WEISS, PANTALEON. See Candidus.

WEIZSAECKER, vaits'sek"ker, KARL HEINRICH VON: German theologian; b. at Oehringen (35 m. n.n.w. of Stuttgart) Dec. 11, 1822; d. at Tübingen Aug. 13, 1899. He received his education at the seminary at Schontal and at the University of Tübingen; became privat-docent at Tübingen, 1847; minister at Billingsbach, 1848; preacher to the court at Stuttgart, 1851; assistant in the Kultusministerium, 1856; associate in the conaistory, 1859; professor at Tübingen as successor of Baur in church history, 1861; and chancellor of the university, 1890. As early as 1856 he began contributions to theology in his joint efforts in founding and editing Jahrbücher für deutsche Theologie, au activity which he extended later by contributions to such journals as the Theologische Studien and Kritiken and the Theologische Litteraturzeitung. He was the author of Zur Kritik den Barrutbas-Brlefes aus dem Codex Sinaiticus (Tübingen, 1863); Untersuehungen über die evangelische Geschichte (Gotha, 1864), a work which placed Weizsacker in the front rank of writers on early Christianity; and Die christliche Kirche im apostolische Zeitalter (Freiburg, 1886, 3d ed., 1902; Eng. transl., The Apostolic Age, 2 vols., London, 1894-95), which was preceded by a series of special studies that prepared the way and appeared in various journals. In this work he turned the tide of

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criticism by insisting that in the Fourth Gospel careful distinction must be made between the historical and the philosophical elements, there being original apostolic reminiscences as fundamental as in the Synoptic Gospels; only in the development of these reminiscences they had become interwoven with a sublime philosophy. The hypothesis of the evolution of Christianity from a Pauline-Petrine opposition was undermined and positions determined for a new advance in historical investigation. But the new position taken by Weizsacker was the union of a bistorico-personal and a mystical-idealistic element in the Fourth Gospel. He ever regarded himself as related in spirit and method to Baur, a thankful student of that master, and in this respect his Untersuchungen named above bears out his claims.

While Weizsacker's scholarship is to be recognized, his practical ability should also receive acknowledgment. As pastor among peasants, in official service in the consistory and elsewhere, as professor coming into contact with students, as rector and chancellor of the university, he displayed ever a keen sense of the fitness of things and great wisdom in directing his course of action. He was no doctrinaire, but had an eye to the practical in life, with a humor and a fund of anecdote with which he brightened the intercourse into which he was thrown.

(H. Holtzmann†.)

Bibliography: A. Hegler, Zur Erinnerung an K. Weizaticker, Tübingen, 1900; G. Grützmacher, in Historische Vierteljahrschrift, 1899, pp. 568-588; E. Grafe, Die christliche Welt, 1899, pp. 749-753; R. Gunther, in Monatsschrift für Pastoraltheologie, 1907, pp. 10-32, 84-73.