Hontheim, JOHANN NIKOLAUS VON

Hontheim, JOHANN NIKOLAUS VON, was born at Treves, 27th January 1701. He was educated in the Jesuit school of his native city, studied canon law at Louvain, and afterwards taught it for ten years at Treves, of which see he became suffragan bishop in 1748. He is the author of two works on the history of Treves, Historia Trevirensis Diplomatica (3 vols. 1750) and Prodromus Historiæ Trevirensis (2 vols. 1757). But he is chiefly memorable for a theological essay in Latin, On the State of the Church and on the Legitimate Authority of the Roman Pontiff (1763). This he published under the nom de plume of Justinus Febronius, whence the system of church government which the work propounds has been called Febronianism. His scheme may be described as an exaggerated form of Gallicanism, with the democratic element of congregationalism superadded. The work was condemned by Clement XIII. immediately after its appearance. When it became known in 1778 that Hontheim was the author, Pius VI. required from him a retraction of his doctrines. But three years later in his Commentarius Hontheim repeated his old views. He died at Montquintin in Luxembourg, September 2, 1790. See O. Mejer, Febronius (Tübingen, 1885).