MANHARTER

Known also as Hagleitnerianer or as Michaelsbrüder, members of a small, short-lived schismatical sect in the Austrian Tirol. The Tirolean uprising of 1809 found religious expression in the refusal of the peasants, particularly in the Brixenthal, to accept the ecclesiastical changes introduced by the Bavarians or to receive the ministrations of priests who had taken the oath of allegiance to Napoleon despite his excommunication by Pius VII. Taking its name from a farm called Untermanhart that belonged to one of its key figures, Sebastian Manzl, the group found a powerful advocate in a local priest, Kaspar Hagleitner (1779–1836). Its members refused to attend local churches and held services of their own; they even traveled long distances to receive the Sacraments from Hagleitner. When the area was restored to Austrian rule in 1816 and placed under the jurisdiction of the See of Salzburg, the sect continued to exist, because it protested also against innovations and mitigations in Austrian Church discipline. Manzl led a deputation to Rome in 1825 to seek reconciliation, which was achieved in 1826 through the efforts of Archbishop Gruber of Salzburg. But a small group at Inntal refused to submit and persisted in its sectarianism. Not until the end of the 19th century did the Manharter disappear.

Bibliography: a. flir, Die Manharter (Innsbruck 1852). w. schatz, Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, j. hofer and k. rahner, eds. (Freiburg 1957–65) 6:1350–51.

[w. b. slottman]