UTENHEIM, 3'ten-haim, CHRISTOPH VON: Bishop of Basel; b. of a noble Alsatian family probably about 1450; d. at Delsberg (ox Del6mont,- 29 m. n. of Bern) Mar. 16, 1527. In 1473 he was rector of the newly founded University of Basel, where, though a nominalist, he became closely associated with a circle of humanists and realists, . and the same year provost of St. Thomas's in Strasburg. In 1494 Jacques d'Amboise; abbot of Cluny, made him vicar-general of the Cluniac monks in Alemannia,

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in 1502 became full diocesan. Utenheim called Wimpfeling (q.v.) to Basel to prepare synodal statutes, these being rather a collection and revision of existing statutes than an independent work. Wimpfeling gladly accepted the task, and the synod assembled on Oct. 23, 1503, when the clergy were commanded to observe the statutes. The bishop himself delivered a abort address, referring to the scandal caused among the people by the unspiritual conduct of the clergy, urging them to a better life, and ascribing the corruption of the Church primarily to the omission of synods and the neglect of statutes, amelioration being expected from semiannual synods after the ancient fashion as renewed by the Council of Basel. The statutes show that this effort was only one of many to elevate spiritual life by regulating the minutest details of the life of the clergy. The spirit of the reforms attempted in the statutes is indicated in the books recommended to the clergy for reading: the writings of Johann Gerson, especially his De arte audiendi confessiones, and the Resolutorium dtibiorum missce of Johannes de Lapide.

The attempted reform was unsuccessful. The holding of regular synods failed; the clergy did not wish to be reformed; and while in the Alsatian portion of the diocese they received the support of the nobility, the gradual lose of the political power in the Swiss portion rendered the bishop's ecclesiastical control but slight. The canons secured exemption from episcopal authority and immediate control, by the pope and their dean. In the statutes an -endeavor was made to check pilgrimages to places which Utenheim believed had received sanctity from false visions, but this prescript was misconstrued and the papal commissary of indulgences to Germany nullified the efforts. In-his endeavor to secure capable men to aid in the administration of his diocese, Utenheim called not only Wimpfeling, but Wolfgang Capito (q.v.), who in 1515 became preacher at the cathedral as well as teacher in the theological faculty. In 1515-16, through the influence of Capito, OEcolampadius (q.v.) was also attached to the cathedral staff. All this, however, by no means proved any sympathy on the part of Utenheim with the Protestant Reformation, though the bishop of Basel was an ardent humanist: It is thus readily explicable that Christoph von Utenheim, with his desire for reforms within the Church, eagerly read and heartily approved the earliest writings of Luther, but that when the logical consequences of the German Reformer's course became manifest, he turned away decisively, and that the events which transformed ecclesiastical conditions in Basel took place without his aid and against his will. A stronger nature than the scholarly bishop's would have proved too weak to stem the tide, and in 1519, weighed down by age and sickness, Utenheim received a coadjutor in Niklaus of Diesbach. The city council now made a determined effort to renounce its allegiance to the bishop, but in 1522 it showed itself willing to meet with him when certain humanists gave a blasphemous dinner on Palm Sunday. Not only were the offenders. threatened with dire punishment if they repeated their scandal, but the priests were forbidden to introduce new doctrines into their preaching of the Gospel. The secular priest of St. Albans, Wilhelm Reublin (q.v.), who had inveighed against the hierarchy and the institutions of the Church, and had carried a Bible instead of relics at the procession of Corpus Christi, was expelled from the city by requirement of the bishop despite all protests. While still evi dently inclined toward reforms, Utenheim re peatedly emphasized his conviction that changes were to be introduced gradually and in accordance with the voice of the Church herself. In Basel ac cordingly he sought to check the new movements which were shattering the foundations of the Church, and when, in 1522, Q;'colampadius returned to the city and preached the tenets of Luther, Utenheim forbade the clergy and the members of the univer sity to hear him. To the last he was desirous of reform, though only of such as should proceed from the bishops and leave the basis of the ancient Church unimpaired. The view, frequently expressed, that Utenheim was an Evangelical, as contrasted with a Roman Catholic, bishop has no foundation. In Feb., 1527, he wrote from Pruntrut, where his predecessors had mostly resided, to the chapter, requesting them to relieve him of his duties, but be fore a new bishop could be chosen, he had passed away.

(Eberhard Vischer.)

Bibliography: J. J. Herzog, Beiträge zur GeschkMe Basel pp. 33 sqq., Basel, 1839; Basler Chraniken, ed. W: Vischer and A. Stern, Leipsic. 1872 sqq.; K. Pellican, Chronikon, ed. B. Riggenbach, Basel, 1877; C. Sobmidt, HisE. ditt_ra4re de fAleace, Paris, 1879; J. Anepper, Jakob WimpJel4np, Freiburg, 1902; R. Wackernagel, in Basler Zeitschrift für Gesch%chfe and Alterthumskunde, ii (1903), 171 sqq.