REITHMAYR, FRANZ XAVER. - New Testament exegete, b. in Illkofen (Ratisbon) to poor artisans on 16 March 1809, d. in Munich on 26 Jan. 1872. A priest in 1832, he taught religion in Ratisbon and later in Munich, where he attended the lectures of A. Döllinger (v.) and J. A. Möhler (v.), taking his degree in theology in 1836. From 1837 an extraordinary professor, in 1841 he became ordinary professor of New Testament exegesis (the first to hold that chair in Munich).
Möhler stirred in him a love for patristics and for the dogmatic content of Sacred Scripture. Vol. I of Möhler's Patrologie (1840) is half his work. In 1842 he valiantly defended the Catholic position against the mythicism of D. Strauss (v.) in the Historisch-politische Blätter. Other works: Commentar zu dem Briefe an die Römer (Ratisbon 1847: rich patristic information, but diffuse and philologically inaccurate); Nov. Test. Graece et Latine (Munich 1847: an edition for students, dependent on C. Lachmann); Einleitung in die canonischen Bücher des Neuen Bundes (Ratisbon 1852); Commentar zum Briefe an die Galater (Munich 1865). His special merit is the direction of the Bibliothek der Kirchenväter, from 1868 until his death. A posthumous work was edited by V. Thalhofer, Lehrbuch der biblischen Hermeneutik (Kempten 1874), where (pp. VII-XLVII) his biography is found.
Not yet entirely clarified is his position in the sad decade of his Faculty (1861-71). Although he was opposed to the liberalizing theology of Döllinger, it seems that R. too was against the Seminary of Speyer; in 1869 he even signed the Gutachten of the majority of the Faculty against the infallibility of the Pope. However, he submitted immediately after the definition.
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Pietro Nober