Leonhard Aloys Joseph Nellessen

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Leonhard Aloys Joseph Nellessen (born January 1, 1783 in Aachen , † May 18, 1859 ibid) was a German Roman Catholic priest and an advocate of ultramontanism .

Live and act

Originally from a wealthy cloth manufacturer family Nellessen and nephew of Francis Carl Nellessen , factory owner of the textile factory Nellessen , started from a private teacher from 1773 dissolved the Jesuit order a study of the humanities , which he was still studying philosophy and theology at the Aachener Franciscan Friars Minor was followed . He also learned the Hebrew language from a local rabbi . Shortly before the death of the Aachen bishop Marc-Antoine Berdolet in 1809, Nellessen was ordained a priest by him , but did not accept a parish post that was subsequently offered, on the one hand because of current health problems and on the other hand because he was the one of Emperor Napoléon Bonaparte a little later appointed and controversial successor of Berdolet, Jean-Denis-François Camus , did not want to recognize.

Instead, Nellessen worked for several years as a private tutor for students who later wanted to pursue a spiritual career and often supported the pastor of St. Nicholas in Aachen , the monastery church of the Franciscan Minorites. Finally, in 1817, Nellessen was appointed pastor of St. Nikolaus by the vicar general of the Aachen diocese , Martin Wilhelm Fonck .

Nellessen championed during his tenure as strengster representatives for compliance with the Ultramontanism where it came to a predominant flow of his time when it was considered that Catholics absolutely to behave pope faithfully and strictly the instructions of the Papal Curia to would have followed. This contradicted the teachings of Hermesianism , represented by the professor of dogmatics Georg Hermes , the Archbishop of Cologne Ferdinand August von Spiegel and many others who were in a certain tradition of the Catholic Enlightenment . These contradicting views, including the different interpretations of the mixed marriages question , culminated in the Rhineland in the confusion of Cologne and led to the conflict between the Catholic Church and the Prussian state. To support his theses, Nellessen founded the so-called "Aachen Priest Circle", which included the theologian Johann Theodor Laurent , who also served as an informant to the Holy See in Rome, and the brother of the religious sister Clara Fey , Andreas Fey.

Nellessen expressed his ultramontanist attitude among other things in numerous printed sermons, funeral speeches and polemic pamphlets, because of the content of which he was sued several times and temporarily arrested. There was also a long-standing dispute between him and another Aachen priest on the one hand and the Breslau philosopher Peter Joseph Elvenich and the later mayor of Cologne Hermann Joseph Stupp as defenders of Hermesianism on the other. This war of the springs was later printed by Stupp in his book: " Anti-Nellessen, or fifteen articles against and for the last Hermesians " (1845). Likewise, on the occasion of Nellessen's discriminatory formulation against the Hermesians in his funeral speech for Archbishop Clemens August Droste zu Vischering in 1845 , Stupp was forced to write a warning letter to Nellessen.

Leonhard Nellessen, who was blind for the last twelve years of his life, nevertheless campaigned in 1848 for the establishment of an Aachen branch of the Order of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd and the necessary building of the Monastery of the Good Shepherd . A few years later, Nellessen was also committed to the establishment of a first Jesuit community in Aachen after its dissolution in 1773 and left part of its considerable fortune to the order, some of whose members he had quartered in his house.

On the occasion of his priestly jubilee Leonhard Nellessen was on 3 October 1858 by the Faculty of Theology of the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven for the honorary doctorate appointed. Leonhard Nellessen found his final resting place in Aachen's Ostfriedhof .

Fonts (selection)

  • Correct view of the Christian marriage contract and the legislative power of the church over the same: from scripture and canon law: as a refutation of the scriptures of the Oberlandgerichtraths Zum Bach on marriages between Catholics and Protestants ; Jacob Anton Mayer publishing house , Aachen, 1820
  • The holy mission during Lent - twenty-one sermons of Lent , Pustet Verlag, (Posthum) 1884
  • The Divinity of the Catholic Faith System: Proven in Six Sermons , 1821
  • The Confessions of St. Augustine with interspersed applications to our age: in five sermons of fasting , Verlag Schreiner, 1821
  • The Monita secreta Societatis Jesu, or the secret behavioral orders of the Jesuits, a work of lies , Jacob Anton Mayer, Aachen, 1825

Literature and Sources

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personal data
SURNAME Nellessen, Leonhard Aloys Joseph
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Roman Catholic priest and advocate of ultramontanism
DATE OF BIRTH January 1, 1783
PLACE OF BIRTH Aachen
DATE OF DEATH May 18, 1859
Place of death Aachen