Feine exemplarische Priester? Die Disziplinierung des Säkularklerus durch das Passauer Offizialat von 1580 bis 1652 im Spiegel der Passauer Protokolle.

This paper deals with the contribution of the Passau Officialate in Vienna to the Catholization of the rural clergy in Lower Austria from 1580 to 1652. Three Officials (Melchior Khlesl, Karl von Kirchberg, Martin Geiger) were chosen and for their time in office samples were drawn up, naming and quantifying the offences for which parish priests were summoned to the Consistory. In considering the fields of often conflicting forces in the process of Catholization, it became apparent that the Officialate was the weakest player and was limited by the other Catholic players to its role in forming exemplary priests. The Passauer Protokolle documenting the sessions of the Official and his assessors, preserved in the Diocesan Archives of Vienna (Diözesanarchiv Wien) and the Bavarian Main State Archive (Bayerisches Hauptstaatsarchiv) in Munich, serve as the foremost source. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]