Binterim, Anton Josef

BINTERIM, ANTON JOSEF: German Catholic theologian; b. at Düsseldorf Sept. 19, 1779; d. at Bilk (n. suburb of Düsseldorf) May 17, 1855. After receiving his first education in his native city, he entered the Franciscan order in 1796 and studied philosophy and theology at Düren and Aachen for five years and a half. Returning to Düsseldorf, he was ordained priest at Cologne (Sept. 19, 1802). The suppression of the monasteries on the right bank of the Rhine in the following year, however, obliged him to become a secular priest, and in 1805, after passing the required examination, he was appointed to the ancient and extensive parish of Bilk, where he remained until his death. Binterim was an enthusiastic propagandist of ultramontanism, and to this cause he devoted the greater part of his prolific literary activity. He also defended the Jesuits and upheld the authenticity of the Holy Coat of Treves, while with equal consistency he opposed the followers of Georg Hermes and Catholic "rationalism." In 1837, with his elder brother, he had founded and endowed the vicarage of St. Anthony of Padua at Bilk, and in honor of his jubilee the first impulse toward the establishment of the Historischer Verein für den Niederrhein was given in 1852. In his devotion to the Church he was imprisoned for six months in 1838 for opposing mixed marriages.

(Victor Schultze.)

Bibliography: Among the numerous publications of Binterim special mention may be made of the following: Ueber Ehe und Ehescheidung nach Gotteswort und dem Geiste der katholischen Kirche (Düsseldorf, 1819); Calendarium ecclesiæ Germanicæ Coloniensis sæculi noni (Cologne, 1921824); Die vorzüglichsten Denkwürdigkeiten der christ-katholischen Kirche (7 vols., Mainz, 1825–41); Die katholische Kirche, ein Gegensatz des Rationalismus und Aftermysticismus (Düsseldorf, 1827); Die alte und neue Erzdiöcese Köln (4 vols., 1828–30); Ueber die zweckmässige Einrichtung des uralten katholischen Gottesdienstes und den heilsamen Gebrauch der lateinischen Sprache bei demselben (1832); Ueber den Gebrauch des Christenblutes bei den Juden (1834); Pragmatische Geschichte der deutschen Concilien (7 vols., 1835–49); Der katholische Bruderund Schwesterbund zu einer rein katholischen Ehe (1838); De proepiscopia sive suffraganeis Coloniensibus extraordinariis (Mainz, 1843); Zeugnisse für die Echtheit des heiligen Rockes zu Trier (3 parts, Düsseldorf, 1845–46); Die geistlichen Gerichte vom 12.–19. Jahrhundert (2 parts, 1849); Der heilige Hilarius (Leipsic, 1851); Hermann II., Erzbischof von Köln (Düsseldorf, 1851); Ueber den Hostienhandel in Deutschland und Frankreich (2d ed., 1852); and Die geheimen Vorschriften der Jesuiten (Monita Secreta), ein altes Lügenwerk (1853).

For his life consult: ADS, vol. ii; K. Werner, Geschichte der katholischen Theologie seit dem Trienter Konzil bis zur Gegenwart, pp. 391–393; KL, ii, 848–854 (in considerable detail).