Pez, Bernhard and Hieronymus

Pez

(1) BERNHARD

An historian, born 22 February, 1683, at Ybbs near Melk; died 27 March, 1735, at Melk, southern Austria. Bernhard studied at Vienna and Krems, and in 1699 entered the Benedictine monastery at Melk. Having devoted himself to the classic languages, he was made professor in the monastery school in 1704, and in the same year went to the University of Vienna, where he studied theology, and in 1708, was ordained priest. He now zealously devoted himself to the study of history, and in 1713, became librarian at Melk. As a model for his historical works he followed the French Benedictines of St. Maur. He studied the archives of the order at Melk and Vienna, and in 1715-17 he, with his brother whose interest in historical subjects he had excited, searched for manuscripts in the Austrian, Bavarian, and Swabian monasteries. In 1716 he published a plan for a universal Benedictine library, in which all the authors of the order, and their works, should be catalogued and reviewed. He obtained from the monasteries of his order no less than seven hundred and nine titles. He also had friendly literary relations with Johann v. Eckhart, Schannat, Uffenbach, Schmincke, Mosheim, Lünig etc. In 1728 he accompanied Count Sinzendorf to France where he made the acquaintance of Montfaucon, Martène Durand, Le Texier, Calmet etc., and enriched his collection from the libraries of the order. His chief works are: "Thesaurus anecdotorum novissimus" (6 fol. vol., Augsburg, 1721-9), a collection of exegetic, theological, philosophical, ascetic, and historical literary sources; "Bibliotheca ascetica" (12 vols., 1723-40), containing the sources of ascetic literature; "Bibliotheca Benedictino-Maruiana" (1716). In a controversy with the Jesuits he defended his order with the "Epistolæ apologeticæ pro Ordine S. Benedicti", 1716. In 1725 he published "Homilien des Abtes Gottfried von Admont (1165)", in two vols., and the minor philosophical works of Abbot Engelbert von Admont. His proposed monumental work, "Bibliotheca Benedictina Generalis", was never completed. His manuscript material is partly made use of in the "Historia rei literariæ O.S.B." by Ziegelbauer-Legipont (1754). His manuscripts are preserved at Melk.

(2) HIERONYMUS

Born 24 February, 1685, at Ybbs; died 14 October, 1762, at Melk. In 1703 he entered the novitiate at Melk and was ordained in 1711. He became a valuable assistant to his brother, after whose death he became librarian. His principal works are: "Scriptores rerum Austriacarum", 1721-45, in three volumes, a collection of over one hundred sources, even to-day valuable for Austrian history; "Acta S. Colomanni" (1713); "History of St. Leopold" (1746).

ZIEGELBAUER-LEGIPONT, Hist. rei lit. O. S. B. (Augsburg, 1754), I, 446-50, III, 466-76; WURZBACH, Biog. Lex. des Kaiserthums Oesterreich, XXII (Vienna, 1870), 145-50; KRONES in Allgem. deut. Biog. s. v.; KATSCHTHALER, Ueber Bernhard Pez und dessen Briefwechsel (Melk, 1889); HURTER, Nomen. lit. theologiœ catholicœ, 3rd ed., III (Innsbruck, 1910), 1141-5, 1553.

KLEMENS LÖFFLER.