Ritter, Joseph Ignaz

Ritter, Joseph Ignaz, a Roman Catholic divine, was born at Schweinitz, in Silesia, April 12, 1787. In 1811 he received his first orders; in 1813 he was chaplain at Grottkau; in 1818 at Berlin; and from thence he was called, in 1823, as ordinary professor of theology to Bonn. In 1830 he was created doctor of divinity and appointed professor of theology and member of the chapter at Breslau, and advanced in 1846 as cathedral dean, which position he occupied till his death, Jan. 5, 1857. He wrote, Manual of Church History (5th ed. Bonn, 1854, 2 vols.): — Irenikon, or Letters for Promoting Peace and Concord between Church and State (Leips. 1840): — History of the Breslau Diocese (Breslau, 1845): — Popular Lectures on the History of the Church in the First Four Centuries (Paderborn, 1849): — On Bunsen and Stahl (Breslau, 1856, etc.). See Zuchold, Bibliotheca Theologica, 2, 1073; Winer, Handbuch der theol. Literatur, 1, 543, 586, 598, 607, 887; 2, 736; Supplement, p. 156, 296; Niedner, Kirchengeschichte, p. 864. (B.P.)