Peter Alois Gratz

Peter Alois Gratz (born August 17, 1769 in Mittelberg , Allgäu, † November 1, 1849 in Darmstadt ) was one of the most important Catholic biblical scholars in the early 19th century. He was best known for his critical-historical commentary on the Gospel of Matthew , which appeared in two volumes in Tübingen from 1821 to 1823 .

Born as a teacher's son in Mittelberg, Peter Alois Gratz grew up in Stötten am Auerberg near Marktoberdorf . He studied philosophy and theology at the University of Dillingen , where the pastoral theologian Johann Michael Sailer (1751-1832) was one of his teachers. In 1792 he was ordained a priest and, on Sailer's recommendation, took up his first position as court master (educator) at the Weitenburg not far from Horb am Neckar . In 1795 he became pastor of the nearby town of Untertalheim . Because of disputes with his community, he retired to the Weitenburg from spring 1805 to autumn 1807 and was now able to devote himself intensively to the study of the Holy Scriptures.

In the meantime, the previously Austrian county of Hohenberg , to which Untertalheim and Weitenburg belonged, fell to Württemberg . In the autumn of 1812 the state established a Catholic state university in Ellwangen to train the Württemberg priestly candidates. Gratz, who at the beginning of 1807 had already brought up discussions with the authorities as a possible professor and five years later published a paper on the origin of the synoptic gospels, was given the chair for the New Testament. In 1817 the Württemberg state moved the Catholic theological faculty from Ellwangen to Tübingen. Together with his colleagues Johann Sebastian von Drey (1777–1853), Johann Georg Herbst (1787–1836) and Johann Baptist Hirscher (1788–1865), Gratz launched the Theological Quarterly in 1819 , and acted as its first editor for a short time .

In the same year, Gratz accepted an appointment at the newly founded University of Bonn . As professor primarius he was entrusted with the organization of the Catholic theological faculty there. From 1820, one of his colleagues was the dogmatist Georg Hermes (1775–1831). In 1821/22 Gratz was rector of the university. From 1820 to 1824 he published a magazine entitled Der Apologet des Katholicismus , in which he defended his church against - as he believed - unjustified attacks from the Protestant side. In 1821 he published the first volume of a commentary on the Gospel of Matthew, which raised doubts about his orthodoxy at the Prussian Ministry of Culture. For this reason, expert opinions on this comment were obtained from other faculties, which turned out negative. In addition, a fierce journalistic battle for the comment broke out. As a result, the ministry tried from 1822 to remove Gratz from the teaching post and to get him another job. In 1823 Gratz had to stop teaching.

After the attempt to make him cathedral dean or canon in Trier failed due to the resistance of the Rhenish ultramontanes (including Anton Joseph Binterim and Leonhard Aloys Joseph Nellessen ) and the Roman curia, Gratz became clergyman and school councilor at the Prussian district government in 1828 Trier. Here he once again developed a fruitful activity and made a particular contribution to the St. Matthias School Teacher Seminar, which is threatened with closure. From 1839 on, he spent his retirement on Bergstrasse .

Most important works

• New attempt to explain the genesis of the first three Gospels . Fues, Tübingen 1812.
• On the Limits of Freedom to a Catholic in the Declaration of the Scriptures . Ritter, Ellwangen 1817.
• Critical research into Marcion's gospel . Osiander, Tübingen 1818.
• The apologist of Catholicism. A magazine to correct various distortions of Catholicism. For friends of truth and brotherly love . 9 booklets, Kupferberg, Mainz 1820–1824.
• Novum testamentum graeco-latinum . 2 volumes, Fues, Tübingen 1821.
• Critical-historical commentary on the Gospel of Matthew . 2 volumes, Laupp, Tübingen 1821–1823.
• Novum Testamentum graece et latine . 2 volumes, Kupferberg, Mainz 1827 (2nd edition 1851).
• Nova collectio dissertationum selectarum in jus ecclesiasticum potissimum germanicum . Kupferberg, Mainz 1829.

literature

• Norbert Wolff : From the “moral” to the “critical” interpretation of the Bible. Peter Alois Gratz (1769–1849) , in: Between Catholic Enlightenment and Ultramontanism. New Testament exegetes of the "Catholic Tübingen School" in the 19th century and their significance for Catholic biblical studies, ed. v. Matthias Blum / Rainer Kampling (= Contubernium 79), Steiner, Stuttgart 2012, 83-102, ISBN 978-3-515-10199-8 .
• Norbert Wolff: Peter Alois Gratz (1769-1849). A theologian between “false enlightenment” and “obscurantism” (= Trier Theological Studies 61), Paulinus, Trier 1998, ISBN 3-7902-1289-X .
• Norbert Wolff:  Gratz, Peter Alois. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 14, Bautz, Herzberg 1998, ISBN 3-88309-073-5 , Sp. 1062-1067.
• Johann Friedrich von Schulte :  Gratz, Peter Alois . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 9, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1879, p. 602.

Web links

• Literature by and about Peter Alois Gratz in the catalog of the German National Library