The New International Encyclopædia/Friedrich, Johannes

FRIEDRICH, frē'drĭK, Johannes (1836—). A German theologian and historian, prominent as a leader of the Old Catholics. He was born at Poxdorf, studied at the universities of Bamberg and Munich, was ordained a Catholic priest in 1859, and in 1865 became professor of theology in the University of Munich, and in 1867 a member of the Academy of Sciences. The most noticeable of his works is the Kirchengeschichte Deutschlands (1867-69). He was a pupil of Döllinger, and in 1869 was called to the Vatican Council at Rome. His Tagebuch während des Vatikanischen Konzils geführt (1871) and Documenta ad Illustrandum Concilium Vaticanum (1871) are important sources of information concerning the proceedings. This council indorsed the Papal infallibility dogma, which Friedrich with Döllinger strongly opposed. Friedrich was consequently excommunicated in 1871, and in 1882 the Minister of Public Worship, yielding to Ultramontane pressure in the Chamber, transferred Friedrich from the chair of theology to that of history. He opened in 1874 the Old-Catholic theological faculty at the University of Bern, and lectured there for a year. Among his works may be mentioned: Der Mechanismus der vatikanischen Religion (1876); Geschichte des Vatikanischen Konzils (1877-87); Beiträge zur Geschichte des Jesuitenordens (1881); Johann Adam Möller, der Symboliker (1894); and Jacob Frohschammer (1896).