KURTSCHMID, BERTRAND (VALENTIN). - Canonist, b. at Rheinbröl (Germany) on 11 March 1877, d. at Rome on 29 Aug. 1941.
He entered the Order of Friars Minor in 1894 and was ordained priest in 1903. After several years spent in study at Rome and Freiburg in Br., he was appointed in 1908 professor at the Franciscan school in Paderborn, whence in 1922 he was transferred to the general study of the Order at the International College S. Antonio in Rome, of which he was to be the first magnificent rector when it was raised to the status of a pontifical Athenaeum. In 1923 he ascended the renewed chair of the history of canon law at the Pontifical Institute of both Laws. He held various offices in his Order, including that of definitor general (1933-39).
He wrote on canon law, and particularly on the history of canon law, as well as on the development of certain branches of ecclesiastical studies.
Noteworthy and much appreciated especially are the works: *Das Beichtstiegel in seiner geschichtlichen Entwicklung* (Freiburg 1912, 2nd ed., English, St. Louis 1927); *Die christliche Ehe* (Düsseldorf 1928); and *Historia iuris canonici, Historia institutionum, I* (Rome 1941).
The volume *B. K.-F. A. Wilches, Historia iuris canonici, I, Historia fontium et scientiae iuris canonici* (Rome 1943) was compiled by Wilches, who states in the preface that he made use of material left by K.