Joseph Hergenröther

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Joseph Cardinal Hergenröther

Joseph Adam Gustav Hergenröther (born September 15, 1824 in Würzburg , † October 3, 1890 in Mehrerau Abbey near Bregenz ) was a Catholic church historian and cardinal .

Life

The family

Joseph Adam Gustav Hergenröther was the second child of the extraordinary professor of medicine Johann Jakob Hergenröther (1793–1855) and his wife Maria Eva, née. Horsch (1801-1870). The father, who drew attention to himself with numerous publications, was facing a great scientific career, which came to an abrupt end with the demagogue persecution in 1832, which hit the University of Würzburg particularly hard. Johann Hergenröther, meanwhile head of the university polyclinic and full professor, was transferred to Marktheidenfeld as a medical officer. There he lived with his family in very modest circumstances. Retired in 1850, he moved with his family to Steinach near Bad Bocklet in 1851, where he died in 1855.

Johann Hergenröther conveyed his love for ancient languages ​​and the willingness to serve the church not only to his son Joseph, but also to his sons Philipp (1835–1890) and Franz (1847–1930), the youngest child, studied theology and became priests . Philipp was a religion teacher at the grammar school and private lecturer in Würzburg, was dismissed as a religion teacher after proceedings for pulpit abuse in 1871 and left the university. Then he was from 1872 professor at the Episcopal Lyceum in Eichstätt and was by Pope Leo XIII. appointed papal house prelate. Franz Hergenröther, who had followed his cardinal brother to Rome in 1879 and supported him in his scientific work there, returned to Germany after his death. In 1891 he became a member of the Würzburg Cathedral Chapter. The Hergenröther brothers were supported by their sisters Theresia (1827–1888) and Thekla (1825–1890). Theresa ran the household in Eichstätt for her brother Philipp, Thekla moved to Rome with her cardinal brother, ran his household there and supported him in his scientific work. Thekla Hergenröther's grave on the Campo Santo Teutonico still reminds of the work of the Hergenröther siblings Joseph, Franz and Thekla in Rome.

Scientific career

Joseph Hergenröther came to Marktheidenfeld with his family at the age of eight in 1832. From 1838 on, the pastor prepared him for attending grammar school in Würzburg; there he graduated from high school in 1842. Until 1844 he studied philosophy and theology at the Würzburg University. He continued these studies from 1844 at the Germanicum in Rome. Due to the revolutionary unrest in Italy, he could not finish his studies in Rome, but on March 28, 1848 he was ordained a priest for the diocese of Würzburg .

Returning to Marktheidenfeld, Hergenröther worked as a priest in the local parish and from 1849 also as a chaplain in Zellingen . In May 1850 he continued his studies at the University of Munich . In July 1850 Hergenröther became a doctor of theology doctorate , habilitation in 1851 and then got a job as a lecturer in Munich. In 1852 he became associate professor , in 1855 full professor of church law and church history in Würzburg, where he remained until his appointment as cardinal.

Hergenröther's research soon made him known in Germany. In 1864 the Limburg bishop offered him the position of coadjutor with the right of succession, which he refused out of love for science. His work focused on early Christianity and the church history of Byzantium. In addition to many historical and canonical treatises in specialist journals, Hergenröther published his main work, Photius , Patriarch of Constantinople .

From 1860 Hergenröther came more and more into conflict with Ignaz von Döllinger , his teacher at Munich University, who critically dealt with the history of the papacy and questioned its authority, especially on the question of papal infallibility . Hergenröther, on the other hand, was one of the infallibilists ; he was a staunch advocate of the Pope's infallibility in matters of faith and morals. In 1868 he was appointed consultor in preparation for the First Vatican Council (1869/1870) in Rome. At the Council the dogma of infallibility was defined.

With Georg Anton Stahl , Heinrich Denzinger and Franz Hettinger he was one of the representatives of the so-called Roman theology , which made the theological faculty of the University of Würzburg a center of this “Roman school”. During the Kulturkampf , Hergenröther defended the Roman Catholic position against numerous critics, including a. with his work, Catholic Church and Christian State , published in 1872 . From 1876 to 1880 his three-volume handbook of general church history was published , which was translated into English and Italian and was used as a standard text in priestly training for decades. From 1877 to 1879 he was the editor of a German church lexicon.

Pope Pius IX appointed Hergenröther as papal house prelate in 1877. Pope Leo XIII. raised him in the consistory of May 12, 1879 to cardinal deacon and shortly afterwards assigned him the title deaconry of San Nicola in Carcere . Hergenröther then took up permanent residence in Rome .

Relations with Catholic fraternities

As a professor in Würzburg, Hergenröther was an active honorary member of the K.St.V. Walhalla in KV and KDSt.V. Marcomannia in the CV . In 1879 he also became a member of the academic Catholic student association Unitas -Hetania Würzburg.

Cardinal Hergenröther

On June 9, 1879, Cardinal Hergenröther was assigned a special task by being appointed Cardinal Prefect of the Vatican Secret Archives . In this function he was given the delicate task of making the secret archive accessible to the public in 1881 - for the first time since its foundation. When the archive was opened up to science and its possible uses, the cardinal gained general recognition.

Another recognition was that on July 1, 1888, he was given the title diaconia Santa Maria in Via Lata . At his death he was a cardinal protodeacon .

Hergenröther also continued his scientific work as a cardinal, supported by his brother Franz and his sister Thekla. 1884–85 the first volume of the regests of Pope Leo X. (1513–1521) appeared, which Franz Hergenröther continued with part of the second volume after the death of his brother in 1891. Volumes VIII and IX of the history of the Council appeared in 1887 and 1890, edited by Joseph Hergenröther.

Hergenröther, whose state of health had been compromised in the 1870s, suffered a stroke on February 24, 1882 , from which he largely recovered. On October 1, 1890, while staying in the Cistercian Abbey of Mehrerau , he suffered a second stroke, of which he died on October 3, 1890.

Hergenröther and Mehrerau

Today's installation of the Hergenröther grave in the Mehrerau crypt

In 1881 Cardinal Hergenröther was appointed Cardinal Protector of the Sisters of Mercy of the Holy Cross. This institute emerged from a foundation by Father Theodosius Florentini (OFM) and was significantly shaped and successfully continued by Anna Maria Katharina Scherer (1825–1888) from 1856 onwards. From Ingenbohl, Switzerland, she was the first General Superior to direct the rapidly expanding community, which when she died in 1888 had 1596 sisters in 397 houses in Switzerland, Bohemia, Austria, Slavonia and Moravia. From 1882 the cardinal combined Hergenröther's stays in Germany with visits to Ingenbohl. He always chose the Cistercian monastery Mehrerau near Bregenz as a stopover from and to Rome. In 1882, 1883, 1884, 1887 and 1890 he was a guest there.

Cardinal Hergenröther also found his final resting place in the abbey church on October 7, 1890. To the funeral service traveled u. a. the Archbishop of Munich and the Bishops of Brixen, Linz, St. Gallen, Chur and Basel-Lugano.

The obituary

Hergenröther erected a memorial in the abbey church in 1897 by Abbot Augustin Stöckli , which was initiated by the 42nd General Assembly of Catholics in Germany in 1895 in Munich. It originally stood in the left corner of the transept, flanked by two altars. The life-size figure of the cardinal in a purple robe, made of Salzburg marble, rested on the sarcophagus. Above it was his motto, In te domine speravi , a representation of Mary , St. Joseph and two angels. The memorial was made by Balthasar Schmitt in Munich.

During the renovation of the Mehrerau church from 1961 to 1963, u. a. all grave monuments removed from the church. The bodies of the abbots and the other prelates were buried in concrete sarcophagi in the newly designed lower church, where the foundations of the church built in 1097 had been exposed. The grave monument to Cardinal Hergenröthers was destroyed; only the lying marble figure of him is preserved today, which is kept near his grave.

Works (selection)

  • The Papal State since the French Revolution. Historical-statistical studies and sketches. Freiburg im Breisgau 1860 ( e-copy ).
  • The “errors” of more than four hundred bishops and their theological censor. A contribution to the appreciation of the Dr. von Döllinger published “Words about the infallibility address” . Freiburg im Breisgau ( e-copy ).
  • Criticism of the v. Döllinger's declaration of March 28 of this year. J. , Freiburg im Breisgau 1871 ( e-copy ).
  • The Catholic Church and the Christian State in their historical development and in relation to the questions of the present. Historical-theological essays and at the same time an anti-Janus Vindicatus.
    • part 1
    • Volume 2, Freiburg im Breisgau 1872 ( e-copy ).
  • Photius, Patriarch of Constantinople. His life, his writings and the Greek schism. 1867–1869, new edition: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 1966.
  • Catholic Church and Christian State. Two editions: For the specialist public (1872/1088 p.) Archive.org - For educated laypeople (1873/564 p.) Archive.org .
  • The H. Athanasius the Great , in: Görres Society for the Care of Science in Catholic Germany. Association publication for 1876 . Cologne 1877, pp. 1–24 ( online ) ""
  • Handbook of General Church History. 1876–1880, 4th edition 1902.
    • Volume 1, Freiburg im Breisgau 1879, 2nd edition ( e-copy ).
    • Volume 2, Freiburg im Breisgau 1877 ( e-copy ).
    • Volume 3
    • Volume 4
  • Outline of the papal history , Würzburg 1879 ( e-copy ).
  • Leonis X, Pontificis Maximi Regesta [...] e tabularii Vaticani manuscriptis aliisque monumentis. 2 vols. 1884-1891.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Catalog of the German National Library ( Hergenröther, Joseph ).
  2. ↑ Wolfgang Weiss : The Catholic Church in the 19th Century. In: Ulrich Wagner (Hrsg.): History of the city of Würzburg. 4 volumes, Volume I-III / 2, Theiss, Stuttgart 2001-2007; III / 1–2: From the transition to Bavaria to the 21st century. 2007, ISBN 978-3-8062-1478-9 , pp. 430-449 and 1303, here: p. 444.
  3. ↑ Wolfgang Weiss : The Catholic Church in the 19th Century. In: Ulrich Wagner (Hrsg.): History of the city of Würzburg. 4 volumes, Volume I-III / 2, Theiss, Stuttgart 2001-2007; III / 1–2: From the transition to Bavaria to the 21st century. 2007, ISBN 978-3-8062-1478-9 , pp. 430-449 and 1303, here: p. 433.
  4. ↑ M. Petz-Grabenbauer:  Stöckli P. Augustin. In: Austrian Biographical Lexicon 1815–1950 (ÖBL). Volume 13, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 2007–2010, ISBN 978-3-7001-6963-5 , p. 286.
predecessor Office successor
John Henry Cardinal Newman CO Cardinal
Protodeacon 1890 		Tommaso Cardinal Zigliara OP
personal data
SURNAME Hergenröther, Joseph
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hergenröther, Joseph Adam Gustav
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Catholic church historian and cardinal
DATE OF BIRTH September 15, 1824
PLACE OF BIRTH Wurzburg
DATE OF DEATH October 3, 1890
Place of death Mehrerau Abbey near Bregenz