SCHÄZLER, KOSTANTIN von. — Neo-Thomist theologian, born in Augsburg on 7 May 1827, died at Interlaken on 19 September 1880.
Of a noble Protestant family, he studied law and began a military career, which he interrupted in 1850; shortly afterward, in Brussels, he converted to Catholicism. At Louvain, where he pursued theological studies, he entered the Society of Jesus (1851), from which he departed, already a priest (Liège 1856), in 1857. After receiving a degree in theology at Munich (1859), he was professor of the history of dogma at Freiburg im Br. (1862–73). Present at the First Vatican FESSLER, JOSEPH (v.), from 1873 he settled in Rome, where he carried out notable activity as consultor to various Congregations. In 1878 he re-entered the Society of Jesus.
He was one of the most resolute representatives of the Neo-Thomist movement in Germany, to which the following works are devoted: Die Lehre von der Wirksamkeit der Sakramente ex opere operato (Munich 1860); Das Dogma von der Menschwerdung Gottes im Geist des hl. Thomas dargestellt (Freiburg im Br. 1870); Divus Thomas contra liberalismum (Rome 1874). After 1863 he Kuhn (v.) over the much-debated question in Germany of the relationship between reason and faith, first in numerous anonymous articles in the Historisch-politische Blätter; then openly in the works: Natur und Übernatur (Mainz 1865); Gnade und Glaube (ibid. 1867). Published posthumously are: l'Introductio in S. Theologium ad mentem D. Thomae (edited by T. Esser O. P., Regensburg 1882; with a preface on the life and works of S.) and Die Bedeutung der Dogmengeschichte (ibid. 1884).