Paul Melchers

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Paulus Cardinal Melchers, photo with signature (between 1885 and 1895)
Paulus Cardinal Melchers (painting about 1885)
Cardinal Paul Melchers on his deathbed, contemporary photo, taken in Rome

Paulus Ludolf Cardinal Melchers SJ (born January 6, 1813 in Münster , † December 14, 1895 in Rome ) was Archbishop of Cologne and Bishop of Osnabrück .

Life

Paulus Ludolf Melchers was the son of the wealthy Münster merchant Johann Franz Melchers (1761–1823) and his wife Maria Anna, b. Holtermann. After graduating from high school in Paulinum in 1829 , he studied philosophy in Münster and law in Bonn . In 1833 he passed his state examination and then did his military service until 1834 . He then embarked on a legal career, but decided in 1839 to become a priest and studied Catholic theology in Munich .

Career from priest to archbishop of Cologne

On June 5, 1841, Melchers was ordained a priest in Munster , in 1844 he became sub- rain of the seminary and seven years later it became rain . From May 18 to July 21, 1848 he was a member of the Frankfurt National Assembly . In 1852 he succeeded his uncle Franz Arnold Melchers as vicar general of the diocese of Münster and took on the role of cathedral capitular . In 1854 Melchers became dean of the cathedral , in 1847 and 1856 he ran for election as bishop of Münster and Paderborn, respectively . In 1857 the city of Münster made him an honorary citizen . In the same year he was elected as the first resident bishop of Osnabrück since secularization . The episcopal ordination received his April 20, 1858 Cathedral of St. Peter to Osnabrück Eduard Jakob Wedekin , Bishop of Hildesheim, co-consecrators were Johann Georg Müller , Bishop of Munster, and Konrad Martin , Bishop of Paderborn.

The bishopric of Osnabrück was shaped by a diaspora situation , since in 1821 large Protestant areas had become part of the bishopric of Osnabrück. Melchers gave the pastoral care on site an outstanding position, so he consequently visited every single parish of his diocese within two years and promoted the popular mission to promote Christian life . Melchers donated a bishop's cross with the order that the future bishop of Hamburg should wear it, which also happened after the reorganization of the archdiocese of Hamburg in 1995.

Pope Pius IX appointed him in 1858 as Apostolic Provicer for the Nordic Missions. After the failure of the regular election negotiations, he was appointed as a compromise candidate on January 8, 1866 as Archbishop of Cologne. In 1867 Melchers became the chairman of the German Bishops' Conference in Fulda .

Criticism of the papal infallibility

Melchers was reserved about the question of dogmatizing the Pope's infallibility . He took part in the First Vatican Council , did not consider the dogmatization of infallibility to be opportune and only partially approved the Council proposal. Before the final vote of the council on July 18, 1870, he, like 54 other bishops, left Rome. However, he bowed to the decisions of the council and proclaimed the infallibility dogma in his diocese .

Kulturkampf and exile

In exercising his episcopal rights, Melchers bestowed clerical offices without seeking the state approval required by the May laws . For this reason, among other things, he was subjected to several criminal proceedings. Since he did not pay the fines imposed on him, he spent several months in 1874 in the Klingelpütz prison in Cologne . In addition, furniture was seized and his property was auctioned off. In 1875, wanted, he evaded another arrest by fleeing to the Netherlands . In 1876, in application of the May Laws, the Prussian Court of Justice for Church Affairs was ousted from office. Melchers tried from exile in the Dutch province of Limburg to lead the Archdiocese of Cologne.

Melchers was not present at the celebration of the completion of Cologne Cathedral in October 1880, in which the German Emperor Wilhelm I also took part. He lived with the Franciscans in Maastricht in exile in the Netherlands for about ten years and was only able to manage his diocese through intermediaries. After the end of the Kulturkampf, he renounced the Archdiocese of Cologne based on an agreement between the Pope and the King of Prussia.

Rome

In 1884 he went to Rome, where Pope Leo XIII. on July 27, 1885 as a cardinal priest with the titular church Santo Stefano al Monte Celio accepted into the college of cardinals . Melchers then resigned from his position as Archbishop of Cologne. In Rome, however, he was unable to work effectively due to his state of health. In 1892 he joined the Society of Jesus with the Pope's permission . His entry into the Jesuit order was not known until 1910 when a marble bust of Melcher was erected in the Germanicum .

After his death on December 14, 1895, his remains were transferred to Cologne and buried on December 27 in the episcopal crypt of Cologne Cathedral. A special permit from the Government of the Kingdom of Prussia was required for this.

Commemoration

The Neustadtkirche St. Paul in Cologne was also consecrated in 1908 in memory of Melchers' services during the Kulturkampf .

literature

  • Hans-Georg Aschoff: The relationship between the state and the Catholic Church in the Kingdom of Hanover (1813–1866). 1976.
  • Theodor Granderath : History of the Vatican Council. 3 volumes, 1903/1906.
  • Klaus Schatz: Church image and papal infallibility among the German-speaking minority bishops at the First Vatican. (= Miscellanea Historiae Pontificiae , Volume 40.) 1975, Register.
  • Klaus Schatz: Vaticanum I. 1869–1870, 1: Before the opening. 1992.
  • Ernst Raßmann: News of the life and writings of Münsterland writers of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. New series, Münster 1881.
  • Wilhelm Kosch : Catholic Germany. Volume 2, Haas & Grabherr, Augsburg 1937, with picture.
  • Kurt Galling (Hrsg.): The religion in past and present. 3rd edition, Volume 4, Tübingen 1960.
  • Wilhelm Kosch (Ed .; continued by Eugen Kuri): Biographisches Staatshandbuch. Volume 1, Francke, Bern et al. 1963.
  • Erwin Gatz :  Melchers, Paul. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 17, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1994, ISBN 3-428-00198-2 , p. 4 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Heinrich Best , Wilhelm Weege: Biographical handbook of the members of the Frankfurt National Assembly 1848/49 (= handbooks on the history of parliamentarism and the political parties. Volume 8). Droste, Düsseldorf 1996, ISBN 3-7700-5193-9 .
  • Walther Killy , Rudolf Vierhaus (ed.): German Biographical Encyclopedia . Volume 7, Saur, Munich et al. 1998.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Homepage of the JVA Cologne
  2. ^ G. Behnes: Paulus Melchers, Archbishop of Cologne. (= Germany's Episcopate in Life Pictures , Volume II, Volume V / Volume XI.) Würzburg 1874, page 219 f.
  3. ↑ Biographies of German parliamentarians from 1848 to today ( Memento of the original from December 4, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / zhsf.gesis.org
  4. ↑ a b Dieter Breuers : The Cologne and their cathedral. Stories and history about Cologne Cathedral. Bastei Lübbe, Bergisch Gladbach 2004, p. 288 ff.
  5. ↑ Westfälischer Merkur, May 31, 1910, p. 3.
predecessor Office successor
Johannes Cardinal von Geissel Chairman of the Fulda Bishops' Conference
1867–1883 		Philipp Cardinal Krementz
Johannes Cardinal von Geissel Archbishop of Cologne
1866–1885 		Philipp Cardinal Krementz
Friedrich von Braunschweig-Lüneburg Bishop of Osnabrück
1857–1866 		Johann Heinrich Beckmann
Franz Arnold Melchers Vicar General of the Diocese of Münster
1852–1857 		Johannes Bernhard Brinkmann
personal data
SURNAME Melchers, Paulus
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Melchers, Paulus Ludolf
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Archbishop of Cologne
DATE OF BIRTH January 6, 1813
PLACE OF BIRTH Munster ( Westphalia )
DATE OF DEATH December 14, 1895
Place of death Rome