FESSLER, JOSEPH. - Bishop, historian, and canonist, b. at Lochau (Voralberg) on 2 Dec. 1813; d. at St. Pölten (near Vienna) on 25 Apr. 1872. Ordained priest in 1837, from 1838 he taught ecclesiastical history and law at the Seminary of Bressanone; then, from 1852, at the University of Vienna. Auxiliary bishop and vicar general for Voralberg in 1862, imperial ambassador to Rome for the Concordat (1863), bishop of St. Pölten (1864), secretary of the Vatican Council (1869-70).
His best work is: Institutiones Patrologiae (2 vols., Innsbruck 1850-51; 2nd ed. edited by B. Jungmann [2 vols., ibid. 1890-96]); other noteworthy works: Das kirchlichen Bücherverbot (Vienna 1869); Der canonische Prozess (Vienna 1860); Das letzte und nächste allgemeine Kanzel (Friburgo in Br. 1869); Sammlung vermischter Schriften über Kirchengeschichte und Kirchenrecht (ibid. 1860); Die wahre und falsche Unfehlbarkeit der Päpste (Vienna 1871); Das vaticanische Conzil, dessen äussere Bedeutung und innerer Verlauf (ibid. 1871).