HenhöfEr, aLoys

Henhöfer, Aloys a German divine, was born at Volkersbach, near Ettlingen, of Roman Catholic parents, July 11, 1789. His mother destined him for the Roman Catholic priesthood, and hoped that he would become a missionary. He studied at the University of Freiburg, and at the Roman Catholic Seminary of Meersburg. After his ordination as priest, he was tutor fob some years in a noble family, and in 1818 became pastor at Muhlhausen. Here he soon found the need of a deeper personal religion, and was greatly edified by the conversation of Fink, one of Sailler's disciples, and by reading the Life of Martin Boos. His preaching became earnestly evangelical, and crowds flocked to hear him. His orthodoxy was soon questioned, and, on examination, he avowed his doubts as to the Romanist doctrine of the Mass. His excommunication followed (Oct. 16, 1822), and gave occasion to his book Christliches Glaubensbekenntniss d. Pfiarre's Henhöfer. A flock of his converts speedily gathered around him, and in 1823 he was installed as its Evangelical Protestant pastor. In 1827 he was called to Spock, near Carlsruhe, where he labored as pastor for thirty-five years. His influence was felt widely in the revival of evangelical religion throughout Baden. He died December 5, 1862. Besides numerous pamphlets on the Roman Catholic controversy, and on practical questions, he published Der Kampf des Unglaubens nit Aberglauben u. Glauben, ein Zeichen unserer Zeit (Heidelberg, 1861): — Predigten (posthumous, Heidelberg, 1863). See also Frommel, Aus dem Leben des Dr. Aloys Henhifer (Carlsruhe, 1865, 8vo).