Search

[German Version] I. General Church History – II. Europe – III. Latin America I. General Church History Laicism (from Gk λαος/ laós, “people”; Laity) originated in 19th-century France ( laïcisme) as an aggressively anticlerical concept; originally it proposed absolute separation of the state, secular culture, and the church (esp. the Catholic Church; Church and state), opposing all public influence on the part of the church. Its intellectual roots were in the Enlightenment and especially the French Revolution – although it r…

[German Version] (Jan 31, 1867, Worms – Nov 15, 1944, Munich), Catholic publicist. Following discussion about the scholarly inferiority of German Catholics, he prompted the “Catholic literature controversy” with his pseudonymous controversial publication Steht die Katholische Belletristik auf der Höhe der Zeit? Von Veremundus [Are Catholic belles lettres adequate for today? By Veremundus, 1898]. In order to provide a literary platform for “germinating talents,” in 1903 he founded a Catholic review with an avant-garde emphasis entitled Hochland. Monatsschrift für alle Ge…

[German Version] (Baron; May 5, 1852, Florence – Jan 27, 1925, London). Von Hügel was the scion of a baronial Rhineland family, an autodidact, and an erudite private scholar. During the Modernism controversy, his wide-ranging international and interconfessional contacts enabled him to play an influential role as “colporteur and intermediary” among scholars of very different stripe, all debating the same theological problems – among them E. Troeltsch, R. Eucken, M. Blondel, E. Buonaiuti, Giovanni S…

[German Version] Pius X published the encyclical Editae saepe on May 26, 1910 on the occasion of the 300th anniversary of the canonization of C. Borromeo. The text praises the merits of this “Tridentine” cardinal and archbishop, who did much to preserve the purity of the faith and renew church life in the century of the Reformation. It also contains ¶ a severe condemnation of the Reformers and of the princes who supported them. This encyclical was not, however, addressed to Protestant groups. Rather,…

[German Version] Jul 17, 1740 – May 3, 1758 (Prospero Lambertini, born Mar 31, 1675, Bologna). From an old noble family, he rose rapidly in the curial administration after theological and legal studies in Rome (1694: Dr. theol. et iur.), became titular bishop of Theodosia in 1725, cardinal in petto in 1726 (made public in 1728), archbishop of Ancona in 1727, and archbishop of Bologna in 1731. Elected pope as a compromise candidate after a conclave which lasted more than …

[German Version] (Mar 5, 1869, Klosterheidenfeld – Jun 12, 1952, Munich). Faulhaber was ordained priest in 1892, attained the Dr.theol. in 1895, became professor of Old Testament in Strasbourg in 1903, bishop of Speyer in 1911, also deputy field provost of the Bavarian Army in 1914, archbishop of Munich (I) and Freising in 1917, and finally cardinal in 1921. He was widely known as a brilliant speaker and powerful preacher. A resolute monarchist, he kept his distance from the Weimar Republic. Despi…

[German Version] (Jan 22, 1879, County of Glatz [Kladsko] – Aug 22, 1949, Göhrde), theologian and popular religious writer. He received his Dr.theol. from the University of Breslau in 1902 and was ordained to the priesthood in 1903; in 1915 he was appointed pro-¶ fessor of Early Church history at Breslau. His Easter article “Die Erlösten” [The Redeemed] published in Hochland in 1922 used the form of an autobiographical narrative to criticize his church’s contemporary penitential system (doctrine of justification); as a result, his works were placed on the Index and he was excommunic…

[German Version] (Dec 8, 1813, Kerpen near Cologne – Dec 4, 1865, Cologne) was the son of a small farmer and originally a journeyman cobbler who, in part ¶ through private study, achieved his Abitur (high-school diploma) in 1841. He studied theology in Munich and Bonn, was ordained priest in Cologne in 1845, and became chaplain in Elberfeld. When, as the president of the Gesellenverein, “journeyman union,” founded there in 1846 by the teacher Johann Gregor Breuer, Kolping was again confronted with the needs of the journeyman class and the industrial proletar…

[German Version] According to the Greek Passio (5th/6th cent.), Pantaleon was the son of a pagan father and Christian mother in Nicomedia and a student of the emperor’s personal physician Euphrosynos. After his conversion he healed a blind man in the name of Christ. Envious members of the college of physicians denounced him; even his successful healing of a paralytic in a contest with his informers before the emperor Maximian could not save him from martyrdom. The lions in the arena refused to attack …

[German Version] (May 13, 1773, Aulendorf – Apr 14, 1868, Freiburg im Breisgau), archbishop of Freiburg (1843–1868). In 1798 he obtained a canonry at the collegiate church of St. John in Constance. He studied in Augsburg, Vienna, and Dillingen, where he received his Dr.iur.utr. in 1797. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1797 but never served a parish; instead he was active in church administration from the outset, initially as a colleague of I.H. v. Wessenberg in Constance, after 1827 as canon …

[German Version] (orig. Pehm; Mar 29, 1892, Csehimindszent, Vas district, Hungary – May 6, 1975, Vienna), last prince-primate of Hungary. After seminary studies in Szombathely, he was ordained priest in 1915 and was appointed pastor of Zalaegerszeg in 1919. In 1944 he was made bishop of Veszprém and in 1945 archbishop of Esztergom and prince-primate. In 1946 he was made cardinal. His career as a writer and political activist began early. In 1919 he was arrested as an enemy of the revolutionary gov…

[German Version] (1513, Meslin l'Evêque – Sep 16, 1589, Louvain) became a priest in 1542, professor of philosophy in 1544, and professor of theology at the University of Louvain, where he had studied, in 1550. He officiated as dean of Saint-Pierre and vice-chancellor of the university from 1575 onward. He was involved in the debates concerning the problems of …

[German Version] (Jan 9, 1626, Paris – Oct 27, 1700, La Trappe), founder of the La Trappe reform (Trappists), son of Maria de’ Medici’s secretary, and godchild of Cardinal Richelieu. He held many benefices. In 1651 he was ordained priest, and in 1654 gained his Dr.theol. He became a rigorous ascetic, renounced his benefices, retired to La Trappe, and from then on subjected this Cistercian abbey to the strictest observance as regular abbot (1664–1695), attracting monks who were willing to reform. H…

[German Version] Sep 3, 1914 – Jan 22, 1922 (Giacomo della Chiesa, born Nov 21, 1854). Of ancient Genovese nobility, he became archbishop of Bologna in 1907 and cardinal in 1914. Following the serious disputes over “modernism”, “Reform Catholicism” and Brazilian Integralism (Integralism) in the pontificate of Pius …

[German Version] (martyr, died c. 304). The earliest witnesses to Afra's veneration are Venantius Fortunatus (c. 560) and the Martyrologium Hieronymianum (Bern Codex, c. 600). The author of an early medieval Afra Passion (7th cent.?) portrayed Afra as a converted prostitute ( meretrix), who, because of her Christian confession, was condemned to be burned at the stake. The extent to which an authentic tradition underlies this Afra Passion is difficult to determine. A Roman …

[German Version] (Jul 5, 1881, Mysłowicach-Brzęczkowicach, Upper Silesia – Oct 22, 1948, Warsaw). Having joined the Salesians (SDB) in 1896, Hlond was ordained priest in 1905 and received his Dr.theol. in Rome in 1910. In 1922 he was appointed apostolic administrator of the portion of the archdiocese of Breslau (Wrocław) in Upper Silesia that had been ceded to Poland (erected in 1925 as the diocese of Katowice). In 1926 he was made archbishop of Gniezno and Poznan and primate of Poland. In 1927 he…

[German Version] (Apr 7, 1655 – May 22, 1667). Born as Fabio Chigi on Feb 13, 1599 in Siena, he was, following philosophical, legal, and theological studies in Siena (1626 Dr. Theol.), in papal service from 1628 onward: 1629–1634, vice-legate in Ferrara; 1635–1639, Inquisitor and Apostolic Legate in Malta (1634, ordination to the priesthood; 1635, bishop of Na…

[German Version] According to the legendary Passio (6th cent.?), Pancras was from a prominent Phrygian family. He came as an orphan to Rome, where he was baptized, and at the age of 14, under Diocletian (or Valerian), he was beheaded on May 12 (304 or 257?) on the Via Aurelia, and buried there in the catacombs named after him. Pope Symmachus had a basilica built over his tomb, and this was given its present form ( San Pancratio fuori le mura) by Pope Honorius I. His cult, first documented in the Martyrologium Hieronymianum (mid-6th cent.), spread throughout Europe. As patron saint of a…

[German Version] I. Early Church – II. Middle Ages – III. Reformation – IV. Modern Period – V. Present – VI. Practical Theology I. Early Church The church polity projected and in part realized in early Christianity is one of the most significant institutional inventions of Late Antiquity. Since it has survived into the present, with many modifications and variations, it also represents an element of continuity between the ancient world and the modern world. Church polity as used here means all the institutions affecting the external organization of early Ch…

[German Version] a family from the Auvergne (?) living in Paris after 1547; originally Huguenot, they converted to the Catholic Church after the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre in 1572. 1. Antoine “the lawyer” (Aug 6, 1560, Paris – Dec12, 1619, Paris), son of the lawyer and procurator general Antoine Arnauld de la Mothe et de Villeneuve (died 1585). After the abortive attempted assassination of Henry IV, he became a passionate enemy of the Jesuits. He had 20 children by his wife Catherine Marion, some of whom became leaders of the Jansenist cause: 2. Robert (1588, Paris – Sep 17, 1674, Pa…

[German Version] (Dec 27, 1903, Steinheim am Main – Jul 1, 1988, Mainz), cardinal, bishop of Mainz (1962–1982). After studying in Mainz, he was ordained to the priesthood in 1927 and appointed chaplain. He earned his Dr.phil. in Freiburg im Bresgau in 1938 and his Dr.theol. in Münster in 1939. He gained his habilitation in 1943 and was appointed professor of dogmatics in 1946. Familiar with modern Protestant theology through his works on K. Barth and E. Brunner and ecumenically active, in 1945 he became a member of the ¶ Ecumenical Study Group of Protestant and Catholic Theologians (…

[German Version] ([v. Hefele]; Mar 15, 1809, Hochmühle near Aalen – Jun 5, 1893, Rottenburg), priest in 1833, associate professor (1835) and professor of church history in Tübingen (1840, succeeding his teacher J.A. Möhler). Hefele, along with J.E. Kuhn, led the ultramontane-young church party (Ultramontanism) in the bishopric of Rottenburg who fiercely opposed the Württemberg state church and the “late Enlightenment” clergy. He turned, however, to moderate ultramontanism after 1848. Hefele was a …

[German Version] I. City and Archbishopric – II. University I. City and Archbishopric Munich is the capital of Bavaria (in 1999, approx. 1.38 million inhabitants, 45.5% Catholic, 16.4% Protestant), with two universities (see II below), seat of the archbishop of Munich and Freising (cardinal) and of the Protestant regional bishop of Bavaria. The first documented reference to Munich appeared in 1158, in connection with the dispute between Bishop Otto of Freising and Duke Henry the Lion about market, bridge t…

[German Version] (Jun 25, 1881, Rome – Apr 20, 1946, Rome), Italian theologian, was ordained as a priest in 1903 and subsequently taught church history at the Roman Seminary. He was compelled to abandon his teaching by order of Pope Pius X after the publication of his eassay on M. Blondel ( La filosofia dell'azione, 1905). Buonaiuti was repeatedly harshly sanctioned as a “modernist” without being given the opportunity to defend himself before his ecclesial judges (1926 “excommunicatio maior”). In 1915, he was appointed by the state University of Rome as professor for the history of ¶ Christ…

[German Version] (born Thérèse Martin; religious name Thérèse de l’Enfant-Jésus et de la Sainte-Face; Jan 2, 1873, Alençon – Sep 30, 1897, Lisieux). In 1888 Thérèse entered the cloistered Carmelite community at Lisieux; an extremely sensitive person since the death of her mother in 1877, she initially experienced very severe treatment and suffered from the “dryness” of her prayer life. The mental breakdown of her father (who died in 1894) was also a severe burden. In 1896 she contracted tuberculosis, of which she died the next year. In her autobiographical L’histoire d’une âme (ET: Story…

[German Version] (May 27, 1651, Castle Peynière near Aurillac – May 4, 1729, Paris), Dr.theol., Sorbonne (1676); archbishop of Paris (1681); cardinal (1700). Thanks to royal favor, Noailles’s ecclesiastical career rose rapidly (1679, bishop of Cahors; 1681, of Chalons-sur-Marne), yet he proved remarkably ambivalent in the theological controversies of his time (Quietism, Jansenism). He agreed to the destruction of the (former) Jansenist center of Port-Royal Abbey (1711), but opposed the condemnatio…

[German Version] (Dec 26, 1751, Tasswitz [Tasovice], Moravia – Mar 15, 1820, Vienna). Apprenticed as a baker, he studied theology as a “late vocation” in Vienna, joining the Redemptorists in 1784. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1785. In 1788 he became vicar general of his order for northern Europe. From 1808 he served as a pastor in Vienna, with a strong commitment to social and charitable work; not least because of his rustic manner, he was an engaging preacher. His charismatic personality made him the focus of a Romantic circle (including F. Schlegel, Z. ¶ Werner, A. Günther, and Jo…

[German Version] When the Reformation put an end to the Catholic episcopal sees in the northern lands of the Old Empire, the remaining Catholic population (and immigrant Catholic craftsmen, merchants, artists, and soldiers) came initially under the jurisdiction of the Cologne nuncio, then of the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith, established in 1622, and it pastoral representatives “on the ground,” the nuncios in Cologne, Brussels, and Warsaw. In 1667 the duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, wh…

[German Version] (Oct 19, 1625, Chartres – Nov 16, 1695, Paris), Jansenist theologian. Nicole taught at the abbey of Port-Royal (1646), in Flanders and France (1679), and in Paris (from 1683). A close friend of Antoine Arnauld, Nicole wrote several, sometimes pseudonymous, writings defending the orthodoxy of Jansenism, and with regard to the condemnation of the teachings of C. Jansen by Innocent X (1653) he distinguished the quaestio iuris from the quaestio facti ( Innocentii papae brevissima quinque propositionum in varios sensus distinctio, 1653). Nicole was involved in the…

[German Version] I. Definition The expression papal primacy denotes the juridical supremacy in the universal church of the pope as bishop of Rome, i.e. his supreme and immediate administrative authority as head of the College of Bishops, pastor of the universal church, and vicar of Christ on earth ( CIC/1983, c. 331: “The Bishop of the Church of Rome . . . is the head of the College of Bishops, the Vicar of Christ, and the Pastor of the universal Church here on earth; consequently, by virtue of his office, he has supreme, full, immediate, and…

[German Version] (Apr 1, 1800, Strasbourg – Nov 8, 1871, Maria Laach), a catechist, Jesuit (1817), and priest (1828), worked 1830–1841 as professor of rhetoric in Brig and Fribourg, Switzerland, and 1845–1847 as professor of pastoral theology in Lucerne. In his apologetic Katholisches Katechismus oder Lehrbegriff, nebst einem kurzen Abriß der Religionsgeschichte von Anbeginn der Welt bis auf unsere Zeit (1847, anonymous; ET: A Complete Catechism of the Catholic Religion, 1924), he attempted to grasp doctrinal content in rational terms.…

[English Version] Noailles, Louis Antoine de (27.5.1651 Schloß Peynie`re bei Aurillac – 4.5.1729 Paris), Dr. theol. der Sorbonne (1676), Erzbf. von Paris (1681), Kardinal (1700). N. nahm dank königlicher Gunst eine steile kirchl. Karriere (1679 Bf. von Cahors, 1681 von Chalons-sur Marne), erwies sich aber in den theol. Kontroversen seiner Zeit (Quietismus, Jansenismus) merkwürdig schwankend. So stimmte er der Zerstörung des (ehemaligen) Jansenistenzentrums Port Royal (1711) zu, widersetzte sich aber …

[English Version] Pantaleon, der Heilige. Nach der griech. Passio (5./6.Jh.) Sohn eines Heiden und einer Christin in Nikomedien, der als Schüler des kaiserlichen Leibarztes Euphrosynos nach seiner Bekehrung im Namen Christi einen Blinden geheilt habe und daraufhin aus Neid vom Ärztekollegium denunziert worden sei; auch ein Wettstreit zw. ihm und seinen Denunzianten um die Heilung eines Lahmen vor Kaiser Maximian, der von ihm gewonnen worden sei, habe ihn vor dem Martyrium nicht retten können. Da er …

[English Version] Vicari, Hermann v. (13.5.1773 Aulendorf – 14.4.1868 Freiburg i.Br.), Erzbf. von Freiburg (1843–1868); seit 1789 Stiftskanoniker von St. Johann in Konstanz, studierte V. in Augsburg, Wien und Dillingen (hier 1797 Dr. iur. utr.) und wurde 1797 Priester, war jedoch nie in der Seelsorge, sondern von Anfang an in der kirchl. Verwaltung tätig, zunächst als Mitarbeiter I.H.v. Wessenbergs in Konstanz, seit 1827 als Domkapitular und Generalvikar des neu errichteten Erzbistums Freiburg; 183…

[English Version] . Nach dem Untergang der kath. Bischofssitze im Norden des alten Reiches und in Skandinavien in der Reformation wurde die dortige kath. Restbevölkerung (und zuwandernde kath. Handwerker, Kaufleute, Künstler, Soldaten) jurisdiktionell zunächst dem Kölner Nuntius, dann der 1622 gegründeten röm. Kongregation für die Glaubensverbreitung unterstellt und ihre seelsorgerliche Betreuung »vor Ort« den Nuntien in Köln, Brüssel und Warschau übertragen. 1667 erwirkte der (1651) konvertierte …

[English Version] I. Zum Begriff Als Primat (P.) bez. man die rechtliche Vorrangstellung des Papstes (Papat) als Bischof von Rom in der Gesamtkirche, d.h. seine höchste und unmittelbare Leitungsgewalt in der Gesamtkirche als Haupt des Bischofskollegiums, Hirte der Gesamtkirche und Stellvertreter Christi auf Erden (c.331 CIC/1983: »Der Bischof der Kirche von Rom … ist Haupt des Bischofskollegiums, Stellvertreter Christi und Hirte der Gesamtkirche hier auf Erden; deshalb verfügt er kraft seines Amtes …

[English Version] Pankratius, hl., stammte nach der legendären Passio (6.Jh.?) aus vornehmer phrygischer Familie, kam als Waise nach Rom, wurde hier getauft und 14jährig unter Diokletian (oder Valerian) an einem 12.5. (304 oder 257?) an der Via Aurelia enthauptet und in den dortigen – nach ihm benannten – Katakomben begraben. Die von Papst Symmachus über seinem Grab errichtete Basilika erhielt durch Papst Honorius I. ihre heutige Gestalt (San Pancratio fuori le mura). Sein Kult, im Martyrologium H…

[English Version] Volk, Hermann (27.12.1903 Steinheim/Main – 1.7.1988 Mainz), Kardinal, Bf. von Mainz (1962–1982); nach dem Studium in Mainz 1927 Priester und Kaplan, in Freiburg i.Br. 1938 Dr. phil., in Münster 1939 Dr. theol., 1943 Habil., 1946 Prof. für Dogmatik; durch seine Arbeiten über K. Barth und E. Brunner mit der modernen ev. Theol. vertraut und ökum. engagiert, wurde er 1945 Mitglied des Ökum. Arbeitskreises ev. und kath. Theologen (seit 1946 Leiter der kath. Seite, seit 1975 Vorsitzende…

[English Version] von Lisieux (Familienname: Thérèse Martin, Ordensname: Thérèse de l'Enfant-Jésus et de la Sainte-Face; 2.1.1873 Alençon – 30.9.1897 Lisieux). Th. trat 1888 in den Karmel von L. ein, in dem sie, ein seit dem Tod ihrer Mutter überaus empfindsamer Charakter, anfänglich eine sehr strenge Behandlung erfuhr und unter der »Trockenheit« ihres Gebetslebens litt. Schwer belastete sie zudem der psychische Verfall ihres Vaters (gest.1894). 1896 erkrankte sie an Tuberkulose, die im Jahr darauf…

[English Version] Nicole, Pierre (19.10.1625 Chartres – 16.11.1695 Paris), jansenistischer Theologe, lehrte in Port Royal (1646), in Flandern und Frankreich (1679) und seit 1683 in Paris; eng befreundet mit A. Arnauld (5.), verteidigte er in mehreren, teils pseudonymen Schriften die Rechtgläubigkeit des Jansenismus und unterschied in der Verurteilung der Lehre des C. Jansen durch Innozenz X. (1653) die »quaestio iuris« von der »quaestio facti« (Innocentii papae brevissima quinque propositionum in v…

[English Version] Rancé, Armand-Jean Le Bouthillier de (9.1.1626 Paris – 27.10.1700 La Trappe), Gründer der Reform von La Trappe (Trappisten); Sohn des Sekretärs der Maria de' Medici und Patenkind Kardinal Richelieus, reich bepfründet, 1651 Priester, 1654 Dr. theol.; wandelte sich zum rigorosen Asketen, verzichtete auf seine Pfründen, zog sich nach La Trappe zurück und begann als nunmehr »regulierter« Abt (1664–1695) diese Zisterzienserabtei durch Ansiedlung reformwilliger Mönche strengster Observanz …

[English Version] , Joseph (22.1.1879 Neusorge, Grafschaft Glatz – 22.8.1949 Göhrde), Theologe und rel. Volksschriftsteller; 1902 Dr. theol. (Breslau), 1903 Priester, Prof. für Alte Kirchengesch. in Breslau (1915). Seine 1922 in »Hochland« veröff. Osterbetrachtung »Die Erlösten«, in der er in Form einer autobiogr. Erzählung die damalige Beichtpraxis (Rechtfertigungslehre) seiner Kirche kritisierte, führte zur Indizierung seiner Schriften und zu seiner Exkommunikation (1925/26). W. gab sein akademis…