JACOB OF ELTZ AND THE COUNTER-REFORMATION IN TREVES:

Aggressive Measures.

The Reformation nowhere gained firm footing in the archdiocese of Treves, and the principal work of the Counter-Reformation there was to renovate the ancient régime. To this task Archbishop Jacob III. of Eltz (1567- 1581) applied himself. Born in 1510, of an old

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family of Treves, he rose early to the rank of a prebendary of the cathedral and, in 1547, to that of dean of the chapter. After he was elected archbishop, Apr. 7, 1567, he sought to secure his position by forming alliances with the strictly Roman Catholic states; in 1569 he proposed a Catholic league with the Duke of Alva in Brussels; and when, in the same year, by inspiration from the court of Munich, negotiations began with a view to the extension of the Landsberg League, he was one of the most zealous advocates for the admission of Alva to this league. But, owing to opposition on the Protestant and imperial side, the extensive plans made resulted in no more than the accession to the league of the two electors of Treves and Mainz. Under such conditions the league could not be what had been hoped, and Jacob lost interest in it, although there still survived a close bond between him and the courts of Brussels and Munich, the two centers of the Roman Catholic policy in respect to the empire. He supported, as far as possible, the Bavarian hopes with reference to Cologne (see GEBHARD II.), while both in advance of the imperial diets and pending their sessions he resisted every concession to the Protestants that overstepped the terms of the religious peace. In 1568 Roman Catholic worship was restored under the leadership of the Jesuit Tyraeus, in Neumagen, where the Count of Wittgenstein had procured an entrance for the new doctrines; and likewise the domain of the sometime imperial abbey of Prüm was cleansed of all heresy when, in 1576, it became incorporated with the electorate. In 1571 Jacob removed all non-Catholics from his court, a measure hitting mainly the nobility. In 1572 the order was issued that whoever desired to be received as citizen or inhabitant anywhere in the electorate must establish his Catholic faith. In 1577 the papal nuncio, Portia, could report that the electorate was free from all heresies. Jacob's further activity had to do with the reform of his own Church.

Reform of the Church.

At Easter, 1569, he was the first in Germany who solemnly swore to the decrees of Trent. Between Apr. and Oct., 1569, the council's decisions were announced in all parishes of the electorate. A liturgy elaborated by Jacob himself, with the assistance of certain Jesuits, was issued in 1574, as standard for worship, moral discipline, and matrimonial concerns. Portia's further counsels show why the previously attempted reforms were insufficient--there was lacking a competent clergy. What ecclesiastics were then available shared, for the most part, the general corruption of the Roman priests. Jacob, too, had directed his attention to this point at the very outset; he had sent for six scholars from the Roman Collegium Germanicum as assistants in 1568, and these were duly followed by others. Moreover, the Jesuits of Treves, where there had been a Jesuit establishment since 1560, stood in high honor with Jacob; in 1570 he fitted up for them the Minorite cloister in Treves, adding wealthy endowments so that their school soon flourished to such a degree that from 1573 to 1589 the average attendance is estimated at 1,000 students annually. In 1580 Jacob also founded a college for them at Coblenz. Yet the service rendered by all these useful auxiliaries became really sufficient only when through their help it became feasible to train up a suitable clergy. In vain did Portia, in 1577, bespeak the institution of a priestly seminary, and the project was first realized by Jacob's like-minded successor, John of Schönberg, in 1585. Jacob's reforming activity encountered difficulties in the attitude of the Treves cathedral chapter, which was not inclined to comply with the strict requirements of the Council of Trent; and again, the necessary placetum regium from the Brussels government for the Luxembourg domains of the archdiocese occasioned contentions over the prerogatives of the spiritual and the temporal power. On the other hand, the incorporation of the abbey of Prüm as a part of the archbishopric of Treves was a great gain; its opulent resources accrued to the benefit of Jacob's endeavors in the cause of reform. The rejection in 1580 by imperial decision of the claim of the city of Treves to hold charter immediately of the empire likewise strengthened the cause of the Counter-Reformation.

Jacob's Achievement.

Jacob died June 4, 1581. Neither his personality nor his activity can be called great; but the way once having been pointed out, even lesser intellects, led by capable counselors, could carry through the Counter-Reformation. True, the status of the archdiocese was not entirely satisfactory at the time of Jacob's death; but his zealously Catholic-minded successor, John of Schönberg, continued the work along Jacob's lines, and completed the reforms by him begun. Out of the schools of the Jesuits there eventually grew up a generation submissive to the Church; and in many channels of activity the fathers of the Society of Jesus imparted their spirit to the population at large. In connection with the revival of church life, Jacob himself had shown the best of examples; the Roman nuncios continually praise his manner of life, his zeal, his loyalty to the papal see, and hold him up as a pattern for all German prelates. If he did not succeed in accomplishing the reform completely, the decisive turn came to pass under his administration.

WALTER GOETZ.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: C. von Stramberg, Rheinischer Antiquarius i. 2, pp. 295 sqq., Coblenz, 1863; J. Marx, Geschichte des Erzstifts Trier, vol. i., Trier, 1858; A. Kluckhohn, Briefe Friedrichs des Frommen, Brunswick, 1867-70; M. Lossen, Der kölnische Krieg, Gotha, 1882; J. Ney, Die Reformation in Trier, 1559, Halle, 1906.