HONTHEIM, hent'haim, JOHANN NIKOLAUS VON: Bishop of Treves; b. at Treves Jan. 27, 1701; d. there Sept. 2, 1790. In his twelfth year his uncle procured him a pretend in the collegiate chapter of St. Simeon. He was instructed by the Jesuits, and from 1719 studied theology and canon law in his native city, at Louvain, and at Leyden. In 1728 he became priest and was formally admitted into the chapter of St. Simeon in his native city, at the same time being appointed assessor and spiritual councilor in the consistory, and in 1732 also professor of the university. In 1738 he removed to Coblenz, but returned to Treves in 1747, and became dean of the chapter and auffragan bishop of Treves in the following year.

Hontheim's most remarkable literary production was published under the pseudonym Justinus Febronius entitled JtcstiTai Febronii Jesu Christi de atatlc eccleaix et legitima. potestate Romani pontificis liter singularis ad reuniendoa disaidentes in religions Christianoa campositua (1763, ostensibly at Boulogne, but really at Frankfort). The views it expresses are known as "Febronianism." The plan and purpose was to show the real significance of papal power, its abuses, and the mischief which it caused, and to urge the pope to drop curialism and return to the spirit of primitive Christianity. In nine chapters the following system is evolved: " Christ has left the power of the keys to the whole Church; for its execution ministers (clergy and prelates) have been chosen, the pope being the first among them, but subordinate to the whole. The Church has no monarchical constitution; the apostles were equal to each other, Peter having only a primacy. Only the whole Church possesses infallibility. The primacy of the bishop of Rome is not derived from Christ, but from Peter and the Church, and may therefore be transferred to another see. The duty of the primacy is not the government of the Church, but the maintenance of the social order; the pope has no power of decision in matters of faith, as he stands under a general council. The bishops have an equal power from Christ, not from the pope; they are necessary members of the general synods, and are to fill all offices, a privilege which at a comparatively late time has been usurped by the popes, to the disadvantage of the Church. In the course of time the popes seized many privileges against the canons, especially on the strength of the pseudoIsidorian decretals. The conditions at the time before these forged laws must be restored by opposing the papal court with all possible means. Although Hontheim did not develop any new thoughts, he so systematized and presented his ideas that the book had great influence upon ecclesiastical politics in Italy, Portugal, and Austria, and undoubtedly gave an impulse to the Congress of Ems (q.v.) and the new regulation of ecclesiastical conditions in the South German states from 1818. As early as 1764 Rome prohibited the circulation of the book, but it was not until 1778 that Hontheim was requested to recant. He did so after his numerous relatives had been threatened with dismissal from their

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political offices. To justify and explain his recantation he wrote Justini Febronii . . . Commentarius in scam retractationem Pio VII., pont%ftd maxima kalendis novembribus 1778 submissam (Frankfort, 1781). This commentary does not reveal any es sential changes of his former views, so that both the elector and the pope were dissatisfied, but neither of them disturbed the author as his influence had been greatly diminished by his humiliation. Hont heim wrote also a Historia Trevirensis (3 vols.,, Augsburg, 1750); Prodromus historits Trevirensis (2 vols., 1757); and various legal dissertations and spiritual and academical addresses.

(J. F. von Schulte.)

Bibliography: O. Mejer, Febroniue, Weihbischof Johann Nicolaus roan Honthedm and win Wiaderruf, Tübingen, 1885; F. H. Reusch, Index der roabotenen Bücher, ii. 770, 811, 940, Bonn, 1885) KL. vi. 276-281.