Johannes Friedrich

1836-1917. Church historian. Born in Upper Franconia, Germany, he was educated at Bamburg and Munich and ordained in the Roman Catholic Church. He lectured in the theological faculty at Munich, first in ecclesiastical history, then in philosophy, until his retirement in 1905. Secretary to Cardinal Gustav von Hohenlohe at Vatican I, he considered papal infallibility historically indefensible and joined in opposing such a dogma. Leaving Rome before the council ended, he refused to accept the decrees, and in 1871 was excommunicated. The Bavarian government gave him protection in respect of his university appointment at Munich. He continued as a priest with the Old Catholics,* whom he influenced profoundly, but left them because they did not uphold clerical celibacy. Among his many writings were Johann Wessel (1862); Kirchengeschichte Deutschlands (2 vols., 1867-69), completed only to the Merovingian period; Geschichte des Vatikanischen Konzils (3 vols., 1877-87); Beiträge zur Geschichte des Jesuitenordens (1881); and Ignaz von Döllinger (3 vols., 1899-1901), his teacher and intimate friend, for whose Letters from Rome (1869-70), published under the pseudonym “Quirinus,” he was a major informant.