Prechtl, Maximillian

Prechtl, Maximillian a German Benedictine, noted as a theologian and renowned as a student of canon law, was born Aug. 20, 1757, at Hahnbach, in the Bavarian Palatinate; he studied first under the Jesuits at Amberg, and was at the age of eighteen years admitted to the college of the Benedictines at Michaelfeld, where he studied philosophy and theology, and was consecrated in 1781. In 1782 his monastery sent him to Salzburg, where he acquired a knowledge of the law, which served in good stead to his congregation in several lawsuits. He was then a professor of dogmatics and morals; in 1790 he was called to Amberg as teacher of dogmatic and ecclesiastical history, and in 1798 then was rector in the same city. Jan. 14, 1800, he was elected abbot of the monastery of Michaelfeld. After the suppression of his monastery he lived at Vilseck, entirely devoted to study and to acts of benevolence. He died Jan. 13, 1832. The following are his works: Positiones juris ecclesiastici universi, Germaniae ac Huvarice accommodati (Amberg, 1787): — Succincta seo ies theologiae theoreticae, quam inm monasterio Michaelfeld de Jetndenlt, etc. (ibid. 1791): — Histoesia Monaszterii Michaelfeld feldensis: — Trauerrede auf dmas linascheiden Carl Theodors: — Wie sind die oberfälzischen Abteien inm Jahm e 1669 abermal an die geistlichen Ordensstcinde gekommeen ? (1802): — Friedensworte emn die katholische und protestsantische Kirche für ihre Wiedervereinigumg (Salzb. 1810): — Seitenstiicke zur Weisheit Di. Martin Luther an den neuesfen Herausgeber seiner Streitschrift: Das Papstthum zu Rom vom Teifel gestiftet (ibid. 1817): — Abged rugenee Antwort auf das zweite Sendschreiben Dr. Martin Luthers an den eraussgebe, etc. (ibid. 1818): — Kritischer Rickblick auzf Hrmn. Chr. Buberts kritische Beleuchtumg der Seitenstücke zur Weisheit Di. L. Luthers (ibid. 1818). Prechtl, it will be noticed from the list of his works, entered into a controversy on the questions at issue between Romanists and Protestants. His own desire was a union of all Christians, and he first wrote for this purpose; but, like all Romanists, he was unwilling to acknowledge the corrupt condition of his own ecclesiastical body, and was therefore assailed by the Lutherans. The result was a decided polemical cast in his later writings, and a proportionate 'decline of scholarship and increase of haste and acrimony. (J. H. W.)