Aloys Pichler (1833–1874) was a German librarian and
Roman Catholic priest
The priesthood is the office of the ministers of religion, who have been commissioned ("ordained") with the Holy orders of the Catholic Church. Technically, bishops are a priestly order as well; however, in layman's terms ''priest'' refers only ...
and
theologian
Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...
.
Early life and education
He was born in 1833 at
Burgkirchen am Wald in the
Roman Catholic Diocese of Passau
The Diocese of Passau is a Roman Catholic diocese in Germany that is a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising.[Munich
Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...]
, and in 1857 he received the prize for an essay on
Polybius
Polybius (; grc-gre, Πολύβιος, ; ) was a Greek historian of the Hellenistic period. He is noted for his work , which covered the period of 264–146 BC and the Punic Wars in detail.
Polybius is important for his analysis of the mixed ...
. Two years later he was made a priest; in 1861 he was honored with the theological doctorate, and in the following year he commenced his lectures on Church history.
Career and downfall
In 1869 he was appointed librarian at
St. Petersburg; but two years later he was found to be guilty of kleptomaniac propensities in his official capacity, and as he had robbed the library of many valuable possessions, he was brought to trial, found guilty, and condemned to banishment to
Siberia
Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part of ...
, where he remained till 1874, when he was pardoned through the intervention of the
Bavarian prince Leopold. Pichler then returned to his native country. He died June 3, 1874, at
Siegdorf, near
Trauenstein.
Works
He wrote, ''Geschichte des Protestantisnus in der orientalischen Kirche im'' 17 ''Jahrhund., oder der Patriarch Cyrillus Lucaris u. seine Zeit'' (Munich, 1861): — ''Die orientalische Kitchenfrage nach ihrem gegenwartigen Stande'' (ibid. 1861): — ''Geschichte der kirchlichen Trennung zwischen Orient und Occident'' (1864-65, 2 volumes); which had the distinction of being placed on the
Romish Index — ''Die Theologie des
Leibnitz'' (1869 sq., 2 volumes): — ''Die wahren Hindernisse und die Grundbedingungen einer durchgreifenden Reform der Kirche'' (1870). Towards the last he became more estranged from his Church. See Ztchhold, ''Bibliotheca Theologica.'' 2:995; ''Literarischer Hardweiser furs katholische Deutschland,'' 1874, page 335 sq.; Kurtz, ''Lehrbuch der Kircherngesch.'' 7th ed., 2:357. (B.P.)
References
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Pichler, Aloys
1833 births
1874 deaths
People from Altötting (district)
German librarians