Ludwig von Pastor

Ludwig von Pastor, Freiherr von Rheinfelden Camper ( born January 31, 1854 in Aachen, † September 29, 1928 in Innsbruck ) was a Catholic historian and an Austrian diplomat. He was historian of the popes. 1908 Pastor was raised by Franz Joseph I to the peerage.

Life

Ludwig Pastor, derived from the well-known evangelical Aachen embossed cloth manufacturing family pastor, was the son of chemicals trader Daniel Ludwig Pastor (1800-1864) and the Catholic Anna Sibylle Onnau ( 1824-1899 ). After the early death of his father Ludwig took the religion of the mother and studied for his school in Frankfurt am Main, where he was influenced by contacts with the anti-Prussian, large German -Austrian -oriented circles around locksmith and Brentano, 1875 in Leuven, 1875 / 76 in Bonn, where he joined the K.St.V. Arminia joined, and 1877 /78, Vienna and Graz. In 1886 he became a professor in Innsbruck, where he joined the K.St.V. Rhenaniastraße Innsbruck joined. His doctoral and postdoctoral took place at Franz Krones in Vienna with the work of the church Reunionsbestrebungen during the reign of Charles V. One of his formative academic teacher was John Janssen. Under Pope Pius X (1903-1914), he participated eagerly in the struggle of the Pope against modernism, where he worked as an informer.

Pastor was married to Constance Kaufmann (1857-1953), daughter of Bonn Mayor Leopold Kaufmann. With her he had two sons and three daughters.

Memberships and Honors

Pastor was a member of Emperor Franz -Joseph Academy in Prague, Director of the Istituto di austriaco studii storici in Rome, corresponding member of the Società Colombaria in Florence, the Papal Academy in Rome, the Accademia dei Lincei in Rome, the Academy in Krakow and the Académie Royale d' Archéologie de Belgique in Antwerp, honorary member of the Accademia di San Luca in Rome, honorary Doctor of the Catholic University of Leuven, member of the historical section of the Gorres society, corresponding member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences ( 1919), Commander of the papal New Year Order and Knight of the pontifical Order of Pius, commander of the Austrian Franz Joseph Order and the Italian Mauritius and Lazarus Order.

In 1954 in Vienna Floridsdorf ( 21st district ) was the pastor and the road named in Aachen- Burtscheid by Pastor - street after him.

Works

His most famous work is the 16- volume history of the popes since the end of the Middle Ages, which covers the period 1417-1799. During its publication in the period 1886-1933 it was translated into French, English, Italian and Spanish; their distribution was supported by the Church. Pastor wanted the representation of Leopold von Ranke, who had his work published 1834-36 The Popes during the last four centuries, a presentation from a Catholic perspective oppose. He has been able to exploit inaccessible Vatican source material, since he had full access to the holdings of the Vatican Secret Archives, which officially only in 1883 by decree of Leo XIII. was fully opened. Pastor Pope 's history is marked by its wealth of detail and is therefore quoted today.

Furthermore, Pastor wrote about the history of Rome during the Renaissance and the Reformation. He introduced the term "Catholic Restoration" for internal church reform movement, instead of the term "Catholic Reformation ," which used the Protestant William Maurenbrecher.

Tendency

The very strong and blatant denominational coinage of pastor of history, which was also expressed in rugged ratings, already attracted by his contemporaries - Catholic as well as Protestant scholars also - push. He wrote from a strictly Catholic point of view and tried to show the actions of the popes in a positive light. Even when he disapproved individual papal measures, he stressed the fundamental duty of obedience of the faithful to the Pope, regardless of the specific circumstances in each individual case. So he severely condemned the behavior of the Dominican Savonarola, whose stubborn resistance against Pope Alexander VI. he basically held culpable for disobedience. This came pastor even in Catholic scholars to contradiction. He gestured the world's history as a " great ( n ) battle between light and darkness," said steered by providence activity of the popes on earth plays a central role on the side of the light forces as Vicar of Christ. In this struggle he saw his own place; as he noted in his diary: " It was as if a higher power would have told me: Take the pen in hand and write a history of the Catholic Popes of this time"

Output

• Ludwig Freiherr von Pastor: History of the Popes since the end of the Middle Ages. 16 volumes in 22, Herder, Freiburg From 1886 to 1933. The last complete edition appeared in 1955-1961. You contains all the volumes in the most recent of Pastor modified or extended editions.