Johann Nikolaus von Hontheim's Febronius: A Censored Bishop and His Ecclesiology

Authors

Ulrich LehnerFollow

Document Type

Article

Language

eng

Format of Original

19 p.

Publication Date

4-2008

Publisher

Brill

Source Publication

Church History and Religious Culture

Source ISSN

1871-241X

Original Item ID

doi: 10.1163/187124108X354321

Abstract

In the second half of the eighteenth century, the greatest enemy of the Roman Curia was no longer French Gallicanism but German Febronianism, since it challenged papal primacy. It gained its name from the pseudonymous author of the book, De statu Ecclesiae (1763). The author, auxiliary Bishop Johann Nikolaus von Hontheim, was immediately censored and later forced to sign a retraction. This essay will provide the first English synthesis and overview of the publishing history of this important work and its ecclesiology, as well as show how the Curia dealt with this dissident theologian.

Comments

Accepted version. Church History and Religious Culture, Vol. 88, No. 2 (April 2008): 205-233. DOI. © 2008 Brill Academic Publishers. Used with permission.

Recommended Citation

Lehner, Ulrich, "Johann Nikolaus von Hontheim's Febronius: A Censored Bishop and His Ecclesiology" (2008). Theology Faculty Research and Publications. 387.
https://epublications.marquette.edu/theo_fac/387