REINKENS, JOSEF HUBERT. – Bishop of the “Old Catholics,” born on 1 March 1821 at Burtscheid near Aachen, died on 4 January 1896 in Bonn. Ordained a priest in 1848 and awarded a degree in theology in 1849 at Munich, he was appointed in 1853 professor of Church history at the Faculty of Theology in Breslau.
He began his scholarly career brilliantly in 1851 with a study of Clement of Alexandria; thereafter, for a decade, he 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 publishing campaign against the constitution of 16 July 1870. Suspended from teaching theology in October 1870, he took part in September 1871 in Munich in the congress of the “Old Catholics” and was elected their bishop at Cologne on 4 June 1873. Consecrated by the Jansenist bishop Heykamp of Deventer, R. received recognition that same year from Prussia, Baden, and Hesse. On 14 December 1873 he was excommunicated by Pius IX. Nevertheless, R. did not submit and worked tirelessly, though with very limited results, to spread the movement of which he was the leader; until 1895 he presided 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.