HEFELE
191
HMTw.T.p]
teries, whioh had made no such provision, have died
out ill Holland.
At the end of the seventeenth century, the religious succeeded in renting the house of Heeswijk which had been confiscated by the State, and in 1786 they were enabled to buy the property. Though dispersed, the religious met frequently at Heeswijk or in some pres- bytery, and at the death of the abbot they always elected another, so that from the foundation of the abbey in 1134, there has been an unbroken succession of abbots. But at the end of the eighteenth century the French Republic confiscated the house at Vilvorde and so put an end to their refuge in Belgium. But novices were admitted as usual, who had their time of probation and made their studies either at the house at Heeswijk or in some presbytery of the order. With the arrival of better times Abbot Neefs in 1847 en- larged the house at Heeswijk and inaugurated the community life. The community grew in numbers, and in 1889 the abbot saw his way to open a college, the full staff of which consisted of priests of the abbey. In 1893 the abbot was able to comply with the press- ing request of Bishop Messmer of Green Bay, Wis- consin, U. S. A., to send some priests whose special mission would be to minister to the spiritual needs of Belgian and Dutch settlers in his diocese, and to bring back to the fold such Catholics as had been deceived by the schismatic " Bishop ' ' Vilatte. Prior Pennings, leather Lambert Broens, and a lay brother were sent in 1895, and were soon followed by other priests. So successful were their labours in the various parishes confided to them, that at present hardly a vestige of Vilatte's schism remains. In 1898 St. Joseph's church at De Pere, Wis., was transferred to the Norber- tine Fathers, and from that time became the head- quarters of the order in the United States. The first stone of St. Norbert's college for classical and com- mercial students was laid in 1901. At the general chapter in 1902 the house at De Pere was canonically created a priory, and was granted leave to have a no- vitiate attached to it. At present the priests of the De Pere priory have the charge of parishes in the Arch- diocese of Chicago, and in the Dioceses of Grand Rapids, Green Bay, and Marquette. They have also a mission among the Oneida Indians of Wisconsin. Some of the priests conduct missions for Catholics and non-Catholics. At the general chapter of the order in 1908 the priory was declared substantially independ- ent of the mother-abbey in Holland, within limits specified by the constitution of the order. The Abbey of Berne at Heeswijk is at present very prosperous, being filled with active and industrious members, some fulfilling the usual duties in the abbey, some giving missions, while others teach in the college or write for newspapers and reviews, no fewer than five of these being published by the fathers.
Annates Prcem., s. v. Berne; Gasper, Les Pri-m&ntrcs Beiges et les Missions Etrangeres (Louvain).
F. M. Getjdens.
Hefele, Karl Joseph von. Bishop of Rottenburg, b. at Unterkochen, Wtirtemberg, 15 March, 1809; d. at Rottenburg, 5 June, 1893. He was the son of the royal superintendent of furnaces at Unterkochen. After attending the gymnasia at EUwangen (1817-25) and Ehingen (1825-27), and the University of Tubingen (1827-32), he was ordained on 10 August, 1833. For a time the young priest was vicar at Mergentheim, tutor at the Wilhelmsstift, Tubingen, and substitute professor in Rottweil G3Tnnasium. .4fter the departure in the autumn of the year 1835, of the famous church historian Mohler, for the Uni- versity of Munich, Hefele was appointed by the Catholic faculty of theology of Tubingen to the depart- ment of church history, with which he was connected as prwatdozent from the spring of 1836. In 1840 he became ordinary professor. He retained this post until his election as bishop in the summer of 1869.
In scholarly method as well as in the general char-
acter of his work, he followed closelj' in the foot-
steps of his great predecessor, Johann Adam Mohler.
He combined accuracy in historical detail with a
thorough grasp of the chief facts of church history,
and a great power of exposition.
Mohler, though at first affected by the current Illuminism, had eventually freed himself from it and introduced into the Catholic faculty of Tubingen an unswerving devotion to the Catholic Church and a high degree of enthusiasm, thereby counteracting the aforesaid Illuminism (as far as it was an inner dis- rupting force) and the external attacks of Protest- antism. This was also the spirit and the method of Hefele who, in addition, was endowed with rare gifts as a teacher, an excellent memory, a clear under- standing, earnest affection for his ]5upils, and a diction at once simple and beautiful. His lectures were fre- quented, in the golden age of the Tubingen faculty of Catholic theology, by hundreds of students from all parts of Germany and Switzerland. In 1895, Professor Kniipfler of Munich published his admirable manual of church history based on the academic lec- tures of Hefele. Von Fimk, successor of Hefele at Tiibingen, also owes much in his manual of church history to Hefele's teaching. The same spirit and scientific temper pervaded all the writings of Hefele. Besides liis work in various learned periodicals, etc. he wrote about 150 articles for the first edition of the " Kirchenlexikon " and contributed a multitude of critical book notices and reviews to the Tubingen " Theologische Quartalschrift ", some of which were collected and published in two volumes untler the title " Beitriige zur Kirchengeschichte, Archiiologie und Liturgik" (1864). Hefele was probably the first Catholic theologian to introduce Christian arch- ceology into the academic curriculum (1840). From 1854 to 1862 he was also at the head of the diocesan association for Cliristian art (Christliches Dioze- sankimstverein). Among his earlier works are "Ge- schichte der Einfiihrung des Christentums im sild- westlichen Deutschland, besonders in Wiirttemberg" (1837); " Patrum Apostolicorura Opera" (1839; 4th ed., 1855); "Das Sendschreiben des Apostels Barnabas" (1840); "Der Kardinal Ximenes und die kirchlichen Zustande Spaniens am Ende des 15. und Anfange des 16. Jahrhunderts " (1844; 2nd ed., 1851); "Chrysostomuspostille"(lS45; 3rd ed., 1857); "S. Bonaventura? Breviloquium" (1845, 1861).
The standard work of Hefele's, however, is the " Conciliengeschichte " in seven volumes, reaching to the fifteenth century and embracing the history of dogma, canon law, liturgy, ecclesiastical discipline, and political history, so far as necessary. Von Funk rightly says that "as one of the most detailed and thorough works on church history, it has attained a prominent place in the learned literature of our time". The first edition, for which the matter had been in part gathered in a prize essay on Nicholas of Cusa, written during his student years, and in a number of more important recensions and articles, appeared between 1855 and 1874. His life of Car- dinal Ximenes was soon translated into French and English, and his history of the councils was likewise rendered into French and the earlier volumes into English. The second edition was edited by Hefele himself as far as the fourth volume inclusive, and appeared in 1873-79 (Freiburg im Br.); the next two ^■olumes were prepared by Professor Knopfler in 1886 and 1890 respectively. Cardinal Hergenrother issued (1887, 1890) an eightli and ninth volume extending to the Council of Trent. Since 1907 the Benedictine H. Leclercq is publishing a French translation of the second edition. Suitable honours were conferred on Hefele by faculties, universities, and even by the Government. In 1852-53 he was made rector of the university, and in the spring of the latter year
