Bierling, Ernst Rudolf

BIERLING, bî´ār-ling, ERNST RUDOLF: German Protestant jurist; b. at Zittau (49 m. s.e. of Dresden) Jan. 7, 1841. He was educated at the universities of Leipsic (1859–63) and Göttingen (1864–65), and after being a lawyer in his native city in 1868–71 was privet-docent at Göttingen for two years. Since 1873 he has been professor of canon and criminal law at Greifswald. In addition to being a member of the Pomeranian provincial synod in 1878–99 and of the general synod in 1875 189and 1884–1902, he was a member of the House of Deputies in 1881–85 and of the Upper House after 1889. His publications include Gesetzgebungsrecht evangelischer Kirchen im Gebiete der Kirchenlehre (Leipsic, 1869); Zur Kritik der juristischen Grundbegriffe (2 vols., Gotha, 1877–82); Die konfessionelle Schule in Preussen und ihr Recht (1885); and Juristische Prinzipienlehre (3 vols., Tübingen, 1894–1905).