ABSTRACT
Both Maria Theresa and Kaunitz found the pace which Joseph set too hot for their liking. Joseph's proposals aimed at unity, coherence and centralisation of administration; but the Belgians adhered to their cherished autonomy and regarded the establishment of absolutism as a tyrannical outrage. Theresa had at first held back from the general attack, regarding the abolition of the Order as a purely ecclesiastical affair, which ought therefore to be left solely to the Pope. After the death of Maria Theresa, Joseph carried his Church reforms further, and between 1781 and 1784 many very important measures were added. Joseph began by renewing the Placitum Regium of Maria Theresa, by forbidding any communication between monastic Orders in Austria and their headquarters at Rome or their branches in other countries and by cutting out of the Service-book the Bulls Unigenitus and In Caena Domini.
