Heinrich Denifle

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Heinrich Denifle

Friedrich Heinrich Suso Denifle OP (born January 16, 1844 in Imst (Tyrol) as Josef Anton Denifle , † June 10, 1905 in Munich ) was a church historian .

Live and act

Denifle was born the son of Innsbruck District Primary school teacher with 12 years full orphan . He went to the grammar school in Brixen and entered the Dominican order in 1861 . He was a member of the Marian Student Congregation . As a Dominican brother, he carried the religious name Heinrich . He studied theology at the Dominican College in Graz and was ordained a priest in 1866 . He was active in pastoral care in Košice . He finished his studies in 1869 at the Collegium Sanctae Thomae in Urbe in Rome and in St. Maximin in Marseille, where he received his Venia Legendi . From 1870 he worked as a lecturer in Graz . In 1876 he became a professor in Graz. He taught from 1870 to 1880, first philosophy and from 1874 theology. In 1877 he received his doctorate in theology . From 1883 he was sub-archivist at the Vatican Archives in Rome, after he was General Assistant of the Dominican Order in Rome from 1880 as Definitor General.

Of his historical work, the biography of Martin Luther and Lutheranism is one of the most significant. This shows the influence of the historian Johannes Janssen . Similar to this, Denifle paints a very negative picture due to the sources of the Vatican secret archive of Luther and the Reformation. Hartmann Grisar also expressed himself in this way at times .

Denifle turned against the heroization of Luther in evangelical research and in the anti-Catholic propaganda of the Los-von-Rom movement . On the other hand, he focused on the theme of Luther's sexuality. Luther's doctrine of justification , especially the understanding of concupiscence as a sin, was understood by Denifle as a theological exaggeration of the fact that Luther could not control his sexuality, his lust for drinking and eating and his excessive language. In addition to this “character murder”, Denifle was also able to provide information on the basis of his precise knowledge of the theological tradition and the works of Luther, which led to Luther being able to be more closely located in his late medieval context. Among other things, Denifle was able to show that Luther's understanding of God's righteousness was anything but original. At the same time, Denifle questioned Luther's biographical self-constructions - an approach that has only recently been taken up again.

Denifle's work was heavily criticized, especially by the Protestant theologians Adolf von Harnack and Reinhold Seeberg . Denifle's writing also brought about valuable corrections to the Weimar Luther edition, in which Luther's dependence on patristic and medieval theology had previously often been overlooked. The New German Biography (Volume 3, p. 597) states: “Denifle's Lutherwerk aroused extraordinary sensation and violent opposition. In the course of time, however, the benefits of the work were increasingly recognized. "

After the early works of Ignaz von Döllinger and Janssen, Denifle also marks the climax of radical Catholic historiography . In the course of the First World War, denominational tensions diminished. The influence of one's own denominational ties remained noticeable.

In addition to this topic, Denifle dealt with mysticism as well as the cultural and church history of the Middle Ages . His book The German Mystics of the 14th Century from 1874 was only published from the estate in 1951. The philosopher Alois Dempf judged this book: “It bears witness to Denifle's apologetic temperament on every page, in favor of Tauler and Seuse, who are innocently accused of pantheism, and [...] also Meister Eckharts . [...] There is no better justification for Eckhart, too, than this book Denifles [...] ”. Denifle also wrote a work on the development of medieval universities . Together with Franz Ehrle , he edited the seven volumes of the Archive for Medieval Literature and Church History from 1885 to 1900 .

In France, Denifle was best known for his research on university history. With Émile Chatelain (1851–1933) he published the document book of the Paris University Chartularium Universitatis Parisiensis from 1889 . In 1897 he became a corresponding member of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres . In December 2012, the Académie honored him with an international conference on his work. Denifle received honorary doctorates from the Universities of Münster , Innsbruck and Cambridge .

Quotes

1910

“I would also like to express my thanks to my Catholic colleagues, who dealt with numerous individual questions of the history of medieval dogma with penetrating diligence and methodological sharpness. Some of them also expressly or implicitly rejected the assessment of the Reformation in comparison with the Middle Ages, with which Denifle did not crown his scientific life's work but destroyed it. "

- Adolf von Harnack

1957

“ Denifle was a man of great unpretentiousness and deep piety, of immense erudition, penetrating sharpness of mind, indestructible labor and unmistakable instinct, an intrepid and relentless fighter for the truth. Due to the unpredictable, unprinted source material of the European libraries in the last decades of the 19th century, he gave the research of the medieval intellectual world decisive impetus and direction. Luther research also owes him lasting influence. "

- Michael Schmaus : New German Biography . Volume 3, 1957, page 597

Works

literature

  • Friedrich Wilhelm Bautz :  Heinrich Denifle. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 1, Bautz, Hamm 1975. 2nd, unchanged edition Hamm 1990, ISBN 3-88309-013-1 , Sp. 1258-1259.  ( Article / beginning of article in Internet archive )
  • Martin Grabmann : P. Heinrich Denifle OP An appreciation of his research work. Mainz 1905.
  • Joachim Köhler: Denifle, Heinrich Suso. In: Theological Real Encyclopedia . 8, 1981, pp. 490-493.
  • Th. Kolde: P. Denifle, sub-archivist of the Pope, his abuse of Luther and the Protestant Church. 2nd Edition. Deichert, Leipzig 1904.
  • Michael Schmaus :  Denifle, Heinrich Suso. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 3, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1957, ISBN 3-428-00184-2 , pp. 595-597 ( digitized version ).
  • Denifle, Heinrich , in: Friedhelm Golücke : Author's lexicon for student and university history. SH-Verlag, Cologne 2004, ISBN 3-89498-130-X . Pp. 76-78.
  • Andreas son , Jacques Verger, Michel Zink (eds.): Heinrich Denifle (1844–1905). Un savant dominicain entre Graz, Rome et Paris. Actes du colloque international organisé […] à l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres et à la Fondation Simone et Cino Del Duca, les 6 et 7 December 2012, Paris 2015.
  • Otto Weiß : The Luther picture by Heinrich Suso Denifle. In: Mariano Delgado, Volker Leppin (ed.): Luther: Apple of contention between denominations and "Father in faith"? Freiburg i.Ue. 2016, pp. 362–377.
  • Claus Arnold : Henrich Suso Denifle (1844-1905). The effects of a historical polemic against Luther. In: Andreas Holzem et al. (Ed.): Martin Luther: Monument, Ketzer, Mensch. Luther pictures, Luther projections and an ecumenical Luther. Herder, Freiburg i. Br. 2017, pp. 247-268.

Web links

Wikisource: Heinrich Denifle  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See also Heinrich Denifle: The occidental interpreters to Luther about Justitia Dei (Rom. 1.17) and Justificatio. Contributions to the history of exegesis, literature and dogma in the Middle Ages. Kirchheim, Mainz 1905.
  2. ↑ Volker Leppin: Martin Luther. WBG, Darmstadt 2006.
  3. ↑ Philosophisches Jahrbuch 63 (1955), pp. 221f.
  4. ↑ Program of the conference from 6./7. December 2012 ( Memento from February 16, 2013 in the web archive archive.today )
  5. ^ Andreas Sohn : Scholar between Graz, Rome and Paris, conference on the Dominican Heinrich Denifle. In: Die Tagespost of December 18, 2012, p. 4
  6. ^ Adolf von Harnack: Dogmengeschichte. Preface to the 4th edition of the third volume. Tübingen 1910
personal data
SURNAME Denifle, Heinrich
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Denifle, Friedrich Heinrich Suso (full name); Denifle, Heinrich; Denifle, Josef Anton (original name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Church historians and Dominicans
DATE OF BIRTH January 16, 1844
PLACE OF BIRTH Imst (Tyrol)
DATE OF DEATH June 10, 1905
Place of death Munich