Freiburg

City, archdiocese, and university in the Archduchy of Baden, Germany .

THE CITY

Freiburg in Breisgau, the third largest city in Baden, is beautifully situated at the foot of the Schwarzwald mountains on both banks of the Dreisam. The census of 1 December, 1905, gave the number of its inhabitants as 76,286, of whom 53,133 were Catholics. The city was founded in 1120 by Conrad, a member of the Swabian House of Zähringen, which rules in Baden even to this day. According to the original city charter, which is still in existence, the city was from the beginning a market or commercial centre, and all the privileges then enjoyed by the citizens of Cologne were granted to the merchants and other citizens who settled in Freiburg. It became a flourishing town even during the lifetime of its founder. In 1146 Bernard of Clairvaux preached the crusades there. It appears that under Berthold IV (1112-1186), Conrad's successor, the erection of a Romanesque cathedral was begun. After the death of Berthold V (son of preceding), Freiburg was inherited by his brother-in-law, Count Egon I of Urach. The consort of Egon II (1218-36) induced the Dominican Fathers to settle in Freiburg, and founded at Adelhausen the Dominican nunnery, renowned in the history of German mysticism. Among the famous Dominicans connected in some degree with Freiburg were Albert the Great and John of Freiburg, while Berthold the Black (der schwarze Berthold), the supposed inventor of gunpowder, was a member of the local Franciscan convent. The city took advantage of the pecuniary embarrassment of its lords to purchase important rights and liberties. Ludwig of Bavaria, whom the city assisted in his war against Frederic the Fair, confirmed (1339) by a Bulla Aurea (golden charter) all the concessions and privileges of Freiburg and granted it an independent municipal court. A serious quarrel arose between the city and Count Egon IV (1358-68), but in 1368 the count gave up all his rights to Freiburg, and the city placed itself voluntarily under the suzerainty of Austria, and for more than five centuries it shared the fortunes of the House of Hapsburg.

As early as 1247, the municipal council calculated the inhabitants to number 4000, and at the end of the fourteenth century the town contained 1778 buildings, twenty of which were monasteries. In 1393 the council was composed of 12 nobles, 12 merchants, 18 guild-masters, and 6 specially elected members of guilds. In 1415, Freiburg which had given refuge to Pope John XXIII (April 10-16) after his flight from Constance, was made a free imperial city ( freie Reichsstadt ), but was reconquered by the Austrians in 1425. In 1456, Archduke Albert founded its university (see below). The city was afterwards made the seat of government for Hither Austria and attained to a high degree of prosperity, especially during the reign of Maximilian I. Many Renaissance edifices were built, some of which still adorn the city; the famous minster ( cathedral ) was decorated with fine paintings by Hans Baldung, its choir being consecrated in 1513. The diet of the empire met here in 1498.

The great social and religious disturbances of the sixteenth century exerted a most detrimental influence on the prosperity of the city. In 1524, the rebellious peasants surprised the castle on the Schlossberg, captured the city, and forced the inhabitants to pay tribute. The city council and citizens in general had little sympathy with the Reformation, and, although the new doctrine found some adherents in the beginning, its propagation was effectually hindered by the Austrian Government, the city council, and the university (see ZASIUS, ULRICH). IN 1529, Freiburg became the residence of the cathedral chapter of Basle, driven from that city by the Reformation (see BASLE-LUGANO). In spite of repeated epidemics, the sixteenth century was considered on the whole a prosperous period for the city. The Thirty Years War brought with it much suffering. Freiburg was besieged five times, captured four times and lost about two-thirds of its population by contagious diseases. Hardly had the city recovered from these disasters, when Louis XIV began his predatory wars on Germany. In 1677, Freiburg was taken by the French and converted into a formidable fortress by Vauban. In the course of this transformation, 14 churches and 4 monasteries were demolished. The French supremacy lasted only a short time, and Freiburg was restored to Austria by the Peace of Ryswick in 1697. On two later occasions it was held by the French for a short time, in 1713-14 during the War of the Spanish Succession (1744-48). These two wars destroyed the prosperity of the city so completely that in 1754 the number of its inhabitants sank to 3655, of whom at least one third were in a state of beggary.

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Hardly had Freiburg begun to flourish again under Maria Theresa and Joseph II, whose reform measures were executed partly in the Breisgau, when the French Revolution broke out. By the treaty of Campo Formio (1787), Freiburg and all Breisgau was ceded to the Duke of Modena, but a little later, by the Treaty of Pressburg (1805), it reverted to the house of Zähringen. The city swore allegiance to the new Archduke of Baden on 30 Jan., 1806. The new government immediately abolished most of the monasteries and convents, or converted them into educational institutions. It abolished also the ancient representative system of the "estates", or the three ranks of the social order (Clergy, nobles, bourgeois). In 1821, Freiburg became the metropolitan see of the newly-founded province of the Upper Rhine (see BADEN), and in 1827 the first archbishop took possession of the see. In the revolution of 1848-49, Freiburg played an important part, becoming at its close the seat of the provisional revolutionary government. Since then the city has flourished wonderfully; the number of its inhabitants has increased from 25,000 in 1872 to nearly 80,000 at the present time (1909), and its university is attended by 2900 students.

Freiburg is the residence of an archbishop, metropolitan of the ecclesiastical province of the Upper Rhine, and is the seat of his ecclesiastical administration, and of one of the deaneries of the diocese. Including the recently incorporated suburbs, the city has now 7 Catholic parishes, one parochial curacy ( Pfarrkuratie ), 22 churches and chapels ; 68 priests ; 17 institutions of the Vincentian Sisters of Charity (212 members); 4 houses of the Franciscan Sisters of Charity (39 members); 5 convents of the Sisters of Charity of the Holy Cross (61 members); a theological faculty at the university, an archiepiscopal theological seminary ; an archiepiscopal residential gymnasium; a Catholic high school for girls, etc. The most prominent among the numerous charitable institutions conducted by Catholic sisterhoods are: St. Joseph's Hospital ; St. Charles' Home (for pensioners); St. Ann's Home, for women engaged in business; St. Mary's Home, for servant girls, with employment bureau; St. Francis' Home for the aged; St. Elizabeth's Home (house-keeping and boarding school ); Home for Apprentices and Journeymen, etc. Catholic sisters are also in charge of a number of institutions belonging to the municipality, for example the Hospital of the Holy Ghost, the Home for Beneficed Clergymen, the Kartause (poor-house), the People's Kitchen, the orphan asylum in Günterstal, and the large clinical hospital connected with the university. They also conduct two kindergartens, four industrial schools, two house-keeping schools, and five schools for small children.

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The minster, one of the few existing Gothic cathedrals, completed in the Middle Ages, ranks first among the city churches. Its oldest parts, the transept and the intersection of nave and transept, were constructed during the thirteenth century in Romanesque style. The new part (Early Gothic) was begun in 1250, when the corner-stone of the tower (380 feet) was laid, and was completed in the fourteenth century. In 1354, the choir (Late Gothic) was begun, but operations were suspended in 1370, and resumed only after a lapse of one hundred years. In 1513, the cathedral was practically finished. The minster is rich in art treasures, of which the most notable are: the painting over the main altar by Hans Baldung (1511-17); the choir-chapel with paintings by the elder Lucas Cranach and Hans Holbein (the Elder and the Younger); the artistic windows in the side-aisles, dating in part from the fourteenth century; lastly the decorations in the vestibule with an aggregate of over 200 figures, one of the most elaborate examples of medieval theological symbolism and popularly attributed to Albert the Great. Among the other churches are: St. Martin's (Gothic) erected for the Franciscans during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, renovated and ornamented with a tower, 1876-93 (Hansjakob, St. Martin zu Freiburg im Breisgau als Kloster und Pfarrei, Freiburg, 1890); the University church (1630-40), erected by the Jesuits (Baroque) and used by the Old Catholics, 1875-94; the church of the Sacred Heart, erected 1892-97 (Later Romanesque and Rhenish Transition style); St. John's (1894-99); St. Michael's Chapel in the old cemetery (1744), the vestibule of which is decorated with a remarkable "Dance of Death" .

THE ARCHDIOCESE

It includes the Grand Duchy of Baden , the Hohenzollern possessions of the Prussian Crown, bounded by Baden and Würtemberg, together with some few places in Würtemberg. The Catholic population is 1,263,280, according to the census of 1905. The suffragans of Freiburg are the Bishops of Fulda, Limburg, Mainz, and Rottenburg. The archbishop is elected by the cathedral chapter, but the names of the candidates must be submitted to the sovereign, who has the right to cancel the names of candidates not acceptable to him, provided that a sufficient number remain on the list to allow a choice. The cathedral chapter consists of the dean [at present (1909) the auxiliary bishop Dr. Fr. Justus Knecht, titular Bishop of Nebo ], 6 canons and 6 prebendaries. The ordinariate consists of the archbishop, the members of the chapter, of 2 other priests and 2 laymen. The ordinariate is the archiepiscopal metropolitan court; the archiepiscopal diocesan court is termed the officialate (6 members). The church property is administered, partly by the ordinariate and partly by the civil body known as the Catholic "Oberstiftungsrat" at Karlsruhe (see BADEN). The pastoral work of the archdiocese is carried on by two incorporated parishes (the cathedral parish of Freiburg and the parish of Sankt Peter), and by 43 deaneries (4 in Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen), with 911 parishes and parochial curacies (Pfarrkuratien), 116 chaplaincies and 165 other pastoral charges.

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In January, 1909, the secular clergy of the archdiocese consisted of 904 rectors and curates, 281 chaplains and vicars, 106 other active priests (professors, teachers, editors, etc.), 107 priests retired or on leave of absence: a total of 1398, besides 80 regular priests. The diocesan institutions for the education of the clergy are: the seminary in the former Benedictine monastery of Sankt Peter; the theological seminary in Freiburg, whose students frequent the university ; and the 5 archiepiscopal gymnasia of Freiburg, Constance, Rastatt, Tauberbischofsheim and Sigmaringen. In the university, eleven priests and professors of Catholic theology and their lectures were attended in the summer-semester of 1909 by 224 students. Male religious orders are excluded from Baden proper by civil law. In the Hohenzollern section of the archdiocese, there are three monasteries for men: the Benedictines at Beuron (61 priests, 9 clerics, and 89 lay brothers ), the Franciscans at Gorheim (12 priests, 12 clerics, and 10 lay brothers ), and the mission house of the White Fathers at Haigerloch (47 fathers and 6 lay brothers ). The religious institutions for women are: the Ladies of the Holy Sepulchre with an academy in Baden-Baden (40 sisters); the Benedictine Sisters in Habsthal, Hohenzollern (20 sisters); the Dominican Sisters with an academy in Constance (53 sisters); the Cistercians with an academy in Lichtenthal (54 sisters); the Choir Sisters of St. Augustine with an academy in Offenburg and one branch (43 sisters); the Ursulines with an academy in Villingen and in Breisach (40 sisters); the Vincentian Sisters of Charity, including the mother-house in Freiburg, 151 convents (all in Baden ), with 900 sisters ; the Franciscan Sisters of Charity with mother-house at Gengenbach, 154 houses (all in Baden ) and 727 sisters ; the Sisters of Charity of the Holy Cross from Ingenbohl (Switzerland), mother-house in Hegne near Constanz, 134 houses and 728 sisters (3 convents, 20 sisters in Hohenzollern); the Sisters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul (from Strasburg ) 11 convents, 72 sisters (7 houses with 50 sisters in Hohenzollern); the Sisters of Charity of Our Blessed Saviour from the mother-house in Oberbronn (Alsace), 57 convents (all in Baden ) and 410 sisters ; the Sisters of Charity of St. Francis from the mother-house in Mallersdorf (Bavaria), 2 houses in Baden, 18 sisters ; the Sisters of Charity of St. Joseph from St. Marx (Alsace), 18 convents in Baden and 52 sisters ; the Sisters of Charity of St. Francis from the mother-house in Limpertsberg (Luxemburg), 16 convents in Baden and 64 sisters ; the Sisters of Charity of St. Francis (mother-house in Oberzell near Würzburg ), 1 convent in Baden and 2 sisters ; the Sisters of Christian Love (mother-house in Paderborn ), 1 convent in Hohenzollern and 7 sisters. These sisters conduct numerous charitable works: 428 institutions for outdoor nursing, 98 hospitals, 17 endowed homes (Pfründenhäuser), 13 poor-houses, 7 crèches or infant asylums, 236 kindergarten schools, 56 orphanages, 4 business-girls' homes, 12 servant-girls' homes, 13 homes for working-women, 10 high-schools for girls, 12 schools of domestic economy, 121 industrial schools, 6 evening schools, 1 institution for the manufacture of church vestments, 7 peoples' kitchens, 4 apprentices' and journeymen's homes, 6 homes for girls, 19 homes for the care of the sick and aged.

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General statistics relative to the Catholic associations of the archdiocese are lacking. The most notable among these societies are: St. Boniface Society (Bonifatiusverein), which had an income of over $130,000 in 1907, and ranks first (financially) among all diocesan societies ; the Volksverein for Catholic Germany ; Catholic "Gesellenvereine" or journeymen's unions with branches in 56 different localities; the Catholic Workmen's Society with 154 branches; the Catholic Workwomen's Society, 8 branches; the Catholic Apprentices' and Young Men's Society, 38 branches; the Vincentian Society ; Society of St. Charles Borromeo ; Congregation of Mary, for boys and girls; the Infant Jesus Society ; Society of the Holy Family, etc. The archdiocese has 30 Catholic newspapers and periodicals. The most important churches of the Grand Duchy have been mentioned in the article BADEN; the most important churches in Hohenzollern are those of Haigerloch, Hechingen and Sigmaringen.

The foundation and history of the archdiocese have been treated exhaustively under BADEN; also, the relations between the Church and the State (II, 195-200). It only remains to add a few remarks concerning the Hohenzollern section of the archdiocese.

The two principalities, Hohenzollern-Hechingen and Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, which formerly belonged to the Diocese of Constance, were joined to the Archdiocese of Freiburg, when the province of the Upper Rhine was created by the concordats of 18-27 Oct., and 14-21 Nov., 1821. Both princes had pledged themselves to carry out the Josephist principles which then prevailed in the other states of the Upper Rhine province, though they were the only Catholic sovereigns of the province and reigned over an almost exclusively Catholic population. Both governments consequently exercised all the rights which Febronianism and Josephinism claimed for the secular government as its inalienable jus circa sacra , and restricted ecclesiastical authority as much as possible. The "Regium Placet", or civil control of papal and episcopal decrees, was rigorously enforced. Taxes and contributions for the pope and "foreign" ecclesiastical superiors were prohibited; the archbishop's jurisdiction was held subordinate even in spiritual matters to the civil authority ; the cathedral chapter was placed in a position of administrative equality with the bishop, and even episcopal acts were subjected to the most scrutinizing supervision and arbitrary control of the civil power (jus supremæ inspectionis). The government, especially in Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, sought to secure a predominating influence in matters concerning divine worship, marriages (by introducing the Josephist matrimonial legislation), the education and pastoral duties of the clergy, appointments to ecclesiastical benefices, and the administration and employment of church property . Furthermore, it compelled the clergy, monasteries, and confraternities to contribute to the support of higher and elementary education and charitable institutions. The Hohenzollern princes, however, were well disposed towards the Church, hence these pretensions of the civil power were enforced much less rigorously in their principalities than in the Baden section of the archdiocese and other parts of the ecclesiastical province of the Upper Rhine.

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The innovations of Wessenberg ( Vicar-General of the Diocese of Constance, and, until 1827, acknowledged as such by both Hohenzollern and Baden governments, despite the protests of the pope ) affected the liturgy, processions, pilgrimages, confraternities, the number of holidays of obligation, and included the introduction of the German language into the Mass and also the so-called liturgical confession and communion. To the credit of the Hohenzollern princes, it must be said that they hindered rather than promoted these innovations, which are so alien from the true spirit of the Church. In various other ways, also, these princes were helpful to the interests of the Church. They assisted the ecclesiastical authorities to bring up a moral and zealous clergy, regulated by decrees the observance of Sunday, strove in union with the Church to suppress immorality, made a strong stand against the pietistic movement which originated in the Haigerloch deanery, and opposed the spread of the rationalistic book entitled "Stunden der Andacht" (Hours of Devotion). They also bound the clergy to give catechetical instruction regularly in the schools. In general, however, though no violence was used to enforce the principles of Josephinism, the activity of the Church was in many ways restricted and paralyzed; her property rights, above all, were greatly interfered with. The wrongs committed in this respect were so great that the clergy, most of whom had been brought up in the principles of Febronianism and Josephinism, and many of whom favoured the abolition of the breviary and of celibacy, presented an unavailing petition to the government in 1831 for gentler treatment.

The situation became more favourable, when in 1849 these two principalities were by treaty annexed to Prussia under King Frederick William IV. Thanks to the king's friendly disposition towards the Church and the untiring efforts of Archbishop Hermann von Vicari, the Catholics of Hohenzollern soon secured the same liberties as those then allowed to the Prussian Catholics. The Church was permitted to erect monasteries, and to re-establish fraternities. Missions were again held, pilgrimages became more popular and a general revival of religious life took place. Unfortunately the Kulturkampf, though originating in Prussia, was also felt in Hohenzollern, now part of the Prussian Kingdom, although the so-called May Laws and other persecuting enactments were not enforced there so strictly as in Prussia proper. The Benedictine monastery at Beuron, the Jesuit novitiate at Gorheim near Sigmaringen, and the Franciscan convent at Stetten near Hechingen were suppressed; the teaching sisters, the Sisters of Christian Charity, and the Sisters of the Holy Cross (Ingenbohl) were expelled. It was forbidden to appoint or install any more parish priests, curates, etc. Two temporary rectors of churches, appointed in spite of this prohibition, were imprisoned, and Lothar von Kübel, after Vicari's death administrator of the archdiocese for 14 years, was heavily fined for appointing priests to vacant parishes. Most of the clergy were deprived of the right of local school-inspection, but, in virtue of an old law (1809), were permitted to give religious instruction. At the close of the Kulturkampf, better relations were developed between Church and State, and continue in general to the present day.

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THE UNIVERSITY

For the foundation of its university Freiburg is indebted to Archduke Albrecht VI of Austria, who was entrusted by his brother, Emperor Frederick III, with the government of the Further Austrian territories. The idea was first conceived by Mechtild, the accomplished wife of Albrecht, and it was at her suggestion that he resolved to found the university, having obtained the sanction of Callistus III in the Bull of 20 April, 1455. The revenue of the university was ensured by the foundation of several benefices, and the incorporation of the cathedral parish of Freiburg, together with the parishes of Breisach, Ensisheim, and other places, in the new institution (Deed of 28 August, 1456), this endowment being approved by Frederick III. The town also made considerable contributions, although the foundation-brief of 21 September, 1457, granted the new university its own jurisdiction and immunity from taxation for its members. The real work of organization and the preparation of the constitution fell on the erudite Matthaeus Hummel of Villingen, and it was entirely due to his untiring zeal that the university could be opened with seven lecturers (four being theologians ) on 26 April, 1460. Matthaeus was solemnly elected in the cathedral as first rector, and, despite the initial modesty of the institution and the fewness of its lecturers, the university was attended during the first year of its academic existence by two hundred and fourteen students (including one hundred and eight theologians ), the majority of whom were from the Diocese of Constance, from Bavaria, Burgundy, and Lorraine.

The supreme authority over the university was vested in the rector, who was elected by the professorate for a single term. In the preservation of academical discipline, the rector was assisted by the senate (also called the consistory or regency), which usually comprised the preceding rector and three counsellors. Of the four faculties at the "Albertina", the faculty of arts was the most important. The course usually lasted three years, and included logic, dialectics, physics, mathematics, Aristotle and the peripatetics, poetry and oratory being added in 1471 and Greek in 1521. The most important lectures of this faculty during the first century of the university's existence were: Gregorius Reisch, a Carthusian, the teacher of Johann Eck and author of the "Margarita Philosophica", which treated of the totality of knowledge at the time ; Jacob Locher, called Philomusus, who translated Brant's "Narrenschiff" (Ship of Fools) into Latin; Philip Engelbrecht of Engen (Engentinus), a poet and a secret follower of Luther ; Henricus Loriti, called Glareanus, the renowned Latinist, musician, and geographer ; John Hartung, professor of Greek and Hebrew. In the theological faculty, which usually employed three lecturers in the sixteenth century, taught (at least for a short period) the following eminent scholars: Geiler of Kaisersberg, one of the university's earliest students; Johann Eck ; Thomas Murner ; Erasmus of Rotterdam, who had however never studied there, etc. The faculty of law, to which six regular professors were assigned in the sixteenth century, was long famous throughout Europe, thanks to Ulrich Zasius, the founder of modern political science. At this period three professors constituted the medical faculty, whose statutes had been sketched by Hummel himself. As a rule the students lived with their professors in residences or boarding-houses (the so-called Bursen ), of which there were seven at Freiburg, including the "Alte Burse ", the "Domus Carthusiana", and the "Collegium Sapientiæ". The university having attained so rapidly to renown, it was but natural that many of its professors should have been appointed to offices of high intellectual importance. From Freiburg the Chapter of Augsburg chose two, and Vienna three of its prince-bishops; the Chapters of Constance, Augsburg, Basle, and Speyer many of their suffragans, and the University of Vienna one of its chancellors.

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During the widespread confusion of the Reformation period which exercised so deleterious an effect on many of the German universities, Freiburg succeeded by its judicious and cautious attitude in maintaining its ground. It is indeed a fact that several of its professors were in correspondence with Luther, Zwingli, and Calvin ; that many others were suspected of favouring their innovations; that the senate itself censured Glareanus for inveighing so fiercely against Luther, Œcolampadius, and the other reformers in his lectures; still the university in general remained true to the ancient Faith, and through its influence the town became a bulwark of Catholicism. The university refused henceforth to enrol any students who had studied in Wittenberg or Leipzig, and after 1567 only those who declared on oath their acceptance of the Tridentine Confession of Faith were admitted. To secure a still more Catholic atmosphere, Archduke Ferdinand invited the Jesuits in 1577 to found a college in Freiburg, and to incorporate it in the university. This scheme, however, aroused such energetic opposition, especially from Jodocus Lorichius, professor of theology and founder of the Collegium Pacis ( Burse zum Frieden ) that it had to be laid aside. On 5 November, 1520, shortly after the outbreak of the Thirty Years War, the Jesuits were introduced into the university on the strength of a fiat of Archduke Leopold in spite of the opposition of the senate, and entrusted with the whole faculty of arts and temporarily with two of the theological chairs. From the rectorship and quæstorship, however, they were excluded, although the cathedral pulpit was soon resigned into their hands. The most renowned of the Jesuit professor at Freiburg was the astronomer, Christopher Scheiner, who left Freiburg finally in 1630. The frequent change of the fathers was indeed injurious to the university, at which too many remained but a very short time ; thus, in the faculty of arts alone, no fewer than 123 different Jesuits were employed as lecturers during the 153 years preceding the suppression of the order.

The seventeenth century, especially the Thirty Years War and the predatory wars of Louis XIV , brought the university to the brink of ruin. Almost all its funded property was lost, as well as a great portion of its income from the parishes, now sadly impoverished by pillage and fire. The professors were frequently compelled to wait years for their stipend, and in 1648 the number of students had fallen to 46. Emperor Leopold was the first to take steps to remove the financial difficulties, but, when the town was ceded to the French by the Peace of Nimwegen (1679), the majority of the professors and students migrated to Constance. The Jesuit Fathers remained and opened in 1684 a studium gallicanum under the patronage of Louis XIV, but it was not until some years later that the old personnel of the university could initiate academic courses in Constance. After the Peace of Ryswik (1697), the professorate returned from Constance to Freiburg, when the old contentions, which had so often broken out between the university and the Society of Jesus, were settled by the so-called "Viennese Transaction" of forty articles. According to this agreement, the Jesuits were still excluded from the rectorate, and were refused the precedence, which they had claimed; on the other hand they received the building of the "Alte Burse ", which they had previously occupied, as their private property, and in addition an increased annual stipend, as well as all arrears of salary.

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At the beginning of the eighteenth century the outlook of the university was far from hopeful, and in 1713 the members were compelled to secede once more to Constance, returning in 1715. Emperor Charles VI later increased the revenue of the university, whose staff again included many illustrious professors -- the jurists Stapf, Egermayer, Waizenegger, and Reinhart; the physicians Blau, Strobel, and Baader; the Jesuits Nicasius Grammatici and Steinmayer -- but the university never reached the educational level of the halcyon days of the sixteenth century. After the suppression of the Jesuits in 1773, their college buildings together with their church (built 1630-40) and Gymnasium Academicum were annexed in 1777 by Empress Maria Theresa to the university. The importance of the Albertina waxed greater with the increasing prosperity of the country. The new curriculum of studies, which Maria Theresacaused to be drawn up for the higher educational institutions of her dominions, was introduced into Freiburg, in 1767, and at first met with much opposition. Although this action of the university led to the withdrawal of many of its ancient privileges (e.g., its governmental independence), it paved the way for a more intimate connexion between the university and the government, and from this period dates the adoption of a more reasonable attitude by both parties.

The transformation of Further Austrian Breisgau to the House of Zähringen by the Peace of Pressburg (1805) seemed to menace greatly the position of Freiburg, since the new inconsiderable State of Baden possessed already in Heidelberg an older and more famous university. Thanks to the zealous efforts of the professors and town of Freiburg, however, their university was retained, and in 1807 the elector himself accepted the office of rector. Since then, the sovereign has always been " rector magnificentissimus" of the university, and confirms the annual election by the ordinary professors of the pro-rector to exercise the office of rectorship in his name. In 1816 the university was again threatened with dissolution, but the danger was obviated principally through the influence of Karl von Rotteck. The independence of the university was, however, seriously curtailed, and the curriculum reformed after the model of Heidelberg, for which purpose the revenue, which had fallen very low, was increased by a annual State grant amounting at first to 15,000 gulden. The attendance varied between 270 and 320 students. In 1818 the university sent one representative to the newly-created diet, at which von Rotteck, the historian, was its deputy for many years. In consequence of the opposition between the professors and the town, the university was closed in 1832 for a short period, of which the government took advantage to recognize the previous republican constitutions on a more oligarchical basis. The retention or relinquishment of the university was also the subject of debate; indeed, for thirty years the danger of dissolution lay ever threatening. The Revolution occasioned a brief closing of the university in May, 1849. In 1857 the solemn celebration of its 400th anniversary was held in the presence of the sovereign. The efforts of the Catholic party to restore to the university its initial purely Catholic character by securing for the archbishop, not alone a deciding voice in the appointment of theological professors, but also a certain right of supervision over the other faculties, were rendered ineffectual through the rejection of the concordat between Rome and the government by the Diet of Baden in 1859. Since then the Catholic characteristics of the university both in its professors and in its students, who are recruited mainly from North Germany, have become gradually impaired. When, after the establishment of the German Empire, a new university was founded in Strasburg, a serious decay of Freiburg was anticipated. Fortunately these forebodings proved to be groundless, since, while the number of students in 1872 was only 272 -- a figure which does not exceed the attendance during the first century of the university's existence -- it exceeded 1000 in 1885, 1500 in 1898, 2000 in 1904, and 2600 in 1908, thus placing Freiburg fifth in the list of German universities as regards attendance.

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Of the many scholars, who shed a lustre on the name of Freiburg at the close of the eighteenth and during the nineteenth centuries, the following (excluding those still living) may be mentioned; the theologians Engelbert Klüpfel, Johann Leonhard Hug, Heinrich Schreiber, historian of the town and University of Freiburg, Alban Stolz, the renowned popular author, and Franz Xaver Kraus, who wrote on the history of the Church and of fine arts ; the jurists Jodocus Riegger, Johann Caspar Ruef; the statesman Joseph Buss, Gustav Rümelin, who for many years represented the university in the first diet; the philologists and philosophers, Johann Georg Jacobi and Anton Baumstark; the physicians and scientists, Alexander Ecker, Adolf Kussmaul, Alfred Hegar, Anton de Bary.

The University of Freiburg at present contains four faculties: that of Catholic theology, that of law and political science, that of medicine, and that of philosophy, the last-mentioned being subdivided into philological-historical and mathematico-physical. At the beginning of 1909, the teaching staff consisted of 140 lecturers: 11 theologians, 16 jurists and political economists, 50 physicians, 43 in the first division of the philosophical faculty and 30 in the second. In the summer term of 1908 Freiburg was attended by over 2600 students, and in the winter term (1908-09) by 1966 matriculated (including 67 women ) and 153 private students. Of the sixty institutions connected with the university the most important are the large medical infirmaries (surgical, gynæcological, psychiatrical, optical) and general clinical hospitals ; the physical, geological, botanical, and zoological institutes; the academical reading-rooms. The university library contains 300,000 volumes, a large number of which belonged to the old cloister-libraries, and 700 manuscripts. The majority of the institutes possess excellent special libraries. The property of the university consists partly of invested capital to the value of 1,300,000 marks (about 300,000 dollars), and partly of unremunerative capital (e.g., the university buildings, etc.) to the value of 2,800,000 or, allowing for certain outstanding liabilities, 2,380,000 marks. According to the budget of 1908-09, its income was 1,075,300 marks, of which 958,500 was paid by the state. The expenditure, which equalled the income, was as follows: 475,600 marks for salaries of regular professors and officials; 132,200 for the extraordinary staff; 335,900 for the different institutions, and the remainder for sundry expenses.