This article provides a brief historical overview of the relationship between church and state over two millennia. The primary focus is on the significant transformations and modifications in the relationship between the church and the state. This is based on an analysis of the relevant passages in the Christian Holy Scripture about dealing with state authorities. After that, the decisive stages in the history of the Christian churches will be presented in overview, starting with the conflicts with the Roman Empire in ancient times, from the persecution of Christians to their rise to the state religion, the special role that Western Christianity was able to assume after the upheavals of the migration period, the medieval conflict between the papacy and the emperors, the modern-day incisions made by the Reformation and colonialism, the era of state church models up to the separation of church and state in the modern age and the challenges posed by the totalitarian systems in the 20th century. As far as possible, the programme also provides a glimpse beyond the European horizon to non-Western churches.

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By using Augustine of Hippo as an example, this essay aims to demonstrate that the practice of the Christian faith and the everyday existence of a member of the upper class in the Roman Empire are not incompatible. The orthodox rhetorical education they received ensured that this elite, regardless of religious affiliation, experienced the same worldview. However, even before Christianity was recognized as a legitimate religion, there existed diverse interpretations of Christianity that sought to distinguish themselves, such as distinct forms of asceticism or martyrdom. Augustine’s life reflects both ways of life: at first, he strove by all means to achieve a brilliant career in the world, but then he turned his back on it and concentrated on an ascetic-philosophical distance from his own ambitions. In the end, as a bishop, he was placed in the service of people before God and, precisely as a judge and arbitrator, bore responsibility for society.

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Using the example of the late medieval bishops of Minden, the article examines how the question ‘The church as a state?’ is to be answered concerning the territories of the ecclesiastical princes of the empire. After a look at the position of the bishops as the holders of their own principalities with corresponding rights, i.e. secular rights of rule, the relationship of the bishops to the kings or emperors of the Holy Roman Empire is first examined, whereby in the case of Minden it becomes clear that closer relationships with the head of the empire were rather the exception and often stemmed from kinship or other closer contacts that had been established before the episcopate. Subsequently, the focus is on the episcopal rule over the ecclesiastical principality. The study considers the restrictions on episcopal action, the bishop's rule in the prince-bishopric and his relationship with his neighbours. The study concludes that the bishops of Minden had little room for manoeuvre due to the difficult financial situation of their principality as well as the conflicts with their cathedral city and some of their neighbours. Their rule certainly had features that could be considered characteristics of a ‘state’, but since the episcopal territory was part of the Holy Roman Empire, the term ‘church as principality’ is more appropriate for the circumstances described than ‘church as state’.

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At a time when Papalism theories were at a peak, Ockham was one of the sharpest critics of the papacy until the end of his life. In his early academic writings, Ockham still valued papal decision-making powers as extensive and binding. However, in his later political writings, it becomes clear that if Papalism is exaggerated in a certain way, it dialectically turns into its opposite. This was paradigmatically demonstrated in the ‘poverty dispute’ between Pope John XXII and the Franciscan Order.

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The Roman Catholic Church was the dominant social force in the rural areas of Istria. The larger towns and cities, on the other hand, were characterized by liberalism and anti-clericalism. This contrast met with national attributions: Croatian and Slovenian Catholic-conservative rural population and liberal-nationalist Italian citizens. For this article, the archive holdings of the Volosca district administration, which also included the upcoming health resort of Abbazia/Opatija, were examined. The majority of the population was Croatian, although less nationalized than in other areas of Istria, there were conflicts, especially in the ecclesiastical sphere, which were encouraged by some politically activist priests. These were about religious instruction in the mother tongue, the language of registering and the use of the (Croatian) vernacular in mass celebrations and sacraments. The privilege of the Slavic liturgy, which was claimed by numerous priests, and the use of the Glagolica, which became a symbol of Croatian national self-confidence, were particularly strongly nationally and politically charged. The dispute finally also brought the Roman church headquarters to the scene, which tried to push back the Croatian national movement in the ecclesiastical sphere based on canonical criteria, which led to massive internal church conflicts. In this regard, the article examines the situation in the individual parishes and municipalities of the district of Volosca.

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Christianity is neither the sole root of democracy nor so inherently undemocratic that it could never be reconciled with modern democracy, as Catholicism at the beginning of the 20th century suggested. The biblical emphasis on equality has given Christianity a democratic impulse that has increasingly driven democratic developments throughout history. However, this first occurred on the left wing of the Reformation and influenced the development of democracy in the Anglo-Saxon world, while – as the example of Austria shows – the Catholic Church still struggled with democracy in the state in the 20th century. This only changed after the Second World War with Pope Pius XII and, above all, with the Second Vatican Council. However, the extent to which the Catholic Church embraces democracy remains controversial up to this day. In the face of populist aberrations and increasing social polarization, the socio-cultural prerequisites of democracy are now moving more strongly into the centre of socio-ethical reflection. Fraternity (brotherhood) is one of the most important prerequisites in this context. It is often neglected alongside equality and freedom, but it is indispensable for democracy if all politically necessary democratic debates are to be kept within the framework of mutual respect and mutual esteem.

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Communism, according to Marxist ideology, was based on the principle of a ‘secular state’ proclaimed since the French Revolution of 1789, which provided for the separation of church and state and of school and church. The most rigorous form of this ‘separation’ was carried out in the Soviet Union in the wake of the Russian Revolution of 1917. In effect, by separating the church from the state, the Soviet state denied the churches the right to internal autonomy and established the format in which the church, as a community of believers, could be officially registered with the authorities. Regardless of the proclaimed ‘freedom of conscience’, brutal persecution of the church began, which only changed with Stalin’s ‘new course’ during the Second World War. The authorities ended their policy of destroying the Orthodox Church and decided to allow a limited degree of church life in the USSR, albeit under total control and standardisation of church life. This new course was also implemented after the end of the Second World War in the churches of the countries that had newly come under communist rule. In principle, all legal possibilities for believers to exercise their right to ‘freedom of conscience’, which was declared in the constitution of the USSR, were limited to ‘worship’ in ‘specially designated places, under continued strict state control. Nevertheless, there were deviations and inconsistencies, with the GDR marking one extreme and the Soviet Union the other. In terms of the conference topic, the churches in communist countries are the historical examples where the conference title is least appropriate. Churches were allowed to exist in the communist state, especially since the 1960s, as private cult associations, but they were marginalised and lived in a ghetto, most of them conforming to the outside world.

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In March 1308, Count Henry VII of Luxembourg was residing at the papal curia in Poitiers, where he dictated a testament on behalf of Edward I, Count of Bar. Coming after half a century of dispute, this charter marked, unexpectedly, a reconciliation between the rival houses of Luxembourg and Bar. The latter family had been defeated by the king of France in 1301, but was nevertheless still playing an important role on the European political scene, thanks to his ties with the Plantagenets and the support of Boniface VIII. This article addresses several questions, amongst which are the delicate political-military relations between the principalities of Bar and Luxembourg in the thirteenth century; the real value of Henry’s testament and the role played by Clement V, Boniface’s successor, in promoting the initiative. Most importantly, it will assess its overall importance in revealing a carefully crafted political strategy on the part of the pope, who was planning, from his very coronation in 1305, to support Henry VII as an antagonist to Philip the Fair, King of France. It was that same strategy which a few months later, in November 1308, led to the election of Henry VII as King of the Romans.

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Based on the analysis of extensive documentation produced directly by Negrelli and which has remained virtually unexplored to date, the essay offers an articulate profile of the Tyrolean engineer Luigi/Alois Negrelli. He is remembered by historiography – with an often-distorted ideal profile – above all for one of the most important civil engineering achievements of the 19th century: the cutting of the Isthmus of Suez. He made a decisive contribution to this work not only in terms of design. He also involved the Central European society in its realization. However, his work as an engineer was not limited to designing the canal between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean. In fact, it extended to a vast network of communication infrastructures throughout the Central European area and northern Italy, which shows his multifaceted design versatility and at the same time his high ethical profile. At a time when national ideologies were degenerating into opposing nationalisms, Negrelli stood up to build bridges, construct roads and railways, to open channels that would make relations between different realities and nations easier in a climate of shared collaboration.

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Ferdinand de Lesseps and France made a decisive contribution to the piercing of Suez’s isthmus and the Suez Canal’s construction. Lesseps was the driving force behind the private joint-stock company Compagnie universelle du canal maritime de Suez, which built the canal from 1858–1869. Although France was not involved in the canal's construction as a State, the headquarters of the joint-stock company was located in France, the French capital was important, and Emperor Napoleon III supported the project. However, such a large undertaking can only be realized with the cooperation of many people. One of them was the engineer Alois Negrelli, who was born in the southern, Italian-speaking Tyrol. He designed the route of the canal without locks. Half a century after its construction, a grotesque dispute arose over the authorship of the canal. Starting with a lawsuit based on a claim for financial compensation by one of Negrelli’s daughters, the canal was successively described as a German, Austrian and Italian achievement. Thus, the canal became the object of nationalistic historiography in these countries. It was instrumentalized for pursuing anti-French and anti-British politics. Historiography itself was put in the service of nationalistic, chauvinistic politics. This article describes how this dispute – not a glorious chapter in the history of historiography – arose, evolved, and concluded.

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Far from being limited to a purely infrastructure project to speed up transport between Asia and Europe, the importance of the canal lay in a decisive change in global spatial organisation that would influence the patterns of global wealth distribution for decades to come. It enabled the expansion of a European free trade economy to East Asia and the Pacific region – with all its social and political consequences – and formed a decisive building block for the globalisation of the world economy. However, the canal was not geared towards the interests of the economies of Egypt and the region – on the contrary.

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In the memoirs of the time and the fiction, Franz Joseph is said to have had an almost friendly relationship with ‘his’ civil servants. However, the mutual relationship between the emperor and the bureaucracy was not only subject to change during the decades of his long reign. The perspective from which Franz Joseph viewed his officials changed several times, just as the attitude of the officials, at least the elite officials, towards the ruler changed. In the turmoil that had gripped society, many of the officials, conservative and loyal to the emperor, looked to Franz Joseph for guidance in this late period of the monarchy. He may have appeared to them as the only reliable force in the state, and in this period the emperor seems to have trusted the civil servants more than politicians of any colour, party or nation in his work of governing. The following article is intended to demonstrate Franz Joseph’s view of his office as a sovereign, of statecraft and raison d’état.

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This article deals with the two essentials of the legal position of the Emperor of Austria: his irresponsibility and his inviolability. Irresponsibility meant that the emperor could not be held accountable for his actions. It existed under absolutism and constitutionalism. In the constitutional system, however, it was supplemented by the system of ministerial responsibility. Inviolability meant that the emperor was specially protected by criminal law, above all by the offences of high treason and lèse majesté. Both were very far-reaching criminal offences.

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