SCHÄZLER, KONSTANTIN von. - Neothomist theologian, b. in Augsburg on 7 May 1827, d. at Interlaken on 19 Sept. 1880.
Of noble Protestant family, he studied law and began a military career, which he interrupted in 1850; shortly afterwards, in Brussels, he converted to Catholicism. At Louvain, where he pursued theological studies, he entered the Society of Jesus (1851), from which he left, already a priest (Liège 1856), in 1857. Having obtained a doctorate in theology at Munich (1859), he became professor of the history of dogma at Freiburg in Br. (1862-73). Present at the Vatican FESSLER, JOSEPH (v.), from 1873 he settled in Rome, where he carried out notable activity as a consultor to various Congregations. In 1878 he returned to the Society of Jesus.
He was one of the most resolute representatives of the neothomist movement in Germany, to which are inspired the works: Die Lehre von der Wirksamkeit der Sakramenten ex opere operato (Munich 1860); Das Dogma von der Menschwerdung Gottes im Geist des hl. Thomas dargestellt (Freiburg in Br. 1870); Divus Thomas contra liberalissimum (Rome 1874). After 1863 Kuhn (v.), on 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). Posthumous works are: Introductio in S. Theologiam ad mentem D. Thomae (ed. T. Esser O. P., Regensburg 1882; with a preface on the life and works of S.) and Die Bedeutung der Dogmengeschichte (ibid. 1884).