The topic of diocesan Church management structures which I present in this research emerges from concerns concerning the comprehensive implementation of the Second Vatican Council in this regard. It is an attempt to examine, comprehend and present the responses and opinions of members of a diocesan Church in a systematic, clear and simple manner to concerns such as: should diocesan Church management structures change? If so, how should diocesan Church management structures change? What should be the main focus and priority of diocesan Church management structures? Do the current management structures of the diocesan Church respond adequately to the needs of the People of God? Since the Catholic Church has a complex management structure, the entire examination thereof is beyond the scope of this research. However, the aim of this investigation is to critically examine the diocesan management structures of a contemporary local Church. The challenge of this research is to ascertain how ecclesial management, as a vital aspect in the Church, is responding to the challenges of the Second Vatican Council to make the Church not only relevant, but allowing full participation and representation of her members in the management of the diocesan Church. / Department of Philosophy, Practical & Systematic Theology / D.Th (Practical Theology)

The Forum was the center of Roman life. It witnessed a barrage of building, destruction and reuse from the seventh century BCE onwards. By around 80 BCE, patrons chose to renovate the Senate House and Comitium with a fresh paving of tufa blocks. Masons leveled many ruined altars and memorials beneath the flooring. Yet paving also provided a means of saving some of Rome’s past. They isolated the Lapis Niger with black blocks, to keep the city’s sinking history in their present. Paving therefore became a technology of memory for recording past events and people. Yet how effective was the Lapis Niger as a memorial? Many modern scholars have romanced the site’s cultural continuity. However, in fifty years and after two Lapis Nigers, the Comitium had borne a disparity of monuments and functions. Rome’s historians could not agree on what lay beneath. Verrius Flaccus reports that the Lapis Niger ‘according to others’ might mark the site of Romulus’s apotheosis, his burial, the burial of his foster father Faustulus, or even his soldier, Hostius Hostilius (50.177). Nevertheless, modern archaeologists have found no tombs. Instead of trying to comprehend these legends, most scholars use them selectively to isolate a dictator, deity or date. We must instead understand why so many views of the Lapis Niger emerged in antiquity. Otherwise, like ancient antiquarians, we will re- identify sites without end. Recreating how these material and mental landscapes interacted and spawned new pasts tells us more about the Lapis Niger than any new attribution. / text

The topic of diocesan Church management structures which I present in this research emerges from concerns concerning the comprehensive implementation of the Second Vatican Council in this regard. It is an attempt to examine, comprehend and present the responses and opinions of members of a diocesan Church in a systematic, clear and simple manner to concerns such as: should diocesan Church management structures change? If so, how should diocesan Church management structures change? What should be the main focus and priority of diocesan Church management structures? Do the current management structures of the diocesan Church respond adequately to the needs of the People of God? Since the Catholic Church has a complex management structure, the entire examination thereof is beyond the scope of this research. However, the aim of this investigation is to critically examine the diocesan management structures of a contemporary local Church. The challenge of this research is to ascertain how ecclesial management, as a vital aspect in the Church, is responding to the challenges of the Second Vatican Council to make the Church not only relevant, but allowing full participation and representation of her members in the management of the diocesan Church. / Department of Philosophy, Practical and Systematic Theology / D.Th (Practical Theology)

1 This thesis is concerned with the post-White Mountain negotiations on ecclesiastical property, establishment of the concordat agreement (often referred to as the Salt Treaty) and the cassa salis administration between 1630 and 1782. It explains the main mechanisms of the ecclesiastical salt treasury, comments on the yields from the salt tax and various points where these resources were spent. The main intent was establishment of four new bishoprics in Bohemia, which was only partly achieved in the 17th century. At the end of the 17th century, the effort to reconstruct the parish network led to establishment of a separate treasure, the so-called cassa parochorum. Throughout the period, the papal curia feared that the Prague archbishops might manage the salt treasury independently. In the end, dissatisfaction with its management led to stricter supervision by the apostolic nuncios and visitations to cassa salis in 1710. Particular attention is paid to the repeated violations of the concordat agreement during the 18th century, in which the authority of the Kingdom tried to deprive the Holy See of the right to distribute funds from the salt treasury. This process was concluded by its fusion with the Kingdom's religious fund during the reign of Emperor Josef II.

Die Arbeit besteht aus 17 Einzelstudien, die in engem Zusammenhang mit den vom Verfasser bearbeiteten Editionsbänden der ‚Acta Cusana‘ entstanden. Basierend auf den Materialien und Kommentaren der Edition analysieren sie vielfältige Probleme der spätmittelalterlichen Lebenswelt und erschließen oft kaum bekannte Quellenbestände. Ein zentrales Anliegen verbindet die Studien: Es geht vor allem darum, die in der Forschung oft entrückte Figur des historischen Cusanus in die Kontexte seiner Lebenswelt zurückzuführen. Übersteigerte Exzeptionalität und vielfach behauptete Lebensfremdheit des genialen Denkers verstellten oft den Blick auf das Typische und zeitbedingt Repräsentative an den cusanischen Lebensbildern. Die Studien stellen sich damit oft gegen tief verwurzelte Forschungstraditionen, die bis weit ins 19. Jh. zurückreichen und Nikolaus von Kues als einen in seiner kirchenpolitischen und administrativen Praxis intellektuell unterforderten und gleichzeitig menschlich überforderten Kardinal und Bischof erscheinen lassen, dessen überstrenge und rücksichtslos unrealistische Reformvorstellungen aus dem Rahmen der eigenen Zeit fielen. Der chronologische Schwerpunkt der Studien liegt in den Brixner Jahren des Nikolaus von Kues (1452–1458), wobei Rückblenden in die früheren Lebensjahre stärkeres Gewicht zukommt als Vorgriffen auf die späteren römischen Jahre. Die Diözese Brixen unter Nikolaus von Kues darf als Musterfall einer spätmittelalterlichen geistlichen Landesherrschaft gelten. Der vielerorts spürbare Überlebenskampf gegenüber den weltlichen Nachbarn zeigt sich hier in besonderer Schärfe. Dabei verfolgte Cusanus keineswegs das unrealistische Ziel, den Grafen von Tirol aus dessen ererbten Machtpositionen zu drängen, sondern strebte vielmehr eine starke Verflechtung der geistlichen und weltlichen Herrschaftsbereiche an, die das bislang gängige Bild von der konfrontativen Arrondierung und Einkapselung geistlicher Territorien an der Schwelle zur Neuzeit in Frage stellt. / The volume consists of 17 individual studies, produced in close connection with the edition volumes of the 'Acta Cusana' edited by the author. Based on the materials and commentaries of the edition, they analyze diverse problems of late medieval life and explore often barely known sources. The studies are united by a central concern: above all, the aim is to return the figure of the historical Cusanus, who has often appeared remote in research, to the contexts of his lifeworld. The exaggerated exceptionalism and frequently claimed alienation from life of the brilliant thinker often obscured the view of what was typical and representative of the time in the Cusanian life portraits. The studies thus often challenge deeply rooted research traditions that reach far back into the 19th century and make Nicholas of Cusa appear as a cardinal and bishop who was intellectually underchallenged in his church political and administrative practice and at the same time overtaxed as a human being, whose excessive and ruthlessly unrealistic ideas of reform fell outside the framework of his own time. The chronological focus of the studies lies in the Brixen years of Nicholas of Cusa (1452-1458), whereby flashbacks to the earlier years of his life are given greater weight than forwards to the later Roman years. The diocese of Brixen under Nicholas of Cusa can be regarded as a model case of late medieval ecclesiastical dominion. The struggle for survival against the secular neighbors, which was noticeable in many places, is particularly evident here. Cusanus was by no means pursuing the unrealistic goal of forcing the Count of Tyrol out of his inherited position of power, but rather strived for a strong interweaving of the ecclesiastical and secular domains, which calls into question the previously common image of the confrontational consolidation and encapsulation of ecclesiastical territories on the threshold of the modern era.