The monastic erudition of the old religious orders was a pillar of the Catholic Enlightenment within the Holy Roman Empire and many other European countries. Despite the enormous importance the monks had as champions of programmatic Enlightenment ideas, few of their original texts are available in modern editions. The present edition contributes to filling this lacuna by making available the main work of the Benedictine monk, Beda Mayr (1742-1794), who developed a modern and ecumenical Catholic theology. Diese Edition macht das Werk "Vertheidigung der katholischen Religion" (1789) des...

This book offers the first comprehensive overview of the Catholic Enlightenment in Europe. It surveys the diversity of views about the structure and nature of the movement, pointing toward the possibilities for further research. The volume presents a series of comprehensive treatments on the process and interpretation of Catholic Enlightenment in France, Spain, Portugal, Poland, the Holy Roman Empire, Malta, Italy and the Habsburg territories. An introductory overview explores the varied meanings of Catholic Enlightenment and situates them in a series of intellectual and social contexts. The...