Paulus, Nikolaus

PAULUS, NIKOLAUS. - Theologian, b. at Krautergersheim (Alsace) on 6 November 1853, d. at Munich on 23 January 1930. He studied at Strasbourg and in 1878 was ordained a priest. Having retired to Munich (1885) after a period of ministry, he devoted himself entirely to study, taking his doctorate in theology in 1896. He examined in depth the problem of indulgences, dismantling, on the basis of mostly unpublished sources, inaccuracies, rumors and falsehoods handed down in the writings of Protestants and Catholics.

Of his works, particularly worthy of note are: J. Tetzel, der Ablassprediger (Mainz 1899): the life and doctrine on indulgences of the famous contemporary of Luther; Die deutschen Dominikaner im Kampfe gegen Luther, 1518-63 (Freiburg im Breisgau 1903); Hexenwahn u. Hexenprozess vornehmlich im 16. Jahrhundert (ibid. 1910): a study on the conduct of the reformers and of Catholics with regard to witches; Protestantismus u. Toleranz im 16. Jahrhundert (ibid. 1911): religious tolerance is the fruit not of Protestant theories, but of the circumstances created in the wake of the schism, favored by the cultural environment of the Renaissance and fully matured at the time of the French Revolution. Of particular importance were the studies that P. published one by one on the nature and history of indulgences, beginning with: Der Ablass für Verstorbene (in Zeitschr. für kathol. Theol., 24 [1900], pp. 1-36, 249-66), in which he demonstrates that in 1457 the faculty of applying indulgences for the deceased was granted for the first time; Die Ablässe der Kreuzsogenach (in Theologie u. Glaube, 5 [1913], pp. 1-15): he contests the authenticity of certain indulgences granted to pilgrims to holy places; Zum Verständnis eigentümlicher Ablassurkunden (in Histor. Jahrbuch, 34 [1913], pp. 295-327): by means of indulgences the popes do not intend to remit guilt, but only the penalty due to it; Der erste Jubiläumsablass (in Theol. u. Glaube, 5 [1913], pp. 461-74); Das Jubiläum vom Jahre 1350 (ibid., pp. 532-41); Vollkommene Ablässe auf Grund des sogenannten Beichtbriefes (ibid., pp. 724-38): from the so-called confessionalia or litterae indulgentiales, and from the absolution a culpa et a poena of the confessor, endowed with the faculty of applying the plenary indulgence, there may have arisen the opinion that, even outside the Sacrament, the application of the indulgence remits the penalty and the guilt; Die Anfänge des Sterbesablasses (ibid., 6 [1914], pp. 8-25): history of the indulgence in articulo mortis; these partial investigations have their crowning achievement in the Geschichte des Ablasses im Mittelalter (3 vols., Paderborn 1922-23): a complete history of this important chapter of Catholic theology.

Vito Zollini