New Advent
 Home   Encyclopedia   Summa   Fathers   Bible   Library 
 A  B  C  D  E  F  G  H  I  J  K  L  M  N  O  P  Q  R  S  T  U  V  W  X  Y  Z 
New Advent
Home > Catholic Encyclopedia > W > Ferdinand Walter

Ferdinand Walter

Please help support the mission of New Advent and get the full contents of this website as an instant download. Includes the Catholic Encyclopedia, Church Fathers, Summa, Bible and more — all for only $19.99...

Jurist, born at Wetzlar, 30 November, 1794; died at Bonn, 13 December, 1879. After studying at the Latin school of Muhlheim on the Rhine (1805-9), and later at Cologne (1809-13), he fought against Napoleon in 1814, as a volunteer in a Russian regiment. In autumn, 1814, he began to study jurisprudence at Heidelberg, where he graduated, 22 November, 1817. He remained at Heidelberg as privatdozent until Easter, 1819, where he was called to the newly founded University of Bonn. He taught various juristic branches there until 1875, when he resigned on account of blindness. Though a layman, Walter was a strenuous champion of the rights of the Church against civil encroachment. He was a member of the Prussian National Assembly in 1848 and of the First Chamber of Deputies in 1849. In a special pamphlet (1848) he opposed the incorporation into the criminal code of an article allowing the State to deprive the clergy of ecclesiastical rights, and on 4 October, 1849, he delivered a famous oration in defense of ecclesiastical independence in the management of church affairs. But Walter's greatest achievements are in the field of juristic literature. All his literary productions are remarkable for thoroughness as well as literary finish and some of them have become classics in their sphere. His most famous work is his "Lehrbuch des Kirchenrechts" (Bonn, 1822). The eighth edition was translated into French and Spanish, the ninth into Italian. A fourteenth edition was prepared by Canon Gerlach, one of Walter's disciples (Bonn, 1871). The sources of canon law, which were added as an appendix to the sixth edition of the "Kirchenrecht", he materially enlarged and published separately as "Fontes juris ecclesiastici antiqui et hodierni" (Bonn, 1862). His other important works are: "Corpus juris Germanici antiqui" (3 vols., Bonn, 1824); "Romische Rechtsgeschichte" (Bonn, 1836); "Deutsche Rechtsgeschichte" (Bonn, 1853); "System des deutschen Privatrechts" (Bonn, 1855); "Das alte Wales", (Bonn, 1859), on the history, laws and religion of ancient Wales; "Juristische Encyclopadic" (Bonn, 1856); "Naturrecht und Politik" (Bonn, 1863); "Aus meinem Leben" (Bonn, 1865), an autobiography; "Das alte Erz stift und die Reichsstadt Koln" (Bonn, 1866), a civil history of the former electorate of Cologne, left unfinished.

Sources

WALTER, Aus meinem Leben (Bonn, 1865); GERLACH, in Der Katholik, LX (Mainz, 1880, II, 511-15.

About this page

APA citation. Ott, M. (1912). Ferdinand Walter. In The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15543b.htm

MLA citation. Ott, Michael. "Ferdinand Walter." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 15. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912. <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15543b.htm>.

Transcription. This article was transcribed for New Advent by Michael T. Barrett. Dedicated to all who defend the Catholic Faith.

Ecclesiastical approbation. Nihil Obstat. October 1, 1912. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor. Imprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York.

Contact information. The editor of New Advent is Kevin Knight. My email address is webmaster at newadvent.org. Regrettably, I can't reply to every letter, but I greatly appreciate your feedback — especially notifications about typographical errors and inappropriate ads.

Copyright © 2023 by New Advent LLC. Dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

CONTACT US | ADVERTISE WITH NEW ADVENT