Barthel, Johann Caspar
Barthel, Johann Caspar
A German canonist, b. 10 June, 1697, at Kitzingen, Bavaria; d. 8 April, 1771. He was the son of a fisherman, attended the schools of his native place, and from 1709 to 1715 studied at the Jesuit College at Würzburg. In 1715 he entered the seminary of the latter city and in 1721 was ordained priest. Christopher von Hutten, Prince-Bishop of Würzburg, sent him, in 1725, to Rome to study ecclesiastical law under Prosper Lambertini, later Pope Benedict XIV. Barthel returned as Doctor Utriusque Juris, in 1727, to Würzburg, where he became president of the seminary and (1728) professor of canon law at the university. Other ecclesiastical and academical honours, among them the vice-chancellorship of the university (1754), were conferred upon him. He took an active part in settling the controversy occasioned by the erection of the new Diocese of Fulda (1752). His chief importance, however, lies in his career as a teacher. His work in that line was appreciated by both Catholics and Protestants, and his lectures were circulated at various schools. He broke with the traditional method in canonical science, being one of the first to adopt the historico-critical treatment in Germany. His efforts to distinguish between the essentials and nonessentials in Catholic doctrines, and his attribution of excessive power to the State in its relations with the Church caused his opinions to be denounced at Rome as unorthodox. In his “Promemoria” (1751) he submitted his views and method to his former teacher, Benedict XIV, and obtained a favourable decision. His works, apart from what was written in the Fulda controversy, as “De Pallio” (1753), deal principally with the relations between Church and State, especially in Germany. Several of them are found in the “Opuscula juridica varii argumenti” (Würzburg, 1765, 1771).
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Stamminger in Kirchenlex., 1, 2051, 2052; Schulte, Die Geschichte d. Quellen in Lit. des kan. Rechts (Stuttgart, 1875-80), III, I, 183-185; Idem, Allg. Deutsch. Biograph. (Leipzig, 1875 —), II, 103.
N.A. WEBER Transcribed by Susan Birkenseer
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume IICopyright © 1907 by Robert Appleton CompanyOnline Edition Copyright © 2003 by K. KnightImprimatur. +John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York
Fuente: Catholic Encyclopedia
Barthel, Johann Caspar
a German canonist, born in 1697 at Kitzingen. He studied at Wurzburg with the Jesuits, and subsequently at Rome under Cardinal Lambertini, afterward Benedict XIV. In 1727 he was made professor of canon law in the University of Wurzburg, of which he afterward became vice-chancellor. To intense hatred of Protestantism Barthel united a steadfast resistance to all papal claims unauthorized by law. He died in 1771, having greatly improved the teaching of the canon law, which before his time consisted simply in repeating the decretals and comments of the court of Rome. Barthel followed zealously in the path of De Marca, Thomassin, Fleury, and other great theologians of France, and reduced the canon law to a form suited to the wants and peculiar circumstances of Germany. The following are his chief works:
1. Historia Pacificationum Imperil circa Religionum consistens (Wurzburg, 1736, 4to):
2. De Jure Reformandi antiquo et novo (Ibid. 1744, 4to):
3. De restitutd canon’carrum in Germania electionum. politia (Ibid. 1749): Tractatus de eo quod circa libertatem exercitii religionis ex lege divina et ex lege imperil justum est (Ibid. 1764, 4to). Landon, Eccl. Dict. 2:47.