Karl Josef von Hefele

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Karl Josef von Hefele (1869)

Karl Josef von Hefele (March 15, 1809 – June 6, 1893) was a

Roman Catholic
bishop and theologian of Germany.

Biography

Hefele was born at Unterkochen in Württemberg and was educated at Tübingen, where in 1839 he became professor-ordinary of Church history and patristics in the Roman Catholic faculty of theology,[1] while collaborating along with William Robinson Clark to his major work.[2]

From 1842 to 1845 he sat in the National Assembly of Württemberg. In December 1869 he was enthroned

Cardinal Ximenes, published in 1844 as Der Cardinal Ximenes und der kirchlichen Zustände Spaniens am Ende des 15. und am Anfange des 16. Jahrhunderts (Eng. trans. by John Dalton, 1860);[3] and his still more celebrated Conciliengeschichte (History of the Councils of the Church), in seven volumes, which appeared between 1855 and 1874 (Eng. trans., 1871, 1882).[1]

Hefele's theological opinions inclined towards the more liberal school in the Roman Catholic Church, but he nevertheless received considerable signs of favour from its authorities, and was a member of the commission that made preparations for the

archbishop of Paris, in his opposition to the doctrine of Infallibility, and supporting their arguments from his vast knowledge of ecclesiastical history. In the preliminary discussions he voted against the promulgation of the dogma. He was absent from the important sitting of June 18, 1870, and did not send in his submission to the decrees until 1871, when he explained in a pastoral letter that the dogma "referred only to doctrine given forth ex cathedra, and therein to the definitions proper only, but not to its proofs or explanations".[1]

In 1872 he took part in the congress summoned by the

schism. The last four volumes of the second edition of his History of the Councils have been described as skillfully adapted to the new situation created by the Vatican decrees. During the later years of his life he undertook no further literary efforts on behalf of his church, but retired into relative privacy.[1]

Hefele died in Rottenburg am Neckar.

Selected works

  • Karl Joseph von Hefele (1871). A History of the Councils of the Church: To the close of the Council of Nicea, A.D. 325. T. & T. Clark.
  • Karl Joseph von Hefele (1876). A History of the Councils of the Church: A.D. 326 to A.D. 429. T. & T. Clark.
    ISBN 9780404032609
    .
  • Karl Joseph von Hefele (1883). A History of the Councils of the Church: A.D. 431 to A.D. 451. T. & T. Clark.
  • Karl Joseph von Hefele (1895). A History of the Councils of the Church, from the Original Documents. A.D. 451 to A.D. 680. T. & T. Clark.
    ISBN 9780404032609
    .
  • Karl Joseph von Hefele (1896). A History of the Councils of the Church, from the Original Documents. A.D. 626 to A.D.787. T. & T. Clark.
    ISBN 9780404032609
    .

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d  One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Hefele, Karl Josef von". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 13 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 200.
  2. ISBN 9780404032609
    .
  3. ^ "Review of The Life of Cardinal Jimenez by the Rev. Dr. von Hefele, translated from the German by the Rev. Canon Dalton". The Athenaeum (1700): 715. May 26, 1860.
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