As ordinary monks, the brothers Pez enjoyed only limited opportunity to maintain personal contacts with outsiders and thus to participate in contemporary political events to a similar extent as, e. g., their Abbot Dietmayr, who served for some years on the Privy Council to Emperor Charles VI. The brothers' research was nonetheless of undeniable interest to a number of personages at the Viennese Imperial court and eventually also in the Roman Curia, including individuals who played essential roles in the political developments of the early 18th century.
Among prominent statesmen known to have been in direct contact with the brothers Pez, we find Johann Christoph, baron Bartenstein, in later years Secretary of the Privy Conference and thus effective director of Austrian foreign policy; Philipp Ludwig, count Sinzendorf, the Court Chancellor; Johann Wilhelm, count Wurmbrand-Stuppach, President of the Imperial Aulic Council; Heinrich Christian, baron Senckenberg, of the same Council; the imperial librarian, later Auditor of the Roman Rota and Bishop-Elect of Trento (although deceased before taking office), Johann Benedikt Gentilotti von Engelsbrunn; as well as Cardinals Angelo Maria Querini, himself a Benedictine, and Domenico Passionei.
On more than one occasion, the biography of Bernhard Pez comes into direct connection with contemporary political events. The conflict between Abbot Dietmayr and a group of his monks during the winter of 1722/23 occurred in connection with plans contemplated at court, and avidly promoted by Dietmayr, to erect the Abbey of Melk into a bishopric. The protests of the dissenting monks led by Pez were brought before the Emperor by Gentilotti; Charles VI., on the intervention of count Sinzendorf, decided in favour of the abbot.
The same Sinzendorf, however, on the occasion of his journey to the Congress of Soissons in 1729 took Bernhard Pez with him to Paris, thus fulfilling the latter's long-standing wish to live and work for a period with the Maurists at St.-Germain-des-Prés. Pez later planned to publish a collection of sources under the title "Sinzendorfiana". The congress, intended to stabilise the Habsburg-Bourbon alliance against the sea powers, ultimately failed on account of Sinzendorf's concessions to the French representative, Cardinal Fleury, which were perceived as excessive in the Empire.
The designs for the foundation of an Academy in Vienna, originating with Leibniz and frequently involving Bernhard Pez, are also worthy of mention in this context. After his journey to France, Pez even authored a proposed set of statutes for an Academy, obviously based on the Maurist model. Hieronymus Pez was to see, late in life, the creation of Ziegelbauer's "Societas literaria Germano-Benedictina" at Kempten, and was appointed a member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences.
The desire for a connection to the highest representatives of the Empire had accompanied the brothers Pez from the house of their childhood in Ybbs: the inn of the "Golden Sun", where a night's stay by Charles VI. left its mark in a stuccoed eagle with the Emperor's motto "Constantia et fortitudine", still to be seen today on the ceiling of one of the largest rooms.
