DENIFLE, HEINRICH. — Dominican medievalist theologian, born at Imst (Tyrol) on 16 January 1844, died at Modoc in Bavaria on 10 June 1905. Orphaned young, he studied at the seminary in Bressanone and completed his secondary education there. He entered the Dominican Order in Graz (1861), taking the name Enrico Susone, and was ordained priest in 1866. He studied in Graz, Rome, and at St-Maximin (Var), where he obtained the lectorate in theology. He taught ecclesiastical sciences at Steinamanger and from 1870 at Graz. From 1880 onwards he lived in Rome.
He published *Die kath. Kirche u. das Ziel der Menschheit* (Graz 1872; 2nd ed. 1906) and *Das geistliche Leben* (ibid. 1873; 9th ed. Salisbury 1936). He made unassailable observations on J. W. Preger’s *Geschichte der deutschen Mystik* (*Hist.-pol. Blätter*, 75 [1875], passim); he addressed the problem of the *Gottesfreund* in the Upper Rhine region (*ivi*), and related questions. He crowned various studies on Bl. Henry Susone with *Die Schriften des sel. Heinrich Seuse*, I: *Deutsche Schriften* (Munich 1880). He dismantled legends about Tauler in *Taulers Bekehrung kritisch untersucht* (Strasbourg 1878, etc.) and produced foundational studies on the homeland, writings, trial, and doctrine of Master Eckhart (*Zeitschrift f. deutsches Altertum*, 29 [1885], pp. 259 ff.).
With keen insight he revealed the connections between scholasticism and mysticism. Companion to the Master General in Rome (1880–83), he collaborated on the Leonine edition of the works of St Thomas, scouring libraries in Germany, Holland, England, France, Spain, and Portugal. On the proposal of Cardinal Hergenröther, Denifle was appointed scriptor of the Holy See (1 January 1883) and named consultor to the cardinalatial commission for historical studies. He published *Die Universitäten des Mittelalters bis 1400* (vol. I, Berlin 1885; four further volumes remained unfinished) and other studies on the universities of Italy and France, especially that of Paris. Together with Fr. Ehrle he directed the *Archiv für Literatur- und Kirchengeschichte des Mittelalters* (7 vols., Berlin-Freiburg in Br. 1885–1900). On behalf of the French government (1887) he published, in collaboration with Châtelain, the *Chartularium Universitatis Parisiensis* (4 vols., Paris 1889–97) and the *Autenticum chartularii* (2 vols., 1894–97).
DENIFLE HEINRICH — Bust, work by Sebastiano Osterridder (1908) — Vatican, Archivio Segreto.
He wrote *La désolation des églises, monastères et hôpitaux en France pendant la guerre de Cent Ans* (2 vols., Paris 1897–99).
He illuminated the institutional, doctrinal, and artistic history of the Middle Ages with *Specimina palaeographica Regestorum Romanorum Pontificum* (Rome 1888), essays on the Curia and on the Dominican, Franciscan, Carmelite, and Jesuit Orders, and concluded his monumental doctrinal history with *Luther u. Luthertum* (I, 1, Mainz 1903, 2nd ed. 1904; I, 2, 1905; II, 1909, ed. Fr. A. M. Weiss; Italian trans. of vol. I, Rome 1905). He vigorously replied to Harnack, Seeberg, and others. Unpublished writings in *Römische Quartalschrift*, 22 (1926), pp. 46–58 and *Divus Thomas*, 22 (1944), pp. 339–54.