society of Jesus was detrimental to science, has been
adopted by most authors with pro-Jesuit leanings. On the other hand, Kastner-Masilko and
Haberzettl are by no means unique in their claim that astronomical activity was never
seriously affected by the sudden change of status from è Societate Jesu to exJesuita (from ‘of
the Society of Jesus’ to ‘ex-Jesuit’) that befell Maximilianus Hell and his colleagues. Given
the discrepancy between the two views, it appears necessary to give the issue a brief inquiry.
A lexical remark may be worthwile. As explained by Haberzettl, the term ex-Jesuit has at
least two meanings. It may include persons who: 353
1) either through voluntary exit or as the result of expulsion, left the Society
after having delivered their vows, usually after having spent a relatively long
part of their life as its member; 2) usually also those who, through the
suppression of the order that was sanctioned by the church in 1773, were freed
from their vows and forced to take another direction in their life.
Haberzettl has in his study chosen to employ the widest possible definition, so that even
Ignatius a Born, who left the order already as a novice, figures as “ex-Jesuit”. This subsection
sticks to the second definition and explores only the careers of members that were secularised
as a result of the Pope’s decree in 1773.
353 Haberzettl 1973, p. 9, quoting Ludwig Koch, Jesuitenlexikon , Paderborn 1934, p. 535: “[…] 1.) nach
Ablegung der Gelübde, meist nach verhältnismäßig langem Leben im Orden, diesen wider verlassen haben, sei
es durch freiwilligen Austritt oder durch Entlassung; 2.) gewöhnlich auch jene, die 1773 durch die kirchliche
Aufhebung der Gesellschaft Jesu von ihren Gelübden entbunden und zu einer anderen Laufbahn gezwungen
wurden.”
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