LÜTOLF, ALOIS. – Swiss historian, born on 23 July 1824 at Gettnau (canton of Lucerne), died on 18 April 1879 at Lucerne. Ordained a priest in 1850, he became a professor at S. Gallen in 1852 and parish priest at Lucerne in 1856. Professor of Church history, archaeology, and patrology at the Seminary of Lucerne in 1868, he became president of the Historical Society of the Five Cantons in 1876. He devoted particular attention to the study of Swiss ecclesiastical history and to that of ancient German myths and literature. Among his works are remembered:
Die Schweizergarde in Rom im 16. Jahrhundert (1859); Sagen, Bräuche und Legenden aus den fünf Orten (1865); Josef Eutych Kopp (1868); Die Glaubensboten der Schweiz vor St. Gallus, in Forschungen und Quellen zur schweizerischen Kirchengeschichte (1871); and a volume continuing Y. E. Kopp, Geschichte der eidgenössischen Bünde (V, 2, 1882), published posthumously.