PICHLER, ALOYS. - Church historian, b. 7 Nov. 1833 at Tüssling (diocese of Passau), d. 3 June 1874 at Siegsdorf. Ordained priest in 1859, he was promoted two years later to doctor of theology; a lecturer at the theological faculty of Munich in 1863, he devoted himself above all to the study of Eastern ecclesiastical history.
He published a history of Protestantism in the Eastern Church (Geschichte des Protestantismus in der orientalischen Kirche im 17. Jahrhundert oder der Patriarch Cyrillus Lukaris und seine Zeit, 1862) and a history of the separation between the Western and Eastern Churches (Geschichte der kirchlichen Trennung zwischen dem Orient und Occident von den ersten Anfängen bis zur jüngsten Gegenwart, 2 vols., 1864-65), which was severely criticized by Hergenröther. The latter work was placed on the Index immediately after publication. In 1869 P. accepted the invitation of the Russian government to go to St. Petersburg in order to continue there his studies of ecclesiastical history. In 1870 he published a volume on the need for a Catholic reform (Die wahren Hindernisse und die Grundbedingungen einer durchgreifenden Reform der katholischen Kirche zunächst in Deutschland), condemned by the Congregation of the Index by decree dated 6 Sept. 1870. As librarian of the Imperial Library of St. Petersburg he was accused in Sept. 1871 of having removed some volumes and was sentenced to lifelong deportation to Siberia. He was pardoned in 1874 through the intervention of Prince Luitpold of Bavaria. Having returned to his homeland, he died suddenly a few weeks later.
Bibliography
Silvio Furlani