HERGENRÖTHER, JOSEPH. - Cardinal, theologian and Church historian, b. at Würzburg on 15 Sept. 1824, d. in the Cistercian monastery of Mehretrau (Bregenz, Austria), on 3 Oct. 1890. After completing his studies in his homeland and in Rome, at the German College, he received his doctorate in theology at Munich in 1850 with the study: Die Lehre der göttlichen Dreieinigkeit nach dem hl. Gregor von Nazianz (Regensburg 1850); the following year he obtained there his habilitation with the thesis: De catholicae Ecclesiae primordiis recentiorum protestantium systemata (ibid. 1851). From 1852 he was professor of Church history and canon law at Würzburg. Pius IX invited him to Rome in 1867 with the office of consultor in the preparation of the Vatican Council and in the Commission "de ecclesiastica disciplina". Leo XIII, in recognition of his merits, created him cardinal in 1879, appointing him prefect of the Pontifical Archive, which he obtained permission to open to all scholars for the greater advancement of historical studies.
His works are very numerous and the fruit of extensive research and profound meditation. His Photius, Patriarch von Konstantinopel (ibid. 1867-69), with the appendix Monumenta graeca ad Photium eiusque historiam spectantia (ibid. 1869), was received with praise for its profound learning and clear objectivity. Against his teacher I. Döllinger he acutely defended the papacy and the prerogative of infallibility with the Anti-Janus (Freiburg im Br. 1870), Die "Irrthümer" von mehr als vierhundert Bischöfen und ihr theologischer Censor (ibid. 1870); Katholische Kirche und christlicher Staat (2 vols., ibid. 1872), where he sets out, in 18 well-harmonized dissertations, the development of the papacy and its relations with the various political structures over the course of the centuries. H. was therefore well prepared to compose his Handbuch der allgemeinen Kirchengeschichte (2 vols., ibid. 1876-78; to which he added a third for the 2nd ed. [ibid. 1880], of sources and documents, which in the 3rd ed. entered as notes into the text [ibid. 1883-86]). The work, which unfolds according to the scheme: external history, internal history, constitution, worship and literature, marked from the outset an important milestone in ecclesiastical historiography and was highly appreciated for its vast first-hand information and its lucid, orderly exposition, and its exact judgment in theological controversies; it is still used today in the new edition reworked by J. P. Kirsch (3 vols., ibid. 1902-1909), Italian version by Fr. E. Rosa [7 vols., Florence 1904-11], who then added a supplement and an index to it, carrying the events down to the election of Pius XI [ibid. 1923]; 5th ed., 4 vols., ibid. 1911-17). Besides many other articles and studies, scattered in various journals, mention should be made of: Über Marienverehrung in den ersten zehn Jahrhunderten (Münster 1870); Athanasius der Grosse (Cologne 1877), Piemonts Unterhandlungen mit dem Hl. Stuhl im 18. Jahrhundert (Würzburg 1877); Card. Maury, ein Lebensbild (ibid. 1878).
In 1877 the direction and editorship of the 2nd ed. of the Wetzer und Welte Kirchenlexikon was entrusted to H., which he carried on up to vol. VI (Freiburg im Br. 1882-89); continued from vol. VII to XII by F. Kaulen. There remained incomplete: the edition of the Regesten Leos X. (8 fascicles, Freiburg im Br. 1884-91) and the continuation of K. J. Hefele's Conciliengeschichte, of which he published only vols. VIII and IX (from the Council of Basel to 1536, ibid. 1887-89).
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