In the 18th century, the academic quality of the education of priests steadily increased,
and in the last decades of the century the practical application of the acquired knowledge
became more and more important. The optimisation of theory and practice led to a strong
professionalisation of the vocation of preists. Th e basic concept of this paper is
that by the early 19th century, the Catholic clergy, through its internal development
and the expectations of secular power, had a vocational identity, the formulation
of which was shaped by everyday challenges and feedback.
