Stephan Jakob Neher (24 July 1829 – 7 October 1902) was a German Catholic priest and church historian.

Life

His family were country people of Ebnat, where he was born, which became a part of

Aalen Aalen (; Swabian German, Swabian: ''Oole'') is a town located in the eastern part of the German state of Baden-Württemberg, about east of Stuttgart and north of Ulm. It is the seat of the Ostalbkreis district and is its largest town. It is ...

) in

Württemberg Württemberg ( ; ) is a historical German territory roughly corresponding to the cultural and linguistic region of Swabia. The main town of the region is Stuttgart. Together with Baden and Province of Hohenzollern, Hohenzollern, two other histo ...

. After the

gymnasium school ''Gymnasium'' (and variations of the word) is a term in various European languages for a secondary school that prepares students for higher education at a university. It is comparable to the US English term '' preparatory high school'' or th ...

Neher devoted himself to the study of theology in the

University of Tübingen The University of Tübingen, officially the Eberhard Karl University of Tübingen (; ), is a public research university located in the city of Tübingen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The University of Tübingen is one of eleven German Excellenc ...

. After ordination, he worked as pastor of Dorfmerkingen, then of

Tübingen Tübingen (; ) is a traditional college town, university city in central Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated south of the state capital, Stuttgart, and developed on both sides of the Neckar and Ammer (Neckar), Ammer rivers. about one in ...

, and finally of Nordhausen (in the district of

Ellwangen Ellwangen an der Jagst, officially Ellwangen (Jagst), in common use simply Ellwangen () is a town in the district of Ostalbkreis in the east of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. It is situated about north of Aalen. Ellwangen has 25,000 inha ...

, Württemberg). In addition, Neher devoted himself throughout his life to intellectual pursuits, principally to

canon law Canon law (from , , a 'straight measuring rod, ruler') is a set of ordinances and regulations made by ecclesiastical jurisdiction, ecclesiastical authority (church leadership) for the government of a Christian organization or church and its membe ...

and church history, giving his attention, in the latter study, chiefly to ecclesiastical geography and statistics. Neher died in Nordhausen.

Works

In his first major work, which appeared in 1861, Neher dealt with the topic of the privileged altar (''altare privilegiatum''). In 1864 he published the first volume of his trilogy ''Kirchliche Geographie und Statistik'' (

Ratisbon Regensburg (historically known in English as Ratisbon) is a city in eastern Bavaria, at the confluence of the rivers Danube, Naab and Regen, Danube's northernmost point. It is the capital of the Upper Palatinate subregion of the state. With m ...

, 1864–68). It was, for that day, an important work for historians, a systematic collection of geographical data. His book on the celebration of two Masses by a priest on the same day in canon law was entitled ''Die Bination nach ihrer geschichtlichen Entwicklung und nach dem heutigen Recht'' (Ratisbon, 1874). After 1878 Neher edited the statistical "Personalkatalog" of his own diocese of

Rottenburg am Neckar Rottenburg am Neckar (; until 10 July 1964 only ''Rottenburg''; Swabian: ''Raodaburg'') is a medium-sized town in the administrative district (''Landkreis'') of Tübingen in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It lies about 50 kilometres (31 miles) s ...

, and was one of the principal contributors to the second edition of '' Wetzer und Welte's Kirchenlexicon''. For this work he wrote 235 articles, or greater parts of articles. Their content is mainly matter relating to church history, or to ecclesiastical statistics.

References

Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Neher, Stephan 1829 births 1902 deaths 19th-century German Roman Catholic priests People from Aalen 19th-century German historians German male non-fiction writers