Bessel, Gottfried

BESSEL, GOTTFRIED: Abbot of Göttweig, near Vienna; b. at Buchhain, near Mainz, Sept. 5, 1672; d. at Göttweig Jan. 20, 1749. He studied at Salzburg, entered the Benedictine order in 1693, was ordained priest 1696, and was employed in various diplomatic negotiations by the elector of Mainz. In 1707 he converted the princess Elizabeth Christine of Brunswick to the Roman Catholic faith, and, in 1710, her grandfather, the duke Anton Ulrich, at which time he published Quinquaginta Romanocatholicam fidem omnibus aliis præferendi motiva (Mainz, 1708). In 1714 he became abbot of Göttweig. He prepared a chronicle of the monastery, of which only the first part, Prodromus, has been published (2 vols., Tegernsee, 1732).