author
Johann Joseph Ignaz von Döllinger
1799–1890
A bold 19th-century Catholic scholar and priest, he became famous for combining deep historical learning with a refusal to accept papal infallibility. His life and work helped shape the movement that became known as Old Catholicism.
1 Audiobook
Letters From Rome on the Council
by Johann Joseph Ignaz von Döllinger
About the author
Born in Bamberg in 1799, Döllinger became a German Catholic priest, theologian, and church historian whose scholarship earned wide respect. He taught in Munich and built a reputation for serious historical work on Christianity, the church, and the development of doctrine.
He is best remembered for his opposition to the dogma of papal infallibility defined at the First Vatican Council in 1869–70. Because he would not accept that teaching, he was excommunicated, and his name became closely linked with the Old Catholic movement, even though his own relationship to it remained somewhat independent.
Döllinger died in Munich in 1890. Today he is often remembered as a learned, independent-minded church historian whose writings stood at the crossroads of faith, history, and conscience.