Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 8.djvu/769

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E0NI6SH0FEN


689


EONINGS


consists of the dean, who is also vicar-general, 7 reg- ular and 6 honorary canons; the episcopal consistory is composed of the dean and 9 councillors. The eccle- siastical educational institutions in the diocese are: a seminary for priests, founded in 1802 and connected with the theological institute (1909): 6 professors, 3 tutors, 75 students; a seminary for boys, opened in 1860, with at present 142 pupils; the gymnasium of the Benedictine Abbey of Braunau. The religious orders conduct 10 institutions for the education and training of girls; 7 boarding-schools for girls; two training colleges for female teachers, and 25 day nurseries and kindergartens.

At the close of 1909, the religious orders and con- gregations for men in the diocese were: Premonstra- tensians at Seelau, 18 priests and 6 clerics; Benedic- tines at Braunau, 40 priests; Jesuits, 3 fathers and 1 brother; Redemptorists, 8 priests and 7 brothers; Augustinians, 2 priests; Franciscans, 3 priests and 2 brothers; Capiifhiiis, J monasteries with 5 priests and 4 brothers; P.nalu is nf Mercy, 2 houses with 3 priests and 11 brnfluTs; I'iarists, 1 priest. At the same date the religious orders and congregations for women were : Ursulines, 3 convents with 98 sisters; Redemptorist Nuns, 3 sisters; Sisters of St. Francis, 13 convents with 187 sisters; Sisters of Notre-Dame, 26 houses with 143 sisters; Sisters of Mercy of St. Charles Bor- romeo, 7 convents with 40 sisters; Sisters of Mercy of the Holy Cross, 3 convents with 16 sisters; Sisters of the Most Holy Sacrament, 2 convents with 13 sisters; Sisters of St. Hedwig, 4 houses with 20 sisters. The diocese has many institutions for alleviating distress and suffering, also many well-endowed charitable foundations. Special mention should be made of the diocesan Institute for the Deaf and Dumb (the Rudolphinum) at Koniggratz; the Asylum for the Poor at Kukus (founded in 1711); 60 hospitals and homes for the poor, and 10 orphan asylums, all of which are conducted as religious institutions. Reli- gious orders care for the sick in 12 hospitals. The So- ciety of St. Vincent de Paul has eight conferences in the diocese; the CathoUc Workingmen's Union and Journeymen's Union have each a large membership. Widely extended also through the diocese are the Association of St. Joseph, Catholic parish and public libraries (about 110), etc. The most important ec- clesiastical buildings in the diocese are the cathedral, a Gothic structure of the early part of the fourteenth century, restored in 1864; the Gothic church of St. Barbara at Kuttenberg. begun at the beginning of the fourteenth century and finished in 1451 ; the abbey church of Braunau, and the pilgrimage church of the Piarists on the Muttergottesberg near Grulich.

BeneS. Das sociale Wirken der kathol. Kirche in der DiScese Knniggrntz (Vienna. 1897). with bibliography; Idem in Die kathol. Kirche unserer Zeit. II (Munich, 1900). ■4)8-24; Calah- gus Cleri Di<eceseos Regince-Hradecensis pro 1910 (Koniecratz. 1910).

Joseph Lins.

Kbnigshofen, Jacob, or more properly J,\cob TwiNGER voN KoNiGSHOFEN, chrouicler. b. in 1346 at Konigshofen, a village near Strasburg in Alsace; A. at Strasburg, 27 December, 1420. Of his life we have only a few meagre details, as for instance that he be- came a priest in 1382, that for a time he held the par- ish of Drusenheini, and that in 1394 he became notary Apostolic and in 1395 a canon of St. Thomas at Stras- burg, where he was placed in charge of the archives and kept the stock-books and registers. Very early in life he had devoted himself with special zeal to his- torical studies, and a Latin " Chronicle " is extant, written by him before he became a priest (edited by Duchesne in " Mitteilungen der Gesellsehaft ftir die Erhaltung der geschichtlichen Denkmiiler im Elsass", second series, IV). This work, it is true, only contains extracts from different authors, and is in consequence a mere collection of historical matter, but it was un- VIII.— 44


doubtedly an excellent preparation for his principal work, the " Chronik ". The latter he began in 1382; he twice revised it, and brought it down to the year 1415. One of the first universal histories in German prose, it includes also a territorial history of Alsace and a local history of Strasburg. Recognizing the needs of his time, he wrote it for the Klugcn, that is, cultivated, lay men, "who read such things as eagerly as learned parsons " . His narrative is therefore popular, and fre- quently enlivened by legends, jokes, and interesting de- tails concerning the lives of the people. He possessed a good knowledge and aviiiied liimself very freely of the sources of medieval prose and poetry (particularly Ekkehard, but also Eusebius, Bede, Hermannus Con- tractus, Martinus Polonus, and others). On the other hand, those sections which treat of contemporary history are very valuable. In politics he was an adher- ent of King Louis the Bavarian, and to his imperial- istic sentiments united a very strongly marked feeling for German nationality. Greatly influenced by the Alsatian chronicler Closener, he has himself been in many cases the authority for later historians. The last chapter of the "Chronik" contains an alphabet- ical list of historical events with dates, forms thus a kind of compendium of history, and was often copied separately. The "Chronik" was printed as early as 1474, and' later at Strasburg in 1698. The best edition is that of Hegel in "Chroniken der deutschen Stadte", VIII-IX (Leipzig, 1870-1). In addition we possess a Latin-German glossary by Konigshofen, which may, however, in its essential details be traced to Closener.

Oberlin, De Jacobo Twingero Regiovillano (Strasburg, 1789) ; ScHNEEGANS, Notice sur Closener et Konigshofen (Strasburg. 1842); Potthas5t, BiWioffteca, II, 1076-88. Con- cerning Konigshofen as chorahst see Mathias, Phoiotypische Wiedergabe des Kcinigshofenschen Tonarius (Graz, 1903).

Patkicius Schlager.

Eonings, Anthony, b. at Hehnond, Diocese of Bois-le-Due, Holland, 24 August, 1821; d. 30 June, 1884. After a brilliant course in humanities he en- tered the diocesan seminary, where he soon became conspicuous for his great piety and his eager thirst for learning. Feeling a call to the monastic life, after mature deliberation he entered in 1842 the Redemp- torist novitiate at St. Trond, Belgium, and was permitted to make his religious profession on 6 Novem- ber, 1845. His superiors, recognizing the ability of the young cleric, sent him at once to the house of higher studies to afford him time to prepare for the work of teaching. He was ordained priest at Wittem, on 21 December, 1884. After being engaged for some time as teacher of humanities in the preparatory college of the congregation, he was called to fill the chair of moral theology and later that of canon law. Whilst holding these posts, he was appointed prefect of students, a most important office in the congrega- tion.

For some time he was also master of novices, and accompanied the provincial. Very Rev. F. De- champs (afterwards Archbishop of Mechlin and car- dinal), to Rome. Later he visited Rome a second time to take part in the general chapter of 1855, which united all the different provinces and decided upon Rome as the residence of the superior general of the order. Father Konings was appointed rector of Amsterdam, and in 1S60 of the house of studies at Wittem, which post he continued to occupy until 1865, when he was appointed Provincial of Holland. In 1870 he was sent to the province of Baltimore to take up the work of teaching moral theology and canon law to the young clerics of the Redemptorist house of .studies at Ilchester, Maryland. Thenceforth all his zeal and learning, his piety and his experience were employed in training the clerics of the congregation for the arduous work of the ministry. As professor of moral theology he soon felt the need" of a suitable text-