Reinkens, Josef Hubert

REINKENS, JOSEF HUBERT. - Bishop of the "Old Catholics," b. March 1, 1821 at Burtscheid near Aachen, d. Jan. 4, 1896 at Bonn. Ordained a priest in 1848 and awarded a doctorate in theology in 1849 at Munich, he was appointed in 1853 professor of Church history at the Faculty of Theology of Breslau.

He began his scholarly career brilliantly in 1851 with a study on Clement of Alexandria, then for a decade had to attend to many other pedagogical and ecclesiastical duties. From 1861 to 1866 he published monographs on the University of Breslau, on Hilary of Poitiers, on St. Jerome, on St. Martin of Tours and on the philosophy of history in St. Augustine. Opposed to the definition of papal infallibility, he began an insistent polemical activity against the constitution of July 16, 1870. Suspended from teaching theology in Oct. 1870, he took part in Sept. 1871 at Munich in the congress of the "Old Catholics" and was elected at Cologne on June 4, 1873 as their bishop. Consecrated by the Jansenist bishop Heykamp of Deventer, R. in the same year obtained recognition from Prussia, Baden and Hesse. On Dec. 14, 1873 he was excommunicated by Pius IX. Nevertheless R. did not submit and worked insistently, albeit with very limited results, for the spread of the movement of which he was the head, and presided until 1895 over fourteen synods. In 1877 his writings on the unity of the Church (Über die Einheit der katholischen Kirche) and a speech delivered at Würzburg against the Pontiff (Ist an die Stelle Christi für uns der Papst getreten?) were placed on the Index.

Silvio Furlani