HERGENROTHER
262
HERGENROTHER
is, or moves, or lives, for tolerance of destructive ele-
ments within the organism amounts to suicide. Heret-
ical sects are subject to the same law: they live or die
in the measure they apply or neglect it. The charge
of cruelty is also easy to meet. All repressive meas-
ures cause suffering or inconvenience of some sort: it is
their nature. But they are not therefore cruel. The
father who chastises his guilty son is just and may be
tender-hearted. Cruelty only comes in where the
punishment exceeds the requirements of the case.
Opponents say: Precisely; the rigours of the Inquisi-
tion violated all humane feelings. We answer: they
offend the feelings of later ages in which there is less
regard for the purity of faith; but they did not antag-
onize the feelings of their own time, when heresy was
looked on as more malignant than treason. In proof
of which it suffices to remark that the inquisitors only
pronounced on the guilt of the accused and then
handed him over to the secular power to be dealt with
according to the laws framed by emperors and kings.
Medieval people found no fault with the system, in
fact heretics had been burned by the populace cen-
turies before the Intiuisition became a regular institu-
tion. And whenever heretics gained the upper hantl,
they were never slow in applying the same laws: so the
Huguenots in France, the Hussites in Bohemia, the
Calvinists in Geneva, the Elizabethan statesmen and
the Puritans in England. Toleration came in only
when faith went out; lenient measures were resorted
to only where the power to apply more severe meas-
ures was wanting. The embers of the KitUurkampf
in Germany still smoulder; the separation and confisca-
tion laws and the ostracism of Catholics in France are
the .scandal of the day. Christ said: "Do not
think that I came to send peace upon earth: I came
not to send peace, but a sword" (Matt., x, 34). The
history of heresy verifies this prediction and shows,
moreover, that the greater nimiber of the victims of
the sword is on the side of the faithful adherents of the
one Church founded by Christ (see Inquisition).
For historic.lI development of anti-heretical legislation see DE Cauzons, Hisloire de Vinquisition en France, I (Paris, 1909): it is the best work of its kind. — For Canon law: Taunton, The Law of the Church for Enfjlisk-speaking Countries (London, 1906). — For information on special sects, etc.: Arnold and HcANNELL, A Catholic Dictionary (London, 190.5): Blunt, Dic- tion, of Sects (London, 1903); Schaff, The Creeds of Christendom (London, 187S).
J. WiLHELM.
Hergenrother, Joseph, church historian and can- onist, first Cardinal-Prefect of the Vatican Archives, b. at Wiirzburg, 1.5 Sept., 1824; d. at Mehrerau (Bodensee), 3 Oct., 1890. He was the second son of Johann Jacob Hergenrother, professor of medicine in the University of Wiirzljurg. In 1842 Hergenrother completed with notable success his gymnasium course in his native town, and entered the University of Wiirzburg to take up a two-year course of philosophi- cal studies, to which he addeil certain liranches of the- ology. His historical tendencies exhibited themselves at this early age in a dramatic poem entitled " Papst Gregor VII" (Wiirzburg, 1841). Bishop von Stahl took a lively interest in the promising youth, and in 1844 sent him to the Collegium Germanicum at Rome, whither he had already sent Denzinger and Hettinger. Among his scholarly teachers were Perrone and Pas- saglia in doctrinal theology, Tomei in moral theology, Ballerini in church history, Patrizi in Scriptural exe- gesis, and M.arzib in canon law. The political troubles of 1848 prevented the completion of his theological studies at Rome; he was ordained to the priesthood 28 March of that year, and return<'d to Wiirzl)iirg, where he pursued his ecclesiastical preparation for another year. In 1849 he was appointed chaplain at Zellingen, and for some time devoted himself with zeal to the du- ties of his office. In 18.50 he stood successfully for the tlegree of doctor of theology before the University of Munich, and offered as his dissertation a treatise on
the Trinitarian teacliing of St. Gregory Nazianzen
(Die Lehre von der gottlichen Dreieinigkeit nach d.
heil. Gregor von Nazianz, Ratisbon, 18.50). The bril-
liant qualities of the young doctor induced the theo-
logical faculty of Munich to offer him a place as in-
structor {privatdocent) in theology, which he accepted.
Following ancient usage, he justified the confidence of
the university by a printed thesis (HabiUtationschrift)
on the later Protestant theories of the origins of the
Catholic Church (De catholicfe ecclesi;e primordiis
recentiorum Protestantium sj'stemata expenduntur,
Ratisbon, 1851). Henceforth he devoted himself
without reserv'e to his professional duties. In 1852 he
was called to Wtirzl)urg. as professor extraordinary
of canon law and church history; after three years
(1855) he was promoted to the full possession of that
chair. To his other duties he added the teaching of
patrology. In those years Wiirzlnirg rejoiced in the
possession of such brilliant theologians as Hettinger,
Denzinger, Hahnlein, and Hergenrother; their reputa-
tion spread far and wide the fame of tlii.s old Francon-
ian school. Hergenrother was often honouretl by
election to the office of dean of his faculty, and occa-
sionally to the University Senate; the latter office he
never held after 1871, because of his opposition to
Dollinger. For a similar reason he was never chosen
to be rector of the university. Until 18G9 Hergen-
rother was occupied as teacher and writer, chieflv with
early Christian and Byzantine ecclesia.stical history.
The discovery (1851) of the Cireek Christian text
known as the ^i\o<ro(poviieiia led him to examine its
disputed authorship in a series of studies in the "Tii-
binger Theol. Quartalschrift " (1852) and in the .sup-
plementary volume (1856) to the first edition of the
" Kirchenlexikon" of Wetzer and Welte. He again
defended the authorship of Hippolytus in the " (Ester-
reichische Vierteljahrschrift f. kath. Theol." (1863).
Hergenrother was especially interested in the career
of Photius and in the origins of the Greek Schism, and
kept up continuous research in the principal libraries
for manuscripts of the works of Photius, in order to
exhibit the original materials in as perfect a text as
could be established. This led to the publication
(Ratisbon, 1857) of the work, "Photii Constantino-
politani Liber de Spiritus Sancti mystagogia. " He
contributed essays on the same work and on the
" Amphilochia" of Photius to the "Till). Theol. Quar-
talschrift" (1858). In 1860 appeared at Paris the
Migne edition of "Photius" (P. G., CI-CIV). It of-
fered many textual emendations that were owing to
Hergenrother, particularly in the "Amphilochia'; it
wasagainst his will that his earlier edition of the" I.iber
de Sp. Sancti mystagogia" was reprinted by Migne.
When Pichler's work on the history of the separation of
the Eastern and Western Churches appeared (.Munich,
1864), Hergenrother was prepared to criticize it in the
most thorough manner, which he did in a .'^eries of
studies in a Wiirzburg theological periodical, the
"Chilianeum" (1864-65), and in the " Archiv f. kath.
Kirchenrecht " (1864-65). The results of his twelve
years of research in the history of the Greek Schism
appeared finally in the classical work, "Photius Pa-
triarch von Constantinopel, sein Leben, seine Schrif-
ten, und das griechi.sche Schisma" (3 vols., Ratisbon,
1867-60). An additional volume bears the title:
" Monumenta Gra^ca ad Photium ejusiiue Iiistoriam
pertinentia" (Ratisbon). In this monumental work
it is difficult to say whether the palm belongs to the
author's extensive knowledge of all IIk; manuscript
material, to his profound erudition, or to hi.s calm
objective attitude. Krumbacher, the historian of
Byzantine literature, says that the work cannot be
surpassed. In these volumes Hergenrother laid bare in
minute detail the origins of the Byzantine Church, its
development since the fourth cent urj% and after the
ileath of Photius until the unfortunate completion of
the schism in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.
