ABEL, KARL. - State Minister in Bavaria, b. at Wetzlar on 17 Sept. 1788, d. at Munich on 3 Sept. 1859. His career as a civil servant led him to the position of State Councillor and later to that of Minister of the Interior and of Religious Affairs (1837); in this role, for a period of ten years, he rendered great service to religion and the Church. Among other achievements, he worked for the restoration of schools, promoted and supported the establishment of religious houses, particularly those of teaching sisters, and secured the freedom of correspondence between bishops and the Holy See. He interpreted leniently the vexatious organic articles added by the State to the Concordat of 1817. He therefore encountered opposition from Protestants and liberals, which made his task difficult; finally, certain excesses, and above all the refusal to grant “indigenato” to the dancer Lola Montez, favourite of King Louis I, brought about his complete downfall. In 1847 he served briefly as ambassador to the court of Turin; then he was retired from public life (1850).