University of Dillingen - Suppression of The Jesuits, and Last Years of The University

Suppression of The Jesuits, and Last Years of The University

In 1773 the Society of Jesus was suppressed, and consequently, in the autumn of the same year, the activity of the Jesuits as professors at the University of Dillingen came to an end. Prince-Bishop Clement Wenceslaus ordered that henceforth the university as well as the convictus should be directly subject to the bishop. For the new scholastic year other professors, some of whom were ex-Jesuits, were installed; but theology and canon law were taught by secular priests exclusively. The former Jesuit college took the name "Academic House".

At first the number of students was nearly the same as formerly, but the institution soon began to labor under financial difficulties owing to the confiscation of lands and revenues which had belonged to the Jesuit college. In 1786 a new charter approved by the Holy See was introduced at the university. In conformity with the practice in other universities, deans with a yearly tenure of office were placed at the head of the different faculties. The curriculum and the methods of teaching were adapted to the needs of the time; in theology the difference between primary branches (scholastic theology and philosophy) and secondary branches (canon and civil law and Biblical exegesis) was done away with. The lectures in the three faculties were given partly in Latin as before, partly in German. Rationalism and liberalism were repeatedly checked by episcopal visitations and enactments.

Among the best known professors of that period were F. M. Sailer in moral philosophy and pastoral theology, Zimmer in dogmatic theology, and Weber in philosophy and mathematics. A last regulation of the prince-bishop, dated 1799, contained rules regarding attendance at church, discipline, and methods of teaching and studying. The endowments of several institutions and corporations were transferred in 1789 to the "Academic House" in order to relieve its financial difficulties, and its administration was simplified by uniting the St. Joseph Seminary and the convictus. The patronage of the city parish of Dillingen was ceded to the bishop in favor of the university with which it was incorporated. Nevertheless the expenses of the institutions so far exceeded their revenues that the existence of the university became very precarious. Hence it was several times proposed to transfer the university to a religious order, e.g. the Benedictines or the newly organized Societas de Fide Jesu.

During the scholastic year of 1798-1799, the number of students had dwindled to 109, of whom 51 were theologians distributed over three courses, 10 were attending the lectures on law and 48 those on philosophy. In 1802 the cathedral chapter of Augsburg and the university were secularized and became part of Bavaria, whose elector, by rescript of 3 November 1803, abolished the University of Dillingen. In its stead a classical gymnasium and a Lyceum for philosophy and theology were founded for the Swabian District.