the prefix of Honourable, or to be entitled to the style, rank or precedence of the children of a Baron.” In 1898, however, this was revoked, and it was ordained “that such children shall have and enjoy on all occasions the style and title enjoyed by the children of hereditary Barons together with the rank and precedence, &c.” By these acts of the Crown the prefix of “honourable” would seem to have been restricted and stereotyped as a definite title of honour; yet in legal documents the sons of peers are still styled merely “esquire,” with the addition of “commonly called, &c.” This latter fact points to the time when the prefix “honourable” was a mark of deference paid by others rather than a style assumed by right, and relics of this doubtless survive in the United Kingdom in the conventions by which an “honourable” does not use the title on his visiting card and is not announced as such.
As to the actual use and social significance of the style, the practice in the United Kingdom differs considerably from that in the colonies or in the United States. In the United Kingdom marquesses are “most honourable”; earls, viscounts and barons “right honourable,” a style also borne by all privy councillors, including the lord mayor of London and lord provost of Edinburgh during office. The title of “honourable” is in the United Kingdom, except by special licence of the Crown (e.g. in the case of retired colonial or Indian officials), mainly confined to the sons and daughters of peers, and is the common style of the younger sons of earls and of the children of viscounts, barons and legal life peers. The eldest sons of dukes, marquesses and earls bear “by courtesy” their father’s second title, the younger sons of dukes and marquesses having the courtesy title Lord prefixed to their Christian name; while the daughters of dukes, marquesses and earls are styled Lady. The title of “honourable” is also given to all present or past maids of honour, and to the judges of the high court being lords justices or lords of appeal (who are “right honourable”). A county court judge is, however, “his honour.” The epithet is also applied to the House of Commons as a body and to individual members during debate (“the honourable member for X.”). Certain other corporate bodies have, by tradition or grant, the right to bear the style; e.g. the Honourable Irish Society, the Inns of Court (Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, &c.) and the Honourable Artillery Company; the East India Company also had the prefix “honourable.” The style may not be assumed by corporate bodies at will, as was proved, in the case of the Society of Baronets, whose original style of “Honourable” Society was dropped by command.
In the British colonies the title “honourable” is given to members of the executive and legislative bodies, to judges, &c., during their term of service. It is sometimes retained by royal licence after a certain number of years’ service.
In the United States of America the title is very widespread, being commonly given to any one who holds or has held any office of importance in state or nation, more particularly to members of Congress or of the state legislatures, judges, justices, and certain other judicial and executive officials. Popular amenity even sometimes extends the title to holders of quite humble government appointments, and consoles with it the defeated candidates for a post. See also the article Precedence.
HONTHEIM, JOHANN NIKOLAUS VON (1701–1790), German
historian and theologian, was born on the 27th of January 1701
at Trier. He belonged to a noble family which had been for
many generations connected with the court and diocese of the
archbishop-electors, his father, Kaspar von Hontheim, being
receiver-general of the archdiocese. At the age of twelve young
Hontheim was given by his maternal uncle, Hugo Friedrich
von Anethan, canon of the collegiate church of St Simeon
(which at that time still occupied the Roman Porta Nigra at
Trier), a prebend in his church, and on the 13th of May 1713 he
received the tonsure. He was educated by the Jesuits at Trier
and at the universities of Trier, Louvain and Leiden, taking
his degree of doctor of laws at Trier in 1724. During the following
years he travelled in various European countries, spending
some time at the German College in Rome; in 1728 he was
ordained priest and, formally admitted to the chapter of St Simeon
in 1732, he became a professor at the university of Trier.
In 1738 he went to Coblenz as official to the archbishop-elector.
In this capacity he had plentiful opportunity of studying the
effect of the interference of the Roman Curia in the internal
affairs of the Empire, notably in the negotiations that preceded
the elections of the emperors Charles VII. and Francis I. in which
Hontheim took part as assistant to the electoral ambassador.
It appears that it was the extreme claims of the papal nuncio on
these occasions and his interference in the affairs of the electoral
college that first suggested to Hontheim that critical examination
of the basis of the papal pretensions, the results of which he
afterwards published to the world under the pseudonym of
“Febronius.” In 1747, broken down by overwork, he resigned
his position as official and retired to St Simeon’s, of which he was
elected dean in the following year. In May 1748 he was appointed
by the archbishop-elector Francis George (von Schönborn) as
his suffragan, being consecrated at Mainz, in February 1749,
under the title of bishop of Myriophiri in partibus. The
archbishop of Trier was practically a great secular prince, and upon
Hontheim as suffragan and vicar-general fell the whole spiritual
administration of the diocese; this work, in addition to that of
pro-chancellor of the university, he carried on single-handed until
1778, when Jean Marie Cuohot d’Herbain was appointed his
coadjutor. On the 21st of April 1779 he resigned the deanery
of St Simeon’s on the ground of old age. He died on the 2nd of
September 1790 at his château at Montquentin near Orval,
an estate which he had purchased. He was buried at first in St Simeon’s;
but the church was ruined by the French during the
revolutionary wars and never restored, and in 1803 the body
of Hontheim was transferred to that of St Gervasius.
As a historian Hontheim’s reputation rests on his contributions to the history of Trier. He had, during the period of his activity as official at Coblenz, found time to collect a vast mass of printed and MS. material which he afterwards embodied in three works on the history of Trier. Of these the Historia Trevirensis diplomatica et pragmatica was published in 3 vols. folio in 1750, the Prodromus historiae Trevirensis in 2 vols. in 1757. They give, besides a history of Trier and its constitution, a large number of documents and references to published authorities. A third work, the Historiae scriptorum et monumentarum Trevirensis amplissima collectio, remains in MS. at the city library of Trier. These books, the result of an enormous labour in collation and selection in very unfavourable circumstances, entitle Hontheim to the fame of a pioneer in modern historical methods. It is, however, as “Febronius” that Hontheim is best remembered. The character and effect of his book on “the state of the Church and the lawful power of the Roman pontiff” is described elsewhere (see Febronianism). The author of the book was known at Rome almost as soon as it was published; but it was not till some years afterwards (1778) that he was called on to retract. The terrors of the spiritual power were reinforced by a threat of the archbishop-elector to deprive not only him but all his relations of their offices, and Hontheim, after much wavering and correspondence, signed a submission which was accepted at Rome as satisfactory, though he still refused to admit, as demanded, ut proinde merito monarchicum ecclesiae regimen a catholicis doctoribus appelletur. The removal of the censure followed (1781) when Hontheim published at Frankfort what purported to be a proof that his submission had been made of his own free will (Justini Febronii acti commentarius in suam retractationem, &c.). This book, however, which carefully avoided all the most burning questions, rather tended to show—as indeed his correspondence proves—that Hontheim had not essentially shifted his standpoint. But Rome left him thenceforth in peace.
See Otto Mejer, Febronius, Weihbischof Johann Nikolaus von Hontheim und sein Widerruf (Tübingen, 1880), with many original letters. Of later date is the biography by F. X. Kraus in the Allgemeine deutsche Biographie (1881), which gives numerous references.
HONTHORST, GERARD VAN (1590–1656), Dutch painter of Utrecht, was brought up at the school of Bloemart, who
