Bernhard Josef Hilgers

Bernhard Josef Hilgers (also Bernhard Joseph Hilgers ; born August 20, 1803 in Dreiborn in the Eifel ; † February 7, 1874 in Bonn ) was a German Roman Catholic and later Old Catholic theologian. He was one next to Franz Heinrich Reusch and Joseph Langen to the three of the five professors of the Catholic Theological Faculty of the University of Bonn , which after the First Vatican Council to Old Catholicism known.

Life

Hilgers came from a farming family, he attended grammar school in Düren and then studied at the University of Bonn . After being ordained a priest on September 22, 1827 in Cologne , he worked for a year as an assistant chaplain in Münstereifel , and in the following five years as a pastor at the "insane asylum" in Siegburg . In 1834 he received his doctorate in theology in Münster . He declined an appeal to the Poznan seminary . He completed his habilitation in 1835 at the Catholic theological faculty in Bonn and was appointed associate professor in 1840 and full professor of church history in 1846 . From 1838 to 1846 he was also pastor of St. Remigius. In addition to church history and the related subjects, he also taught about the New Testament, especially the Letter to the Hebrews , and previously also about dogmatics and catechetics .

In October 1870 he was asked by Archbishop Melchers of Cologne to recognize the Vatican decrees of July 18, 1870. Since he refused, his missio canonica (teaching license) was withdrawn, and since the students were absent, he had to stop his lectures. Unlike his colleagues who were also affected, he did not resume this later - because of his increasing sickness - although the Prussian state left these old Catholics in their offices. On April 1, 1871, he was suspended by the archbishop and excommunicated on March 12, 1872 . On March 16, 1872, he and his colleagues Knoodt , Langen and Reusch published a statement on this.

His poor health and painful experiences, such as the condemnation of the Hermesian system , the associated delay in his promotion to the university and insults that he learned from clergymen and colleagues, meant that his literary activity was not very extensive. At the university he enjoyed a high reputation, he was twice (1852/53 and 1861/62) elected rector and several times a member of the Senate ; there he was a member almost continuously from 1843 to 1872. From 1855 he was director of the scientific examination committee. In his time as a pastor he was very popular as a preacher, later he used to give short homilies on Sundays in the chapel of the Johannis Hospital . A selection was published after his death in 1874 according to the postscript of a listener. The memories of Amalie von Lasaulx , superior at the Johannis Hospital in Bonn, give a description of Hilgers' personality : "A pious Christian, a good Catholic, a warm Prussian, a good businessman, prudent, mild and firm," is how Cl . Th. Perthes, and in the funeral address Bishop Joseph Hubert Reinkens said: “It was like the personal peace of the confessions. Without in the least forgiving his Catholic standpoint, he had achieved the fame that his philanthropy and prudence were made known to all people. There was a time when no man in the city of Bonn was respected more generally ”.

Publications

About the relationship between body and soul, with special reference to moral freedom and imputation. 1834.
Critical presentation of the heresies and the main orthodox dogmatic directions in their genetic formation and development, from the standpoint of Catholicism. Volume 1, Section 1, 1837 (not continued).
Assessment of the facts by which the measures of the Prussian government against the Archbishop of Cologne, Clemens August, Baron Droste zu Vischering, were brought about: according to constitutional, canonical and purely theological principles . Osterrieth, Frankfurt am Main 1838 ( digitized edition of the University and State Library Düsseldorf )
Symbolic theology or the doctrinal opposites of Catholicism and Protestantism are presented and appreciated. 1841.

literature

Franz Heinrich Reusch : Hilgers, Bernhard Joseph . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 12, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1880, pp. 412-414.
Werner Küppers: Hilgers, Bernhard Josef. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 9, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1972, ISBN 3-428-00190-7 , pp. 144 f. ( Digitized version ).
Friedrich Wilhelm Bautz : Hilgers, Bernhard Josef. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 2, Bautz, Hamm 1990, ISBN 3-88309-032-8 , Sp. 858-859. ( Article / beginning of article in Internet archive )

Web links

Matthias Ring : Old Catholic seminar at the University of Bonn. In: Onlinelexikon Old Catholicism. January 21, 2011, archived from the original ; Retrieved March 8, 2011 .

Individual evidence

↑ Bonn 1878 p. 153 ff.
↑ Nekrolog im Deutschen Merkur 1874, No. 7.
↑ In the preface he says that, in contrast to Möhler, he only used the confessions of the respective denominations as sources, but only used the private writings of the theologians for clarification and clarification; He adds that he was “always aware of a dispassionate mood, and for this very reason he had the good confidence that, even if the Scriptures reveal his deep adherence to the faith of the Catholic Church, which he certainly wished and hoped for, nevertheless the other confessions would not have to complain about the spirit and tone of the judgment. "( Bernhard Josef Hilgers : Symbolische Theologie ... , preface)
^ A theological judgment of symbolic theology by Professor Hilgers , published by the Catholic pastor J. Schumacher in Cologne in 1842, prompted him to respond to the judgment, etc. published by JJ Schumacher in the same year . Schumacher wrote a letter to Professor Hilgers in 1842 , and the 1843 year of the Munich Archive for Theological Literature brought in a detailed criticism from Dr. Chr. Vosen.

personal data
SURNAME	Hilgers, Bernhard Josef
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Hilgers, Bernhard Joseph
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German theologian
DATE OF BIRTH	August 20, 1803
PLACE OF BIRTH	Dreiborn (Schleiden)
DATE OF DEATH	February 7, 1874
Place of death	Bonn

[1] Bonn 1878 p. 153 ff.

[2] Nekrolog im Deutschen Merkur 1874, No. 7.

[3] In the preface he says that, in contrast to Möhler, he only used the confessions of the respective denominations as sources, but only used the private writings of the theologians for clarification and clarification; He adds that he was “always aware of a dispassionate mood, and for this very reason he had the good confidence that, even if the Scriptures reveal his deep adherence to the faith of the Catholic Church, which he certainly wished and hoped for, nevertheless the other confessions would not have to complain about the spirit and tone of the judgment. "( Bernhard Josef Hilgers : Symbolische Theologie ... , preface)

[4] A theological judgment of symbolic theology by Professor Hilgers , published by the Catholic pastor J. Schumacher in Cologne in 1842, prompted him to respond to the judgment, etc. published by JJ Schumacher in the same year . Schumacher wrote a letter to Professor Hilgers in 1842 , and the 1843 year of the Munich Archive for Theological Literature brought in a detailed criticism from Dr. Chr. Vosen.