Hergenröther, Joseph Adam Gustav

Hergenröther, Joseph Adam Gustav yōˈzĕf äˈdäm go͝osˈtäf hĕrˈgənrötər [key], 1824–90, German theologian and scholar, cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He was a professor at Munich and Würzburg. In 1879, Leo XIII made him cardinal and first prefect of the newly opened Vatican archives. Hergenröther wrote polemical works and church history. A zealous advocate of ultramontanism, he refuted Döllinger with Anti-Janus (1870, tr. 1870). His historical works include The Catholic Church and the Christian State (1876, tr. 1876) and Manual of Universal Church History (3 vol., 1876–80). His monumental work on Photius, written to dispel charges of papal responsibility for the Eastern schism, is fundamental, but considered by later scholars to be unfair to Photius.

See American Catholic Historical Association, Church Historians (1926).

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2024, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.

See more Encyclopedia articles on: Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches: General Biographies