REUSCH, FRANZ HEINRICH

Ecclesiastical historian and theologian; b. Brilon in Westphalia, Germany, Dec. 4, 1825; d. Bonn, March 3,1900. Reusch attended the Universities of Bonn (1843–45), Tübingen (1845–46), and Munich (1846–47), studied privately at Brilon (1847), then entered the seminary in Cologne (1848) where he was ordained (1849). After serving as chaplain at St. Alban's in Cologne (1849–53), he went to Bonn as a lecturer (1854–58) and became professor of Old Testament exegesis in 1858.

He played a prominent part in the foundation of the Kölnische Blätter (Kölnische Volkzeitung from 1869). From 1866 to 1877 he was editor of the Theologisches Literaturblatt, which provided critical surveys of theological publications. Apart from newspaper articles and translations of works by newman and wiseman, Reusch's writings before 1870 dealt with Old Testament exegesis, chiefly with the deuterocanonical books. His Einleitung in das Alte Testament appeared in 1859. In 1862 his account of the final chapters of Genesis and their relation to contemporary natural sciences appeared as Bibel und Natur (Eng. tr., 2 v. 1886). Catholics regarded these two works highly, but Protestants found little in them to praise.

Reusch refused to accept the definition of papal infallibility by vatican council i and was excommunicated by the archbishop of Cologne (1872). He joined the old catholics, took charge of their parish in Bonn, and served as vicar-general to Joseph Reinkens, the first Old Catholic bishop. Reusch was not an extremist and limited his protest to what he termed "Romanism" in the Catholic Church. The reformist trend among the Old Catholics displeased him. When they abolished clerical celibacy in 1878, he resigned his offices and joined dÖllinger in passive protest against papal infallibility, but did not return to the Church.

Modern Church history, rather than exegesis, was Reusch's major scholarly interest in the second half of his life. He produced a work on Luis de leÓn in 1873 and another on Galileo Galilei in 1879. His famous two-volume study of the Index, Index der verbotenen Bücher (1883–85), has not been superseded. In conjunction with Döllinger, he published Geschichte der Moralstreitigkeiten in der römisch-katholischen Kirche seit dem 16. Jahrhundert (2 v. 1889), which remains the sole comprehensive explanation of the modern disputes among Catholics concerning moral theology. Reusch also published two collections of articles by Döllinger after the latter's death. Reusch was a profound scholar, an untiring worker, and a zealous, morally upright priest. His convictions concerning papal infallibility were sincere.

Bibliography: l. k. goetz, Franz Heinrich Reusch (Gotha 1901). j. e. b. mayor, Franz Heinrich Reusch (Cambridge, Eng.1901). f. h. menn, "Reusch als Schriftsteller," Revue internationale de théologie 14 (1906) 38–72, 462–468, 729–744; 15 (1907) 75–93, 462–480. r. bÄumer, Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, ed. j. hofer and k. rahner (Freiberg 1957–65) 8:1267.

[v. conzemius]