The founder of Manharter was a Roman Catholic priest, Kaspar Benedict Hagleitner of Aschau, who was the only one of the clergymen of Brixental to refuse to take the oath of allegiance prescribed by Napoleon's edict of 30 May 1809, for the ecclesiastical and secular authorities of the province of Salzburg, of which Brixenthal was then a part.
The schism reached its full development at Easter, 1815, when for the first time Manzl and his household refused to receive the sacraments from the vicar of his home parish of Westendorf.
They likewise opposed textbooks recently brought into the schools, which were not Christian in tone, and finally they combated the vaccination of children, as an offence against faith, and for this additional reason reproached the clergy with countenancing and supporting this state regulation.
This was a fanatical secret society founded in Carinthia by the visionary Agnes Wirsinger and by a priest, Johann Holzer of Gmünd.
Its adherents awaited the impending destruction of the wicked by the Archangel Gabriel, at which time they, the undefiled, were to be spared and to receive the earth in heritage.
The administrator of the Archdiocese of Salzburg, Leopold Maximilian von Firmian, tried unsuccessfully on his pastoral visitations during the summer of 1819 to convince the Manharter that they were in error.
The Manharter persisted in their request that they be permitted to send a deputation to Rome to obtain a decision from the pope in person, but this the Government refused to allow.
Archbishop Gruber then secured leave from the emperor for Manzl, Mair, and Simon Laiminger, to make the journey to Rome with an interpreter.
They started in September, 1825, were received affectionately in the Eternal City, and by order of the Pope were given a long course of instruction by Camaldolese abbot Mauro Capellari (afterwards Gregory XVI).