BERINGER, FRANZ. - German Jesuit, canonist, b. at Mainz on 30 May 1838, d. at Rome on 23 January 1909. Ordained priest in 1854, after studies completed in Rome at the German College he served for some years as secretary to the Bishop of Mainz, Emmanuel von Ketteler.
Having entered the Society of Jesus in 1879, he was summoned to Rome in 1883 to assist Fr. F. Ehrle (later a cardinal) in the edition of the Commentarius in Aristotelem by Fr. S. Mauro (4 vols., Paris 1885–87) and of the Summa philosophica by Fr. C. Alamanni (2 vols., Paris 1885–88). A very active consultor of the Sacred Congregation of Indulgences (1888), he published, revised, the collection of Fr. J. Schneider: Rescripta authentica necnon summaria indulgentiarum (Regensburg 1895); he completely refashioned the manual on indulgences by Maurel-Schneider, which from the 10th edition onward (1893) appeared under his name and became a classic: Die Ablässe, ihr Wesen und Gebrauch (the 15th ed. edited by Fr. P. A. Steinen, Paderborn 1921). The work was declared authentic by the Congregation of Indulgences itself. Beringer also published De congregationibus mariani documenta et leges (Graz 1909).