Barthold Nihus,
OPraem (born on 7 February 1590,
Holtorf,
Hanover, now
Germany – died on 10 March 1657, Erfurt, now
Germany) was a Catholic convert, a German Catholic bishop and controversialist.
He was born in the Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg.
Biography
Barthold Nihus was born on 7 February 1590 at Holtorfe at Hanover in a poor Lutheran Protestant family. He received his primary education at
Verdun and
Goslar, and in 1607 he studied philosophy and medicine at the University of Helmstedt. After obtaining a master's degree in philosophy in 1612 Nihus began studying Protestant theology. In 1616, along with two students from aristocratic families moved to the University of Jena. Later, he became a teacher of the princes of Saxony-Weimar Duchy. Inability of Protestant theologians on the major issues of faith caused him to doubt the truth of Protestantism. In 1622, Berthold Niehus moved to
Cologne, where he visited the house of proselytes, founded the Brotherhood of the Holy Cross. In the same year he was received into the
Catholic Church. After his conversion to Catholicism Niehus sent letters to professors
Georg Calixtus and
Konrad Hornejus in which he explained his reasons for joining the Catholic Church. The main motive of the treatment was the need for the Chief Justice, which could explain the
Bible and put an end to theological debate and controversy, and so the judge in his opinion is the Bishop of Rome. In 1629 he became the abbot of the monastery of Premonstratensian, from which he was expelled, along with the monks, by the Protestants after the Battle of Breitenfeld in 1631. Berthold was running in
Hildesheim, where he became a canon of the Church of the Holy Cross, where later moved to Holland, where he met with
Gerhard Vossius. In 1645 was caused by the papal nuncio
Fabio Chigi in
Munster, where he was to participate in the World Peace of Westphalia. A few years later he moved to
Mainz, where he entered the service of the Bishop Johann Philipp von Schönborn, on whose behalf in 1654 went to
Ingolstadt to collect information about the institute of diocesan priests, headed by Bartholomew Holzhauser. In 1655 Schoenborn appointed him suffragan bishop of Saxony and Thuringia, with headquarters in Erfurt, where he died on 10 March 1657.
Works
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Ars nova, dicto S. Scripturae unico e lucrandi Pontificiis plurimos in partes Lutheranorum, Detecta non Nihil et suggesta Theologis Helmstetensibus, Georgio Calixto et praesertim Conrado Hornejo (Hildesheim, 1633).
-
Apologeticus Pro Arte Nova Contra Andabatam Helmstetensem (Cologne, 1640),
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Hypodigma, Quo diluuntur nonnulla Contra Catholicos disputata in Cornelii Martini tractatu de analysi logica (Cologne, 1648).
External links
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http://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/bishop/bnihus.html
