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Bailer

BIBLIOGRAPHY: J. A. Schmid, Commentarius de vita et scriPtia Casp. Sagittarius, Jena, 1713; M. J. C. Zeumer, Vito prolessorum . · . in academia Jenenai, ib. 1703-06; G. Frank, Geschichteder protestantischen Theologie, ii. 147, Leipsic, 1865.

SAILER, sail'er, JOHANN MICHAEL VON: Ro

man Catholic bishop of Regensburg; b. at Aresing (a

village near Schrobenhausen, 16 m. s.s.w. of Ingol

stadt), Upper Bavaria, Nov. 17, 1751; d. at Re

gensburg May 20, 1832. He was educated at the

Jesuit colleges of Landsberg (1770-72) and Ingol

stadt (1773-77), having entered the Society of

Jesus as a novice. On Sept. 23, 1775, he was or

dained to the priesthood, and in 1777 the Elector

Maximilian III. appointed him lee

Professional turer on philosophy and theology at

Career. Ingolstadt. In 1782 he became sec

ond professor of dogmatics, but two

years later he was retired on a pension of 240 gul

dens, since the new elector, Charles Theodore, di

verted the funds of the college to other uses. The

years immediately following were passed by Sailer

at Ingolstadt as a private scholar. He had already

published his Fragment zur Reformationsgeschichte

der christlichen Theologie (Ulm, 1779) and Theo

logise Christianss cum philosophia nexus (Augsburg,

1779), and he now issued his Vollstdndiges Lese- and

Gebetbuch fur katholische Christen (1783) and Ver

nunftlehre fiir Menschen, wie sic rind, d. i. AnleAcng

zur Erkenntnis and Liebe der Wahrheit (3 vols.,

Munich, 1783). In 1784 a new academic career was

opened to Sailer by his appointment as professor

of ethics at the reorganized University of Dillingen,

where the lectures on pastoral theology were soon

placed under his guidance. He contributed essen

tially to the progress of the institution, but the

methods of teaching in vogue at Dillingen aroused

the suspicions of the faculty of the College of St.

Salvator at Augsburg, and in 1793 a committee of

investigation decided adversely to Dillingen. In

the year following Sailer was removed from his pro

fessorship, especially as he was suspected, though

unjustly, of sympathy with the Enlightenment.

While professor at Dillingen, he had been active as

an author, writing, among other works, Ueber den

Selbstmord (Munich, 1785); Predigten bei verschie

denen Anlassen (3 vols., 1790-92); Kurzgefasste

Erinnerungen an junge Prediger (1792); Gl&k

seligkeitslehre aus Vernunftgriinden (2 parts, 1793);

and Vorlesungen aus der Pastoraltheologie (2 vols.,

1793-94). After being dismissed from Dillingen,

Sailer took up his residence in Munich, but the at

tacks made upon him compromised his position

with the papal nuncio, Zoglio, as with Elector

Charles Theodore. Under these circumstances

Sailer gladly accepted an invitation, in Jan., 1795,

to the castle of Ebersberg, belodging to the Knights

of Malta. In this retirement he turned again to literature, producing his Buch von der Nachfolge Christi (Munich, 1794) and his Ecclesice eatholica de cultu sanctorum doctrina (1797), as well as his extremely popular Uebungen des Geistes zur Griindung and F6rderung eines heiligen Sinnes and Lebens (Mannheim, 1799), and Briefe aus allen Jahrhunderten der christlichen Zeitrechnung (Munich, 1804). With the accession of Max Joseph I., in 1799, the entire situation changed. The Enlightenment was now officially adopted, and on the transfer of the reorganized University from Ingolstadt to Landshut Sailer was reappointed professor of ethics and pastoral theology. He now published his Ueber Erziehung fur Erzieher; Oder Pkdagogik (Munich, 1807); Grundlehren der Religion (1805); and Handbuch der christlichen Moral fur kunftige katholische Seelsorger (3 vols., 1817-18).

When, at the close of the Napoleonic wars, the Roman Catholic Church entered upon a phase of development most favorable for her revival, one of her most pressing tasks was the filling of the numerous vacant dioceses. In 1818 Sailer was twice offered the archbishopric of Cologne

The importance of Sailer in the German Roman Catholic episcopate of the nineteenth century was due preeminently to the fact that he was the representative of a definite type of Roman Catholicism which enabled the church to recover

and the heavy losses she had incurred at Influence. the beginning of the century. Deeply religious and strongly contemplative in character, he was more than a mere teacher of theology or governing prelate. He sought to inspire others with his own enthusiasm and spirit, to train up a clergy who should appeal to all that was best in their parishes, and to lead the way in deeply needed practical reforms. At the same time, while manifesting a certain amount of sympathy with the mystical movement rife at the opening of the nineteenth century, and while not unfriendly to Protestants in many respects, he never forgot his consciousness of the superiority and divine mission of his own communion. Nevertheless, the orthodoxy of his theological writings was not free from the suspicion of a taint of the Enlightenment, and