An Outline of the Teaching of the History of the Church at Lvov University in the 19th Century

Abstract

In the years of 1784-1871 the university in Lvov was re-opened as a German Josephine University with the following faculties: Philosophical, Theological, Legal, and Medical.

In the initial period of the 19^th century the then professors did not conduct a more reliable and systematic research on the history of the Church. The history of the Church, nevertheless, was regularly lectured within the schedule of the particular faculties. The following father professors worked then: J. B. Fisinger, A. Bielecki, F. K. Zachariasiewicz, O. Krynicki, J.Delkiewicz, and others.

From the 1960s onwards the university was gradually polonised, and in 1871 it became a Polish university at which the Ukrainian language had the same rights. It was only then that historians started research mainly on the period of the Middle Ages, including the origins of the Church in the world and in Poland. Works were written that discussed the organisational and political relations between the Church and the state during the first centuries. It was then that biographies of the first Polish bishops, archbishops, lives of the saints, the first papers characterising some pontificates, history of the papacy and the relations between the Polish Republic and the Vatican, together with some more reliable works on the history of the Eastern Church.

At the Philosophical Faculty in the period of positivism there were the following departments: of universal history, of Austria, of Poland and modern history. The department of universal history was conducted from 1863 on by H. Zeissberg, then K. Liske. In the years of 1891-1914 it was run by R. Dembiński, who specialised in the history of the Church, studied the history of papacy and its position towards Poland. The department of the history of Austria was run from 1871 on by I. Szaraniewicz; he studied mainly the history of Russia and the Eastern Church.

The history of the Church, the legal aspect of its existence and activity, remained in the field of interest of the scholars working at the Faculty of Law: E. Rittner and J. Kasznica. Their heritage was taken over in 1888 by the canon law professor W. Abraham, one of the then most eminent experts on the history of the Church at Lvov University.

A separate department of the history of the Church was established at the Faculty of Theology. In this department lectures were delivered by Rev. J. Delkiewicz and Rev. E. Skrochowski. From 1895 to 1912 Rev. J. Fijałek worked in this department, an eminent historian of the Church, the author of numerous publications on the history of the Catholic and Eastern Churches, on the law and church organisation, on the Scriptures, and on the devotion to the Mother of God, and many others.

Professors of Lvov University in the 19^th century initiated pioneer researches on the history of the Church in Poland; many of their publications are relevant still today.