MAXIMILIAN PRECHTL. - German Benedictine controversialist, born at Hahnbach (Palatinate) on 20 August 1757, died at Amberg on 12 June 1832. He entered the Benedictine Order in 1781, taught canon law and theology first at Michaelfeld, then at the Lyceum of Amberg, of which he became rector in 1799.
Abbot of Michaelfeld (1800–1802), after the religious orders were suppressed by the Bavarian government he retired into private life. His apologetic writings, animated by a spirit of understanding for those who had strayed, after 1817 (the third centenary of the Protestant revolt) took on a markedly polemical tone.
Noteworthy among his works are: Über den Geist u. die Folgen der Reformation (s. l. 1810); Friedensworte (Sulzbach 1810); Friedens-Benehmen zwischen Bousuet, Leibnitz u. Molan für die Wiedervereinigung der Protestanten u. Katholischen (iv 1815); Seitenstück zur Weisheit Dr. Martin Luthers (s. l. 1817); Über das moralische (psychologische) Rätsel im Betragen Luthers (Ratisbona 1818); Kritischer Rückblick (Sulzbach 1818); Protestantismus u. Katholizismus (iv 1822).