The New International Encyclopædia/Kohlmann, Anthony

KOHLMANN, kōl'mȧn, (1771-1838). A German Jesuit priest, born in Kaisersberg, Alsace, and educated at Kolmar and Freiburg. He won the title &lsquo;Martyr of Charity&rsquo; through attendance upon plague-stricken citizens of Hagenbrunn, Austria. In 1806 he went to the United States; two years afterwards he settled in New York, where he established a school for boys and an Ursuline school for girls. It was his refusal to disclose the secrets of the confessional in New York law courts that caused the exemption of priests from that particular form of evidence to become a State law, and he was instrumental in the building of the Mulberry Street Roman Catholic Cathedral (1815). In 1817 he became superior of the Order of Jesus in the United States, but resigned the position in 1821, and from that time until 1824 had charge of the seminary in Washington. The result of his controversy with Jared Sparks was published in Unitarianism Philosophically and Theologically Examined (2 vols., 1821). He had previously issued A True Exposition of the Doctrine of the Catholic Church Touching the Sacrament of Penance (1813); Centurial Jubilee to be Celebrated by All the Reformed Churches Throughout the United States (1817); and The Blessed Reformation: Martin Luther Portrayed by Himself (1818). Father Kohlmann was professor of theology in the college at Rome (1824-29).