CASPAR, Erik. — German Protestant historian, b. at Potsdam on 14 Nov. 1879, d. at Berlin on 22 Jan. 1935. After completing his secondary education, he attended the Universities of Heidelberg, Bonn, and Berlin, where he graduated in 1902. Immediately thereafter he began his scholarly activity as a collaborator on P. F. Kehr’s *Italia Pontificia*. From 1908 he was attached to the *Monumenta Germaniae Historica* with the task of preparing the critical edition of the registers of John VIII and Gregory VII, and from 1912 he was a member of the directing committee of the same society. His work was interrupted for four years after the outbreak of the First World War. Upon his return to scholarship, he was appointed to the chair of history at the University of Königsberg (1920–28), thence passing to Freiburg (1929–30) and finally to Berlin (1930–35). From 1931 he directed, together with Seeberg, the newly revived *Zeitschrift für Kirchengeschichte*.
In the meantime he conceived the plan for a great history of the idea of the papacy from its origins to the High Middle Ages, and in keeping with his usual method he addressed the most debated questions in introductory studies: ancient episcopal lists, the doctrine of primacy, etc. (1926–28). His dream was realized in 1930 with the appearance of the first four volumes of the projected *Geschichte des Papsttums*, followed by a second volume three years later. The work, left unfinished at the author’s death, represents the final expression of C.’s scientific maturity. Of great value in certain respects, it nevertheless reveals serious defects that diminish its force. A pure historian, like Ranke, and free from metaphysical concerns, he wished to confine himself to the simple fact: how and what the papacy became. Yet the history of the idea, which C. intended to write, was flawed from the start, because a phenomenon strictly religious was presented by him as a political force contending with other similar forces, which, for the purposes of the work, was entirely secondary.
Works. — A complete list of C.’s writings exceeds forty items; only the most important are cited here: *Roger II. und die Gründung der normannisch-sizilischen Monarchie* (Innsbruck 1904); *Die Legatengewalt der normannisch-sizilischen Herrscher im 12. Jahrhundert* (*Quellen und Forschungen aus italienischen Archiven und Bibliotheken*, 7 [1904], pp. 189–219); *Die Chronik von Tress Tabernae in Calabrien* (ibid., 10 [1906], pp. 1–56); *Petrus Diaconus und die Monte-Cassiner Fälschungen. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte des italienischen Geisteslebens im Mittelalter* (Berlin 1909); *Pippin und die römische Kirche. Untersuchungen zum fränkisch-päpstlichen Bunde im VIII. Jahrhundert* (1914); *Das Register Gregors VII.* (in *MGH, Epp. selectae*, II, 1912–23); *Primatus Petri. Eine philologisch-historische Untersuchung über die Ursprünge der Primatslehre* (Weimar 1927); *Registrum Johannis VIII. papae* (in *MGH, Epp.*, VII, Berlin 1928); *Geschichte des Papsttums von den Anfängen bis zur Höhe der Weltherrschaft* (2 vols., Tübingen 1930–33); *Das Papsttum unter fränkischer Herrschaft* (*Zeitschrift für Kirchengeschichte*, 54 [1935], pp. 132–264).