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 HIRSCHER

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HIRSCHER

Hirscher exerted a great influence in the domain of moral theologj', homileties, and catechetics. His book on Christian morality, published in 1S35, ran through five editions. He defined Christian morality as the scientific doctrine of the effective return of man to the Divine filiation, through the merits of Christ. In the earlier editions some of the expressions and opinions of Hirscher, owing to the influence of the day, were deserving of censure; he corrected them by degrees and Kleutgen admits that the last editions are perfectly or- thodo.x. The book marked a reaction against ration- alistic morality. Hirscher, always eager to dwell on re- ligious truth, closely traced the moral act to a religious origin and a religious end, and he detested virtue that did not proceed from faith. Though not satisfactory from the point of view of confessors, Hirscher's work, as his apologist Hettinger says, had a salutary eff'ect, and Hettinger himself made use of it to bring an unbe- liever to the light of faith.

In homileties, also, Hirscher's books marked a re- action against the half-rationalistic books of medita- tion WTitten by the Swiss Zschokke, which were then widely read. Hirscher drew a distinction between false AufkUiTung, which is purely negative and con- fined to combating superstition, and true Aufklarung, which is based on the Gospel. He published com- mentaries on the Gospels of Lent (1829), on the Gospels of each Sunday (1837), and on the Epistles of each Sunday. To this field of Hirscher's activity belong his " Geschichte Jesu Christi, des Sohnes Gottesund Weltheilandes" (1839); his " Erorterungen uber die grossen religiosen Fragen der Gegenwart" (1846), which led to the development of Hettinger's vocation as an apologist; his " Leben der seligsten Jungfrau und Gottesmutter Maria" (1854); his "Hauptstucke des christlichen Glaubens" (1857).

His work on catechetics, published in 1840, was followed, in 1842, by a catechism, which was intro- duced into the Diocese of Freiburg and gave rise to lively discussions. To defend his catechism, Hirscher

Eublished "Zur Verstandigung iiber den von mir earbeiteten und demniichst erscheinenden Katechis- mus der christkatholischen Religion" (1S42), and " Nachtrage zur Verstandigung" (1843). When eighty years of age, he published a brochure entitled " Besorgnisse hinsichtlich der Zweckmassigkeit un- seres ReUgionsunterrichtes" (1863). He regarded the catechism as the history of the Kingdom of God. The first two books treat of God, the Creation, and the Redemption; the next three, of the individualiza- tion of the Kingdom of God in souls and of its coming within and withovit us, that is to say, of justification, sanctification, and the Church; the sixth book treats of the Kingdom of God in the other life. Kleutgen criti- cized Hirscher for insisting too exclusively on the work of education that God works within us, and neglecting to emphasize the gratuitous creation of the new man by grace. However, such as it was, Hirscher's catechetical work, with Alban Stolz's com- mentaries on it, helped to advance the teaching of religion in Germany.

Hirscher's ideas on the reform of the Church were more complex and open to suspicion. As a young man he had written a work on the Mass entitled "Degenuina missae notione", in which the idea of the sacrifice was relegated to the background, and which was put on the Index. Later he was blamed for never having formallj' retracted the book; he answered that at least he had held quite orthodox theories concerning the Ma.ss in his later %\Titings. Nevertheless a number of Catholics were not reas- sured, and when in 1842 and the following years there was question of appointing Hirscher coadjutor of Freiburg, the historian Hurter and his friend, Baron de R inck, raised a cry of alarm. The " Schweizerische Kirchenzeitvmg" and the " Revue Sion" accused Hirscher of being an enemy of Rome and everj-thing

Roman, of dreaming of a German national Church, of opposing celibacy, the Breviary, and ecclesiastical discipline with regard to mixed marriages, of prevent- ing the Freiburg theological review from attacking his liencfaetor Wessenberg, of being the friend of the Baden Liberals. Hirscher replied in the "Revue Sion" (30 November, 1842), and Schleyer, dean of the L^nivcrsity of Freiburg, defended him in his book " Hirscher und seine Anklager". But Rinck con- tinued to write to the effect that if Hirscher were accepted as bishop there would be a worse schism than that of Ronge, and when the Government of Wurtemberg wanted to have Hirscher appointed coad- jutor to the aged Bishop Keller, Rome refused. These suspicions were confirmed by the pamphlets Hirscher published in 1849, on the social condition of the pres- ent day and the Church, "Die socialen Zustiinde der Gegenwart", and on the present state of religion, "Die kirchlichen Zustiinde der Gegenwart". These brochures created a profound sensation, for in them Hirscher showed himself hostile to the Catholic Asso- ciations' movement, which gave birth to the first general Congress of the German Catholics at Mainz, in 1848; he feared that the movement might lead to imprudent demonstrations by the Catholics. He preferred lay associations to be undenominational, and favoured a synodal organization in which the laity would be represented, and wliieh should be periodically convened by the bishops and presided over by them.

Finally he showed himself opposed to the preaching of missions in villages. Several of the bishops were aroused, and attention was drawn to the opinions in Hirscher's pamphlets that had been condemned already by Pius VI in his Constitution "Auctorem fidei". The canonist Phillips, the future Bishop Fessler, and Fathers Amberger of Ratisbon and Heinrich of JIainz, refuted Hirscher. He was condemned by the Congregation of the Index, and submitted with sincerity, for which Hettinger praises him; but he defended himself against his adversaries in another brochure. In 1S54 Hirscher was hostile to the defini- tion of the Immaculate Conception, though he was not oppo.sed to the dogma itself; in 1862 after collab- orating with DoUinger in drawing up the programme of the famous congress of Catholic scientists to be held at Munich, the following year, he quietly withdrew, judging that the time was not ripe for such a meeting. In the First Chamber of the Baden Diet Hirscher fought vigorously for the liberties of the Church. In 1848 he proposed a motion that the grand duke should be asked to employ "every means to preserve genuine Christianity, active and living, among all classes of society, especially among the young". In 1850 he asked that the grand duke should attend to the wants of the Church, and that he should grant without de- lay the establishment of three or four peiits siniinaires, where future clerics should be trained during the time of their gymnasium studies. In November, 1853, he drew up the address l)y which the chapter of Freiburg allied itself with Archbishop Vicari in his struggle against the bureaucracy of the State, and defended Vicari in his brochure, "Zur Orientirung uber den derzeitigen Kirchenstreit" (1854).

Hirscher was an excellent priest whom many of his contemporaries, according to the testimony of Canon Lennig, venerated as a patriarch, and for whom Mgr. Orbin, who died Archbishop of Freiburg, had a real devotion. He aroused some to enthusiasm: the celebrated publicist, Alban Stolz. who did so much towards the Catholic revival in Germany, collabo- rated with Ilir.scher, with whom he spent an evening each week, and on one occasion wrote a vehement letter to a bishop who had forbidden his theologians to study at Freiburg, for fear of their falling under the influence of Hirscher; he asserted even that at first he had placed the writings of Hirscher above those of the