Ludwig von Pastor

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Ludwig von Pastor

Ludwig Friedrich August von Pastor , since 1916 Freiherr Pastor von Camperfelden (born January 31, 1854 in Aachen , † September 29, 1928 in Innsbruck ) was an Austrian Catholic historian and diplomat . He is known as the "historian of the popes ". In 1908 Pastor was raised to the nobility by Franz Joseph I , and in 1916 as Pastor von Camperfelden to the baron class.

Life

Ludwig Pastor, descended from the evangelical, well-known Aachen cloth manufacturer family Pastor , was the son of the chemicals trader Ludwig Daniel Pastor (1800–1864) and the Catholic Anna Sibylle Onnau (1824–1899). After the early death of his father Ludwig took the confession of the mother and studied for his school in Frankfurt where one of his formative teacher Johannes Janssen was and where he contacts with the anti-Prussian, large German-Austrian oriented circles around locksmiths and Brentano was coined , from 1875 in Löwen , 1875/76 in Bonn , where he gave the K.St.V. Arminia joined, and 1877/78 in Vienna and Graz . In 1886 he became a professor in Innsbruck, where he taught the K.St.V. Rhenania Innsbruck joined. His doctorate and habilitation took place with Franz Krones in Vienna with the thesis The ecclesiastical reunification efforts during the reign of Karl V. From 1901 he was director of the Austrian Historical Institute in Rome . Under Pope Pius X. (1903-1914) he took part in the Pope's fight against modernism , where he also acted as an informer .

Pastor was married to Konstanze Kaufmann (1857–1953), daughter of Bonn's Lord Mayor Leopold Kaufmann . With her he had two sons and three daughters.

Memberships and honors

Pastor was a member of the Emperor Franz Joseph Academy in Prague, a corresponding member of the Società colombaria in Florence, the Papal Academy in Rome, the Accademia dei Lincei in Rome, the Academy in Krakow and the Académie Royale d'Archéologie de Belgique in Antwerp, Honorary member of the Accademia di San Luca in Rome, honorary doctorate from the Catholic University of Leuven , member of the historical section of the Görres Society , corresponding member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences (1919), Commander of the Papal New Year's Eve and Knight of the Papal Order of St. Pius , Commander of the Austrian Franciscan Joseph Order and the Italian Order of Mauritius and Lazarus .

In 1954 the Pastorstrasse in Vienna- Floridsdorf (21st district) and the von Pastor-Strasse in Aachen- Burtscheid were named after him.

Works

His best-known work is the 16-volume history of the popes since the end of the Middle Ages , which covers the period from 1417 to 1799. Already during its publication between 1886 and 1933 it was translated into French, English, Italian and Spanish; their dissemination was supported by the church. Pastor wanted to counter the depiction of Leopold von Rankes , who had published his work The Roman Popes in the last four centuries from 1834-36 , with a depiction from a Catholic perspective. He was able to use previously inaccessible Vatican source material, as he had extensive access to the holdings of the Vatican secret archive , which was officially only officially approved in 1883 by a decree of Leo XIII. fully opened. Pastor's papal story is characterized by its wealth of detail and is therefore still quoted today.

Pastor also wrote about the history of Rome during the Renaissance and about the Reformation . He introduced the term “Catholic Restoration” for the internal church reform movement, instead of the term “ Catholic Reformation ” used by the Protestant Wilhelm Maurenbrecher . His biography of August Reichensperger , published in two volumes in 1899, is still of importance today , as Pastor extensively cites documents from his private estate that have now no longer been preserved.

tendency

The very strong and undisguised denominational character of Pastor's view of history, which was also expressed in harsh evaluations, already aroused offense among his contemporaries - Catholic as well as Protestant scholars. He wrote from a strictly Catholic point of view and tried to show the actions of the Popes in a positive light. Even where he disapproved of individual papal measures, he emphasized the principle of the faithful's duty of obedience to the Pope, regardless of the specific circumstances of the individual case. So he condemned the behavior of the Dominican Girolamo Savonarola , whose stubborn resistance against Pope Alexander VI. he basically considered culpable disobedience. With this, Pastor met with opposition from Catholic scholars. He interpreted world history as a “great struggle between light and darkness”, with the providential activity of the popes as the governor of Christ on earth playing a central role on the side of the forces of light. He saw his own place in this argument; He noted in his diary: "It was as if a higher power had told me: Take the pen in your hand and write a Catholic story of the popes of that time!"

Publications (selection)

  • The ecclesiastical reunion efforts during the government of Charles V Dissertation, University of Graz, 1878 (handwritten)
  • History of the Popes since the end of the Middle Ages. 16 volumes in 22, Herder, Freiburg i.Br. 1886-1933. The last complete edition appeared from 1955 to 1961. It contains all volumes in the last editions changed or expanded by Pastor.

literature

Web links

Wikisource: Ludwig von Pastor  - Sources and full texts

Remarks

  1. ^ A b Wilhelm Baum:  Pastor of Camperfelden Ludwig Frh .. In: Austrian Biographical Lexicon 1815–1950 (ÖBL). Volume 7, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 1978, ISBN 3-7001-0187-2 , p. 338.
  2. ↑ Strnad p. 48.
  3. ↑ Manselli p. 124.
  4. ↑ Manselli p. 119.
personal data
SURNAME Pastor, Ludwig von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Pastor of Camperfelden, Ludwig
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-Austrian Catholic historian
DATE OF BIRTH January 31, 1854
PLACE OF BIRTH Aachen
DATE OF DEATH September 29, 1928
Place of death innsbruck