Stapf

Stapf the name of two Roman Catholic theologians, viz.:

1. FRANZ, born May 2, 1766, at Bamberg, where he also studied theology. He died in his native city, while professor at the clerical seminary, in the year 1826. He wrote, Katechismus der christkatholischen Religion (Bamberg, 1812): — Handbuch dazu (ibid. 1815; 2d ed. 18i8): Ausführliche Predigtentwurfe (ibid. 1816; 2d ed. 1817): Materielen zu popularen Predigten (ibid. 1827; 3d ed. 1837). See, Regensburger Real-Encyklop. s.v.; Winer, Handbuch der theol. Literatur, 2, 51, 129, 787.

2. JOSEPH AMBROS, professor of theology and canon of Brixen, was born Aug. 15, 1785, at Fliess, and died Jan. 10, 1844. He was one of the more prominent moralists in the Roman Catholic Church, and wrote, Theologia Moralis in Compendium Redacta (Innspruck, 1827, 4 vols.; 7th ed. 1855-57): — Erziehungslehre (ibid. 1832): — Biblische Geschichte (ibid. 1840): — Epitome Moralis (ibid. 1843; 3d ed. by Hofmann [J.V.], who edited the first part, and by Aichner [1865], who edited the second part). In 1841 Stapf published a German edition of his Theologia Moralis, under the characteristic title Die christliche Moral als Antwort auf die Frage: Was mussen wir thun, um in das Reich Gottes zu gelangen (2d ed. ibid. 1848-50. 3 vols., edited by Hofmann). Stapf belonged to the most sober minded Catholic moralists of his time, who regarded the excrescences of the Catholic exercises of virtue as admiranda magis quam sequenda. See Regensburger Conversations-Lexikon, s.v.; Theolog. Universal- Lexikon, s.v.; Winer, Handbuch der theol. Literatur, 1, 318; 2, 787. (B.P.)