b. at Aschaffenburg on 13 Jan. 1813, d. at Würzburg
on 25 Jan. 1890. He studied at Aschaffenburg, Würz-
burg and at the German College in Rome, and took his
degree in theology at the Gregorian University (1845).
After a few years of pastoral work he became professor
at the University of Würzburg, where he successively
taught patrology, introduction to theology (1857), apolo-
getics, homiletics (1867), and dogmatic theology (1874);
in the periods 1862-63 and 1867-68 he was also rector
of the University. In 1868, together with Hergenröther,
he was called to Rome as a consultant to the preparatory
Congregation of the Vatican Council.
H. is one of the most brilliant theologians of Würzburg,
preferring fundamental theology, which he treated with
depth and rigorous scientific method.
He was also one of the most admired sacred orators of
his time. His literary taste, refined by the study of clas-
sical and Christian antiquity, his solid scholarship and his
sensitivity to all the values of culture, art and nature made
him appealing, beyond the circle of theological scholars,
to intellectuals and to the people.
He had a special predilection for Italy, which he visited
almost every year and often recalled in his writings; his
favourite author was Dante, whose artistic and theological
world he sought passionately to penetrate.
His principal works are: Apologie des Christen-
thums (5 vols., Freiburg in Br. 1863-67; Italian trans., 3 vols.,
Rome 1844-75), in which erudition and stylistic richness are
combined for the defence of the truth; the work met with
wide success and exercised a profound influence on the
minds of the misguided and the uncertain. (10th ed., ed.
E. Müller, 1914-23). More rigorously scientific is the other
work: Lehrbuch der Fundamentaltheologie (1879; 3rd ed.,
ed. S. Weber, 1913). Other works may also be cited: Die
kirchlichen sozialen Zustände von Paris (Magona 1852), Die
Liturgie der Kirche (Würzburg 1856); Die kirchliche Vollge-
walte des apostolischen Stuhles (Freiburg 1874); David Fr.
Strauss, ein Lebensbild (1875); Die Krisis des Christenthums,
Protestantismus und katholische Kirche (1886); Aphorismen
für Predigt und Prediger (1889) and the other on the same
subject: Timotheus, Briefe an einen jungen Theologen (1891).
As a Dante scholar he wrote: Grundidee und Charakter
der Göttlichen Komödie des D. Alighieri (Bonn 1876); Die
Theologie der Göttlichen Komödie (Cologne 1879); Die Gött-
liche Komödie des D. Alighieri nach ihrem wesentlichen Inhalt
und Charakter dargestellt (Freiburg in Br. 1880), Dante und
Beatrice (Frankfurt 1883), Dante's Geistesgang (Cologne 1888).