ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an initial contribution to the subject, by examining the fraught beginnings of the Jesuits' work in Vienna and focusing on one particular strategy the Jesuits used to advance their own cause in this period: enlistment of the help of a local prominent Catholic layman and Habsburg courtier, one Georg Eder. It analysis of the interaction between religious orders and society in early modern east central Europe by accessing, thanks to unusually plentiful sources, the minutiae of the relationship between one order and one man in a particularly trying environment and at a difficult time for the progress of Catholic reform in a key urban and political centre of the region. It draws attention to another tactic that is particularly relevant to the theme, and that is Jesuit patronage of a local, prominent layman, Georg Eder, to assist them in their mission.
