CARL van ESS. - Theologian, b. at Warburg on 25 Sept. 1770, d. at Huysburg (Paderborn) on 22 Oct. 1824, where he became a Benedictine (1788), priest (1794), prior (1801), parish priest (1804, after the suppression of the abbey) and episcopal commissioner (1811). He collaborated with his kinsman LEANDER on the translation of Holy Scripture, but “melioris erat spiritus quam Leander” (Hutter, V, col. 1245) and withdrew from the undertaking after the first edition.
Against the Protestants he composed his Entwurf einer kurzen Geschichte der Religion von Anfang der Welt bis auf unsere Zeit (Flaherstadt 1817). Also noteworthy are Geschichte der ehemaligen Benediktiner-Abtei Huysburg (ii 1810), the edition of a catechism (1822) and his contribution in the field of liturgy and religious song in the vernacular. Adalberto Metzinger