ABEL, KARL. - Minister of State 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 office of councillor of state and then of minister of the interior and of worship (1837); in this capacity, for ten years, he rendered very great services to religion and the Church. Among other things, he worked for the restoration of the school system, promoted and encouraged the establishment of religious houses, especially those of teaching sisters, made correspondence between the bishops and the Holy See free, and interpreted leniently the vexatious organic articles added by the State to the concordat of 1817. He therefore encountered opposition from Protestants and liberals, who made his work difficult; until certain excesses, and above all his refusal to grant “indigenate” to the dancer Lola Montez, favourite of King Luigi I, caused him to fall into complete disgrace. In 1847 he was briefly ambassador at the court of Turin; afterwards he was placed in private life (1850).
ABEL, KARL
BIBL.: [M. Strödl], Kirche und Staat in Bayern, unter dem Minister A. u. seinem Nachfolger, Schaffhausen 1849; G. Goyau, L'Allemagne religieuse, 1800-1870, vol. II, Paris 1905; M. Staudinger, Die Katholische Bewegung in Bayern, Munich 1925. Celestino Testore
Cite this article
“ABEL, KARL.” Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. I (1948), p. 62. Azione Romana digital edition, https://azioneromana.com/article/abel-karl.