Johann Nikolaus von Hontheim

Historian[edit]

As a historian, Hontheim's reputation rests on his contributions to the history of Trier. During the period of his activity as an official at Coblenz he found time to collect a vast mass of printed and manuscript material, which he afterwards embodied in three works on the history of Trier. Of these, the Historia Trevirensis diplomatica et pragmatica was published in 3 folio volumes in 1750, the Prodromus historiae Trevirensis in 2 volumes in 1757. Besides a history of Trier and its constitution, they give a large number of documents and references to published authorities. A third work, the Historiae scriptorum et monumentarum Trevirensis omptissima collectio, remains in manuscript in the city library of Trier. These books, the result of an enormous labor in collation and selection in very unfavorable circumstances, entitle Hontheim to the fame of a pioneer in modern historical methods.^[2]


It is, however, as Febronius that Hontheim is best remembered. His 1763 treatise "On the State of the Church and the Legitimate Power of the Roman Pontiff" offered Europe the "foremost formulation of the arguments against papal absolutism in Germany".^[3] The author of the book was known in Rome almost as soon as it was published, but it was not until some years afterwards (1778) that he was called on to retract. Threatened with excommunication and faced with the prospect of his relations losing their offices, Hontheim, after much vacillation and correspondence, signed a submission which was accepted in Rome as satisfactory. The removal of the censure followed (1781) when Hontheim published in Frankfurt what purported to be proof that his submission had been made of his own free will (Justini Febronii acti commentarius in suam retractationem, etc.). This book, however, which carefully avoided all the most burning questions, rather tended to show – as indeed his correspondence proves – that Hontheim had not essentially shifted his opinion.^[2]