You are here

Church and university

Reinhard Strohm

In founding the ducal university college (Collegium ducale), Duke Albrecht III in 1384 granted the young university important access to the prebends of St Stephen’s Church by promising eight of the twelve professors of the college expectancies to canonries there. Rudolf IV had already established the personal union of the university chancellor with the provost of the chapter.[37] University services in Viennese churches and the participation of university members in processions were also regulated, as already outlined in Rudolf’s foundation (cf. Ch. Duke Rudolf’s regulations for the services at St Stephen’s). According to the statutes, the entire corporation took part in the feasts of St Gregory (12 March)[38] and St Benedict (21 March) at the Schottenkloster, and since 1472 also in the feast of St Augustine (28 August) at the Augustinian Church. The patron saint of the university was St George, on whose feast day (23 April) the deanery elections and graduation ceremonies were held.[39] Since 1385, the university held solemn processions on Marian feast days, leading to specific churches and monasteries: Candlemas on 2 February (St Stephen’s), the Annunciation on 25 March (Dominicans), the Assumption on 15 August (Carmelites), the Nativity of Mary on 8 September (Schotten), the Immaculate Conception on 8 December (Maria am Gestade), and since 1389 also the Visitation on 2 July (Dominicans).[40] Each faculty celebrated annual feasts in honour of their particular patron saints. The theologians celebrated the Apostle John (27 December) at the Dominican Church; the artists honoured St Catherine of Alexandria (25 November) at St Stephen’s; since 1429 the lawyers held their annual feast for St Ivo (19 May) in their faculty chapel; the medical faculty celebrated Sts Cosmas and Damian (27 September) at St Stephen’s.[41] For the medical feast, a procession was held with the saints’ relics; in 1436, 1465, and many later years, the cantor, organist, and “levites” (choirboys) of St Stephen’s took part in the Mass.[42] “Cantores” were also involved in the Catherine feast of the artists at least since 1412. Naturally, academic services were also held on other occasions and accompanied by music, especially on the patronal feasts of the various “nations”.[43]

[37] Grass 1967, 482–487.

[38] On 12 March 1421, over 200 Viennese Jews were burned in Erdberg by order of Duke Albrecht V, as reported, among others, by theology professor Thomas Ebendorfer (Lhotsky 1967, 370 f.).

[39] Zapke 2015, 87 f.

[40] Gall 1970, 85–86; Flotzinger 2014, 44–47, 54 f.

[41] Gall 1970, 34, 86 f.; Zapke 2015, 88 f.

[43] Mantuani 1907, 283 and note 1; Enne 2015, 379 f.