Augustin Theiner

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Augustin Theiner (born April 11, 1804 in Breslau ; † August 8 or 9, 1874 in Civitavecchia ) was a German canon lawyer and historian.

Life

Augustin Theiner studied law in Breslau and later also in Halle (graduated in 1829). Together with his brother Johann Anton Theiner (1799-1860) he published - while still a student - a material-rich celibacy-critical book of long-lasting importance. But the hopes that German Catholicism would lead to a comprehensive reform of the church were bold. While his brother was allowed to teach at the University of Breslau and was later excommunicated by the Breslau bishop Diepenbrock , Augustin Theiner received a grant from the Kingdom of Prussia for further studies in Belgium, England and France. He researched critically, but in friendship with Jesuit circles, for the origins of canon law. He was able to complete some of this work in Rome and was ordained a priest in the late 1830s. For this he described his "conversion" back to the one and true faith and published the description in a foreign language. He was given access to the papal archives and wrote the requested commissioned works. In 1840 he was appointed Consultor of the Index Congregation . In 1851 he became coadjutor of the Prefect of the Vatican Secret Archives and in 1856 its Prefect.

In a sense, he worked as a secret agent who loved archival work and wanted to track down the sources of papal power and its system. This was entirely due to the ambivalence of unconditional Catholic affiliation, which interpreted the whole story from these denominational fronts, proceeding in a partisan, apologetic, selective manner and possibly was practically ready for the liberation of the pope, threatened by liberalism, with a volunteer army; But he was also German, and educated enough, to reorganize the value structure here, to put nationality and scientific approach next to religious denomination. Also Johann Friedrich von Schulte was mighty Catholic Church lawyer, and pushed on celibacy and spiritual Engheiten. The witch researcher Wilhelm Gottlieb Soldan dedicated almost a book of his own to Theiner, in whose foreword the human questions of denominational boundaries are addressed in a friendly manner.

With regard to Theiner's Jesuit- critical assessments of Clement XIV's pontificate , the Jesuit in-house author Jacques Crétineau-Joly drew him into a dispute. The Alta Vendita files, which Crétineau-Joly had published for the first time, revealed the Jesuit model for what was later attempted the other way around in the Taxil hoax . But Theiner stayed in the Catholic camp. In Germany, some Catholic scholars - at the universities in Breslau, Bonn, Tübingen, and Munich - were increasingly criticizing the Jesuits and calling for free science for theology as well. Theiner had contact with Félicité de Lamennais and was friends with Ignaz von Döllinger . He - and to some extent others like Lord Acton - opened the otherwise closed sources to the opposition movement. Before the First Vatican Council of 1869/70, the ecclesiastical legal expert for the tricks of the council organization became one of the most important liaisons for the resistance against the planned dogmatization of papal infallibility .

The Munich publications by Johannes Nepomuk Huber , Johannes Friedrich , Döllinger and Franz Heinrich Reusch go back to his file transfers. The publication of these insider stories under the pseudonym Janus caused a sensation and was, so to speak, the prelude to Old Catholicism .

After it became clear that the person in charge of the secret archives himself had betrayed the rules of procedure of the Council of Trent , he was removed from his office. The Old Catholic Church, which was being established, tried to get him, but he did not take part. She stayed in correspondence and conversation with him and assured him that Theiner had Old Catholic positions, but his apostasy was denied by the Catholic side. One of the leading figures of the Old Catholic clergy spread Theiner's position on the council. According to this, the Jesuit party at the Vatican Council would have tried “to be able to dominate the bishops all the better through the infallible Pope and then with their help to [stupid] and [to] subjugate the clergy."

In the last years of his life, Augustin Theiner tried to bring the files that were still accessible to him (his own copies) for (unauthorized) publication. The most steadfast opposition bishop, who was the last to submit to the new dogma of infallibility - after years -, Josip Juraj Strossmayer from Zagreb, made the very critically arranged publication possible. Speed ​​was of the essence, Theiner's life was running out and a more reliable edition was already being published by the Görres Society .

Augustin Theiner was buried in the German cemetery in Rome . The Freiburg sculptor Julius Seitz created his grave monument .

Works

  • together with Anton Theiner: The introduction of forced celibacy among the Christian clergy and its consequences 2 vols. Altenburg 1828, second volume ; New edition: Barmen 1892 (Review: Katholik XXXIII, 1829, 354f) Revised by Friedrich Nippold 1893. In an excerpt with bibliographical introductions and additions, newly edited by W. Mehnert. 1932 (placed on the index of forbidden books by the Roman Catholic Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in 1829 )
  • On Ivo's supposed decree: a contribution to the history of canon law, and in particular to the criticism of the Gratian's sources; along with e. Sources appendix Mainz: Florian Kupferberg, 1832.
  • History of Spiritual Educational Institutions. Mainz (among others): Kupferberg, 1835.
  • Collection of some important files on the history of the emancipation of Catholics in England. Mainz 1835
  • Disquisitiones criticae in praecipuas canonum et decretalium collectiones. Rome 1836
  • History of the conversion. Paris 1838 (to become a priest)
  • Sweden and its position on the Holy See under Johann III, Sigismund III and Karl IX. According to secret government papers. 2 volumes, Augsburg, Kollmann 1838/39
  • Trials and efforts of St. Chair in the last 3 centuries, caused by heresy and Schism to reunite the peoples of the north separated from it with the Church. According to secret government papers. Volume 1, part 1 and 2 also udT: Sweden u. his position z. St. Chairs under Johann III., Sigismund III. u. Charles IX 2 parts. With document book, Regensburg 1838-1839
  • The latest conditions of the Catholic Church of both rites in Poland and Russia since Catherine II up to our days: with a look back at the Russian Church and its position on the Holy See from its creation up to Catherine II up to our day; with a volume of documents / Philippus Neri. Augsburg: Kollmann, 1841.
  • History of the return of the ruling houses of Braunschweig and Saxony to the bosom of the Catholic Church in the eighteenth century and the restoration of the Catholic religion in these states. Gradually with original letters. Einsiedeln: Benziger 1843
  • The State Church of Russia in 1839. According to the latest synodal reports presented by a priest from the Congregation of the Oratory, Schaffhausen: Hurter 1844. 2., unchanged. Schaffhausen: Hurter, 1853
  • Donation of the Heidelberg library by Maximilian I, Duke and Elector of Bavaria to Pope Gregory XV. and their dispatch to Rome: With original fonts. Munich: Lit. Art. Anst., 1844
  • Duke Albrecht von Prussen, who had been Grand Master of the German Order, followed suit, and Frederick I, King of Prussia, tried to return to the Catholic Church: gradually with original documents. Augsburg: Kollmann, 1846.
  • Lettere storico-critiche Naples 1849 (against Rosmini )
  • The cardinal Johann Heinrich Gf. v. Frankenberg, EB v. Mechlin, primate of Belgium, a. his fight f. the freedom of the church and the episcopal seminaries under Emperor Josepf II, Freiburg 1850
  • States of the cath. Church in Silesia v. 1740-1758 a. the negotiations of Frederick II. the prince. v. Breslau, from Card. Ludwig Ph. Gf. v. Sinzendorf u. Ph. Gotth. Prince v. Schaffgottich with Pope Benedict XIV. With documents from the secret Arch. Of St. Stuhles, 2 sv., Regensburg 1852
  • Clement XIV. And the Jesuits in: Leu. JB (Ed.): History of the Pontificat Clemens XIV. Lucerne 1853
  • History of the pontificate of Clemens XIV., Based on unedited state writings from the Vatican's secret archive. 2 vols. With the portrait of Clemens XIV., Leipzig and Paris: Didot 1853 (with allegations against Jesuits)
  • The continuation of the Annals of the Baronius (3 vols., 1856)
  • Documents inédits relatifs aux affaires religieuses de la France (1790-1800). Paris 1857
  • Vetera monumenta Hungariae (2 vols., 1859–60)
  • Poloniae et Lithuaniae (4 vols., 1860–64)
  • Codex dominii temporalis apostolicae sedis (3 vols., 1861–62)
  • The two general councils of Lyon in 1245 and of Constance in 1414 on the secular rule of the Holy See. Italian 1861. German by Fressler. Freiburg 1862
  • Monumenta vetera Hibernorum et Scotorum historiam illustrantia quae ex Vaticani, Neapolis ac Florentiae tabulariis deprompsit et ordine chronologicio disposuit Augustin Theiner. Rome 1859
  • Monumenta spectantia ad unionem ecclesiarum Graecae et Romanae. Vienna 1872
  • Vetera Monumenta Slavorum Meridionalium. 1st volume Rome 1863. 2nd volume Zagreb 1874
  • Acta genuina Concilii Tridentini, 2 vols.Agram (= Zagreb) 1874. (after Hurter: opus indiligens et infidum)

Editions with material obtained from Theiner

  • Janus: The Pope and the Council. [Based on the article published in the Allgemeine Augsburger Zeitung (AAZ): Das Konzil und die Civilta, Autschaft Döllinger / Huber] Steinacker, Leipzig 1869. 2nd edition with references from Joh. Friedrich, Munich 1892. Reprint of the 2nd edition: The papacy. Darmstadt WBG 1969.
  • Ignaz von Döllinger, Franz Heinrich Reusch: History of moral disputes in the Roman Catholic Church since the 16th century: with contributions to the history and characteristics of the Jesuit order / edited on the basis of unprinted files. 2 volumes. Beck, Nördlingen 1889. New print Scientia, Aalen 1968.
  • Ignaz von Döllinger: La Papauté: son origine au Moyen Age et son développement jusque 'en 1870; with notes and documents from J. Friedrich. A. Giraud-Teulon (translator). Alcan, Paris 1904 (French).

swell

  • Jacques Crétineau-Joly: Lettre au Père A. Theiner. Bruxelles / Paris 1853.
  • Johannes Friedrich: The ultramontane attacks against P. Theiner. In: Kölnische Zeitung. No. 259, 1874.
  • Hermann Gisiger (Secretary Theiners): Father Theiner and the Jesuits: Recollections of Father Theiner, Prefect of the Vatican Archives. With additions from Prof. Friedrich. Schneider, Mannheim 1875.

literature

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Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ In the first volume of his memoirs . (3 vols. Giessen: E. Roth, 1908–1909), looking back, Schulte describes his readiness to fight militarily for the threatened Pope. In the context of infallibility dogmatization, he renounces him. With his fundamental work History of Sources and the Literature of Canonical Law (3 vol. Stuttgart 1875–1880), Schulte is close to Theiner's work and position; he comments on Augustin Theiner in Memoirs of Life Volume 3, 1st half volume, p. 387 ff .
  2. ↑ Thirty years of proselytism in Saxony and Braunschweig. FA Brockhaus, Leipzig 1845 ( google.de ).
  3. ↑ In his now famous Odeon lectures (Munich, April 1861), Döllinger called against neo-scholasticism a "German-scientific" theology with a historical-critical orientation and protected from the sovereign teaching post. He even considered abolishing the papal state. Developed for the book: Church and Churches. Papacy and Papal States. Historical-political considerations. Munich 1861.
  4. ^ But this is well documented, so Döllinger edited and published under the pseudonym Quirinius Lord Acton's Roman Letters from the Council. R. Oldenburg, Munich 1870. In 1871, Lord Acton published the history of the Vatican Council in the Riegerschen Universitätsbuchhandlung Munich .
  5. ↑ Janus (Döllinger / Huber): The Pope and the Council. Leipzig 1869. Revised by Joh. Friedrich, Das Papsttum, Munich 1892.
  6. ↑ Quoted from Johannes Rieks: Old Catholic Church Regiment. A letter of defense. With a preface by Pastor Strucksberg. Heidelberg: G. Weiss 1888, p. 11.
  7. ^ Concilium Tridentinum. Diariorum, Actorum, Espistularum, Tratatuum nova Collectio edidit Societas Goerresiana promovendis inter Catholicos Germaniae Litterarum Studiis. 12 vols. Freiburg Brsg 1870–1890.
  8. ↑ Julius Seitz . In: Hans Vollmer (Hrsg.): General lexicon of fine artists from antiquity to the present . Founded by Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker . tape 30 : Scheffel – Siemerding . EA Seemann, Leipzig 1936, p. 472 .
  9. ^ Theiner, Augustin. In: Jesús Martínez de Bujanda , Marcella Richter: Index des livres interdits: Index librorum prohibitorum 1600–1966. Médiaspaul, Montréal 2002, ISBN 2-89420-522-8 , pp. 874-875 (French, digitized ).
personal data
SURNAME Theiner, Augustin
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German church historian
DATE OF BIRTH April 11, 1804
PLACE OF BIRTH Wroclaw
DATE OF DEATH August 1874
Place of death Civitavecchia