Rudolf von Scherer

Scherer's bust in the arcade courtyard of the University of Vienna

Rudolf Ritter von Scherer (born August 11, 1845 in Graz , † December 21, 1918 in Vienna ) was an Austrian canon lawyer .

Life

Rudolf von Scherer was born as the son of the civil servant Anton von Scherer and the writer Sophie von Scherer . He obtained his doctorate in 1867. iur. at the University of Graz and initially saw himself as a student of Friedrich Maassen , who strongly influenced him by applying the historical method. Only then did he begin to study Catholic theology and was ordained a priest in Graz in 1869 . After three years in pastoral care, he was sent to the higher educational institute for secular priests ( Frintaneum ) in Vienna , where he earned a second doctorate in 1875, this time in theology. His teaching activity in Graz (from 1875) was initially in church history , but soon (in 1876) he was appointed first professor of the new chair for canon law . In 1899 he went to Vienna, where he stayed until his resignation in 1912.

Scherer's main work, the Manual of Canon Law , of which only two of the planned three volumes have been published, received high praise. His creative power faded soon after 1911, as he was distracted by various physical ailments and rifts on the occasion of the anti-modernist oath.

Since 1868 he was a member of the Catholic student union AV Guestfalia Tübingen .

Fonts (selection)

• Manual of Canon Law. 2 volumes. Moser, Graz 1886/1898 ( digitized version ).

literature

• Nikolaus Grass :  Scherer Rudolf von. In: Austrian Biographical Lexicon 1815–1950 (ÖBL). Volume 10, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 1994, ISBN 3-7001-2186-5 , p. 87 f. (Direct links on p. 87 , p. 88 ).
• Josef Kremsmair: Rudolf Ritter von Scherer. An excellent canonist and his stance on the anti-modernist oath. In: Franz Pototschnig, Alfred Rinnerthaler (Hrsg.): In the service of church and state. In memoriam Carl Holböck (= Church and Law. Vol. 17). Publishing house of the Association of Austrian Scientific Societies, Vienna 1985, pp. 327–346.
• Johannes Martetschläger:  SCHERER, Rudolf Ritter von. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 9, Bautz, Herzberg 1995, ISBN 3-88309-058-1 , Sp. 158-159.
• Ernst Chr. Suttner (Ed.): The Catholic-Theological Faculty of the University of Vienna 1884–1984. Commemorative publication for the 600th anniversary. Duncker and Humblot, Berlin 1984, pp. 213-245.