The death of Maria Theresa on the 27th of November 1780 left Joseph free. He immediately directed his government on a new course, full speed ahead. He proceeded to attempt to realize his ideal of a wise despotism acting on a definite system for the good of all. The measures of emancipation of the peasantry which his mother had begun were carried on by him with feverish activity. The spread of education, the secularization of church lands, the reduction of the religious orders and the clergy in general to complete submission to the lay state, the promotion of unity by the compulsory use of the German language, everything which from the point of view of 18th-century philosophy appeared "reasonable" was undertaken at once. He strove for administrative unity with characteristic haste to reach results without preparation. His anti-clerical innovations induced Pope Pius VI. to pay him a visit in July 1782. Joseph received the pope politely, and showed himself a good Catholic, but refused to be influenced. So many interferences with old customs began to produce unrest in all parts of his dominions. Meanwhile he threw himself into a succession of foreign policies all aimed at aggrandisement, and all equally calculated to offend his neighbours--all taken up with zeal, and dropped in discouragement. He endeavoured to get rid of the Barrier Treaty, which debarred his Flemish subjects from the navigation of the Scheldt; when he was opposed by France he turned to other schemes of alliance with Russia for the partition of Turkey and Venice. They also had to be given up in the face of the opposition of neighbours, and in particular of France. Then he resumed his attempts to obtain Bavaria--this time by exchanging it for Belgium--and only provoked the formation of the _Fürstenbund_ organized by the king of Prussia. Finally he joined Russia in an attempt to pillage Turkey. It began on his part by an unsuccessful and discreditable attempt to surprise Belgrade in time of peace, and was followed by the ill-managed campaign of 1788. He accompanied his army, but showed no capacity for war. In November he returned to Vienna with ruined health, and during 1789 was a dying man. The concentration of his troops in the east gave the malcontents of Belgium an opportunity to revolt. In Hungary the nobles were all but in open rebellion, and in his other states there were peasant risings, and a revival of particularist sentiments. Joseph was left entirely alone. His minister Kaunitz refused to visit his sick-room, and did not see him for two years. His brother Leopold remained at Florence. At last Joseph, worn out and broken-hearted, recognized that his servants could not, or would not, carry out his plans. On the 30th of January 1790 he formally withdrew all his reforms, and he died on the 20th of February.