Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 5.djvu/121

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DOLLINGER


95


DOLLINGEH


feasor of canon law and ecclesiastical history, but was soon burdened with the teaching of dogma and New- Testament exegesis, a task to which a weaker or in- ferior mind would not have proved equal. He de- clined, in 1829, a call to Breslau, although King Louis I heartily wished him out of Bavaria; he also refused a later call to Freiburg in the Breisgau. He was offered, in 1839, a professorship at an English college, but pre- ferred to remain in Munich. To facilitate the coming of Johann Adam Mohler from Tiibingen to Munich (18.35), he gave over to him the courses of ecclesiastical history and New-Testament exegesis, and when Mohler died (12 April, 1S3S) he collected a number of essays of this great theologian which for the most part were already in print, but were widely scattered, and published them in two volumes (1839) under the title of "Gesammelte Schriften und Aufsiitze". While Mohler taught at Munich, Dollinger lectured on the history of dogma (Historische Dogmaiik). At the request of Abel, Minister of the Interior, Dollinger began, in 1838, a course of lectures in the Faculty of Philosophy on tlie philosophy of religion in opposition to the teaching of the honorary professor Von Baader, _ the theosophist, and of Schelling. He continued, however, to lecture on dogma and ecclesiastical his- tory. From November, lS4G, to February, 1848, Bavarian public affairs were disturbed by the royal attachment to Lola Montez, a Spanish ballerina; the Abel ministry was dismissed, and professors Lasaulx, Moy, Phillips. Hofler, and Deutinger either dismissed or reprimantled; Dollinger, finally, as stated above, was removed from his office. After his restoration in 1S50 he continued to the end as professor of church history. In 1862 he was made Knight of the Order of Maximilian for science and art.

Apart from his aforesaid offices of canon and pro- vost, Dollinger held but one other ecclesiastical office in Munich. After the conflict concerning mixed mar- riages (1832), he was made defensor matrimonii in the matrimonial court of first instance, later in that of .second in.stance, which office he held until 1862. His circle of friends was from the beginning quite exten- sive; the physicians and professors of the natural sciences who frequented his father's house were them- selves men of distinction. As a student he formed the acquaintance of the poet, Graf von Platen, and of Victor Aim6 Huber. Later, Platen wished to study Sanskrit with Dollinger, and visited him twice at Marktscheinfeld. In the ecclesiastical seminary of Bamberg he met Prince Alexander von Hohenlohe (q. v.), of whose miraculous cures he said later: " Cures there were, but such as often happen in the history of the Church; the deep stirring of the emotions suffices easily enough to explain them", a remark that fails to account for the presence of deep emotions in the absent sick. On a visit to Platen at Erlangen, in 1S22, he met Pfaff, Schubert, and Schelling, the last a friend of his father. In his early days at Munich he was much in the company of the above-mentioned philosopher, Franz von Baader. When, in 1827, the famous Joseph Gorres came to Munich as professor of history, there formed about him at once a sympathetic circle of scholars, among them the youthful Dollinger. Dol- linger's relations with Lamennais, more particularly with Count Montalembert, gave occasion in 1832 to a violent attack in the Bavarian Parliament on Gorres and his friends. Lamennais at that time contem- plated the establishment at Munich of a house of studies for yoimg Frenchmen {(Euvre des etudes alle- mandes), who might thus come under the influence of Gorres, Baader, and others, and on their return to France stand manfully for the defence of the Church. In the meantime Dollinger had met Andreas Rass, the founder (1821) of "Der Katholik" (still published at Mainz), who in 1828 was rector of the ecclesia.stical seminary at Stra.sburg as well as profes.sor of dogma and homiletic.?; with Dollinger he projected various


literary enterprises which, through pressure of other work, were never realized.

At this time Monsignor Wi.seman, later Cardinal, and .\rchbishop of Westminster, then professor at the Roman University (Sapienza) and rector of the Eng- lish College, saw the necessity of strengthening Ca- tholicism in the development of its new opportunities in England, and for this reason was minded to effect closer relations with the learned clergy of Germany. Dollinger seemed to him the proper mediator; he therefore visited Munich in 1835, made the acquaint- ance of the distinguished professor, and spoke with him of his hopes and plans. Wiseman, already well known in Europe by his " Horae Syria c:e", aroused in Dollin- ger so deep an interest, that the next year the latter visited England. His biographer, Friedrich, describes the result of this visit as follows; "Dollinger had a life-long hatred of bureaucracy both in Church and State; the large independence, therefore, of English public life de- lighted him and filled him with an admiration that was often exces- sive. Thenceforth he remained al- ways in close touch with Eng land, kept con- st antlyinhishome, and at consider- able sacrifice, a number of yoimg English students, and directed the studies of others whom he could not keep under his o w n roof." In 1850 the youthful Sir John Emerich Edward Acton (q. V.) en- tered his house as a student, to become later his intimate friend. Later, as John Lord Acton and Regius Professor of modern history at Cambridge, he remained in close touch with the Old Catholics, though he never formally severed his connexion with the Churcli. We do not as yet possess acciu-ate knowledge concerning Acton's share in the work known as " Letters from Rome" concern- ing the Vatican Council (Romische Briefe vom Kon- zil), published by Dollinger in the Augsburg "Allge- meine Zeitung".

As a rule Dollinger observed with his pupils a strict academic dignity and reserve ; among the few whom he treated as intimate friends Acton was easily the foremost. Among those who in this early period exerted the greatest influence over Dollinger was Karl Erne-st Jarcke, founder and editor (since 1832) of the Berlin "Politische Wochenbliitter", confidant of Met- ternich, and a frequent visitor to the Bavarian capital. In 1838 came the foundation of the " Historisch-poli- ti.sche Blatter" by Guido Gorres, Phillips, and Jarcke; the new organ soon greatly augmented the influence of Gorres and his circle of friends, the most loyal and earnest of whom at this time was Dollinger.

The dispute over the question of mixed marriages in Prussia, known as the Kiilner Streit (1831), followed close upon that in Bavaria (1831); both were fought out dramatically, and brought Dollinger and his Mimich friends to the front as vigorous defenders of Catholic rights. The first estrangement of Dollinger from Gorres and his friends came about through the publication of an important manual of canon law by Phillips (from 1834 to 1S47 professor of canon law at Munich). To Dollinger it .seemed that the latter emphasized excessively the extent of the papal pre-