Konstantin von Schaezler

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Konstantin Freiherr von Schaezler (born May 7, 1827 in Augsburg , † September 19, 1880 in Interlaken ) was a Catholic theologian and representative of Neuthomism and Neo-Scholasticism . He was an advisor to the First Vatican Council in Rome.

Life

Schaezler came from the wealthy, Protestant Augsburg banking family von Schaezler . After graduating from the St. Anna Gymnasium in Augsburg, he studied in Erlangen 1844/45, Munich 1845-1847 and Heidelberg 1847/48 jurisprudence , then made up 1,850 officer service at the Bavarian army. In 1850, after completing a legal internship in Traunstein , he became a Dr. jur. PhD.

Schaezler, who had been drawn to Catholicism since childhood and wanted to become a Capuchin for a while, converted in Brussels in 1850 with the later Jesuit general Pierre Jean Beckx . He then studied theology at the Collegium Romanum in Rome. In 1851 he entered the novitiate of the Jesuits in Drongen near Ghent, and with that began a path full of stations with entries and exits in various Catholic religious orders. In 1853 he continued his theological training in Leuven . Ordained a priest in Liège in 1856 , he left the Society of Jesus in 1857 and continued his studies in Munich, which he completed in 1859 with a doctorate in theology. He was in friendly contact with Ignaz von Döllinger as well as with the strictly ecclesiastical, former Munich Vicar General Friedrich Windischmann .

In 1860/61 Schaezler was a repetiteur at the Osnabrück seminary . After his failed attempt to be accepted into the order of the Redemptorists , he entered the Dominican monastery in Huissen in 1861/62 . He turned to the Neuthomism represented by the Dominicans . Like the influence of Windischmann and his affiliated ultramontane circles, this led to the alienation of Döllinger, against whose speech on the past and present of Catholic theology he protested at the "Munich Scholars' Meeting" in 1863 together with seven other conservative theologians.

After his attempts to gain a professorship failed due to resistance from German university theologians, he became a private lecturer in Freiburg im Breisgau . During Vatican I he was already the theological advisor to the Redemptorist Cardinal Victor-Augustin-Isidore Dechamps , and in 1873 he moved entirely to Rome, where he had been a consultor to the Holy Office and other Roman congregations since 1874 . In 1879 he rejoined the Jesuits in Naples. He died of a heart condition on a trip through Switzerland before he planned to leave the country.

His sister, the writer Freifrau Olga von Leonrod (1828–1901), had the body transferred to Freiburg im Breisgau. For his grave, she ordered a statue of St. Thomas Aquinas from the Freiburg sculptor Julius Seitz . She had noticed him through his tombs on the Campo Santo Teutonico . In 1882 the 1.40 m high sculpture, made of Carrara marble , was moved to the old part of the foyer of the Freiburg main cemetery and destroyed during Operation Tigerfish in the Second World War .

Schaezler and his sister Olga bequeathed their rich fortune in a will to the former seminary of the Archdiocese of Freiburg in St. Peter ("Olga and Constantin von Schaezler Foundation" for the promotion of Thomistic studies).

The theological work

Schaezler, who made a name for himself as a leading neo-scholastic, is considered original despite all his loyalty to the teachings of Thomas Aquinas . He became known through his advocacy of papal infallibility and through his controversy with Johannes Evangelist Kuhn about the relationship between nature and grace, which was also important in terms of church politics as part of the conflict between “Roman” and “German” theology.

Already at the beginning of this controversy stood his advocacy of the establishment of a Catholic university independent of the state, against which Kuhn had spoken out. He played an active role in efforts extremely ultramontane circles around the Redemptorist Carl Erhard Schmöger , the Cardinal Karl August von Reisach and the Regensburg Bishop Ignatius of Senestrey in the Roman Inquisition in 1867 for costs and the works of Kuhn and 1873 that Johann Michael Sailer effect . Schaezler filed the indictment under his name; However, the condemnation failed both times because of the objection of the Jesuit theologian Johannes Baptist Franzelin , who held the office of consultor of the Inquisition. There are many indications that Schaezler only allowed himself to be determined to file the indictments under pressure. Schaezler's influence was particularly significant in the Dominican order; Schaezler's students include Ernst Commer and Herman Schell and the secretary of the Index Congregation , Thomas Esser, who attributed his entry into the Dominican order to Schäzler.

Works

  • The doctrine of the effectiveness of the sacraments ex opere operato in their development within scholasticism and their significance for the Christian doctrine of salvation , Munich 1859.
  • Nature and supernatural. The Dogma of Grace and the Theological Question of the Present. A Critique of Kuhn's Theology , Mainz 1865.
  • New inquiries into the dogma of grace and the nature of the Christian faith. With special regard to the current representation of Catholic dogmatics at the universities of Tübingen, Munich and Freiburg , Mainz 1867.
  • The dogma of the Incarnation of God / Christ in the spirit of St. Thomas , Freiburg i. Br. 1870.
  • The first religious decisions of the Vatican Council and the religious needs of the present , Freiburg i. Br. 1870.
  • The papal infallibility proven from the essence of the church , Freiburg / Br. 1870.
  • Divus Thomas doctor Angelicus contra Liberalismum invictus veritatis catholicae assertor. De doctrinae S. Thomae ad exstirpandos huius aetatis errores vi et efficacia commentarius in texto centenario angelici praeceptoris , Roma 1874.
  • Introductio in S. Theologiam dogmaticam ad mentem S. Thomae Aquinatis , posthumously ed. by Thomas ESSER, Regensburg 1882.
  • The meaning of the history of dogma - discussed from the Catholic point of view , posthumously ed. by Thomas ESSER, Regensburg 1884.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Alois Knöpfler:  Schäzler, Constantin Freiherr von . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 30, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1890, pp. 649-651.
  2. ^ Michael Klant: Artist Prince in the Province. The sculptor Julius Seitz . In: Sculpture in Freiburg. 19th century art in public spaces, ed. v. Michael Klant, Freiburg 2000, p. 181, ISBN 3-922675-77-8
personal data
SURNAME Schaezler, Konstantin von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Schaezler, Konstantin Freiherr von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Catholic theologian
DATE OF BIRTH May 7, 1827
PLACE OF BIRTH augsburg
DATE OF DEATH September 19, 1880
Place of death Interlaken