MELCHERS, PAULUS. - Cardinal, b. Jan. 6, 1813 in Münster, d. Dec. 14, 1895 in Rome. He had Döllinger as his teacher of theology. Ordained a priest in 1841, he remained for several years in Münster, as vice rector (1851) and then (1852) rector of the Seminary, and vicar general in 1852. In 1848 he was also a member of the Frankfurt Parliament. When in 1857 the Holy See reached an agreement with the Kingdom of Hanover for the reconstruction of the dioceses of Hildesheim and Osnabrück, Pius IX appointed him to the latter see and as pro-vicar apostolic of the north.
On the death of Geissel he moved in 1866 to the archbishopric of Cologne. At the Vatican Council he was among those who considered the definition of papal infallibility inopportune; but once he had returned to his homeland he hastened to adhere publicly to the conciliar resolutions. Some professors of theology at the University of Bonn, who refused to submit to the decrees of the Council, were subsequently excommunicated by M. In Oct. 1870, in a pastoral letter, he expressed confidence in a Prussian diplomatic intervention in favor of the Papal State occupied by the royal troops. During the Kulturkampf he was imprisoned by the tribunal for ecclesiastical affairs and declared deposed from the archiepiscopal dignity. Before the trial had even begun, however, the archbishop went into voluntary exile in Holland. Under the pontificate of Leo XIII M. renounced the government of the diocese of Cologne. Created cardinal in the Consistory of July 27, 1885, he settled in Rome, at the German-Hungarian College.
Bibliography3 works
Silvio Furlani