{{Short description|German historian and diplomat (1854–1928)}} {{more citations needed|date=October 2016}} {{infobox person | image = Ludwig von Pastor.JPG | birth_date = 31 January 1854 | birth_place = Aachen, Kingdom of Prussia | death_date = {{death date and age|df=y|1928|9|30|1854|1|31}} | death_place = Innsbruck, Austria }}
'''Ludwig Pastor''', ennobled as '''Ludwig von Pastor, Freiherr von Campersfelden''' (31 January 1854 – 30 September 1928), was a German historian and diplomat for Austria. He became one of the most important Catholic historians of his time and is most notable for his ''History of the Popes''. He was raised to the nobility by the Emperor Franz Joseph I in 1908 and was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature six times.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.nobelprize.org/nomination/archive/show_people.php?id=7017|title=Nomination Database|website=www.nobelprize.org|access-date=2017-04-19}}</ref>
==Early life== Born in Aachen to a Lutheran father and a Catholic mother, Pastor was converted to Catholicism at ten, after his father's death.<ref>{{cite book|last1=von Pastor|first1=Ludwig|title=History of the Popes, Vol. I, The Great Schism|date=30 October 2015 |publisher=Lulu|isbn=9781329657458|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-M0ECwAAQBAJ&pg=PA423|accessdate=10 February 2016}}</ref> He attended a Frankfurt gymnasium, where his teacher was Johannes Janssen who introduced him to historical studies.<ref name=Antoni>[https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/ludwig-von-pastor_%28Enciclopedia-Italiana%29/ Antoni, Carlo. "Pastor, Ludwig von", '' Enciclopedia Italiana'' (1935)]</ref>
Pastor studied in 1875 at Leuven, in 1875/76 at Bonn, where he became a member of the student corporation Arminia, and in 1877/78 at Vienna. Pastor taught at the University of Innsbruck, first as a lecturer (1881–87), then as professor of modern history (1887).<ref>[https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ludwig-Pastor-Freiherr-von-Campersfelden Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Ludwig Pastor, baron von Campersfelden". ''Encyclopedia Britannica'']</ref> His dissertation was titled "Die kirchlichen Reunionsbestrebungen während der Regierung Karls V" (The Church's Attempts at Reunion During the Reign of Charles V). Pastor edited his mentor Janssen's eight-volume ''Geschichte des deutschen Volkes'' (History of the German People) and published it from 1893 to 1926.<ref name=Antoni/>
==''History of the Popes''== Janssen had made him aware of Leopold von Ranke's ''History of the Popes''. This determined the field he would take for his own, becoming in a sense a Catholic anti-Ranke. His approach was that the apparent shortcomings of the Papacy reflected flaws of their times. Pastor consulted archives throughout Catholic Europe and, during his first trip to Italy in 1881, his seriousness ensured the patronage of Pope Leo XIII, who opened to him the contents of the Vatican Library, which had previously been held unavailable to scholars.<ref name=Antoni/>
He was granted privileged access to the Secret Vatican Archives, and his history, largely based on hitherto unavailable original documents, superseded all previous histories of the popes in the period he covered, which runs from the Avignon Papacy of 1305 to Napoleon's entrance in Rome, 1799. He also investigated the archives of public and private libraries and archives in Italy and Europe, demonstrating an extraordinary capacity for work and rare sagacity in discovering interesting documents.
Pastor decided to begin his work with the papacy of Pope Clement V (1305–1314) and the onset of the Avignon Papacy, so that he could concentrate his research on surviving documents. His dispassionate and frank papal history concentrated on individual popes rather than on the developments of papal institutions. Pastor's tomes span the pontificates of 56 popes, from Clement V to Pius VI.
thumb|Ludwig von Pastor He combined painstaking scholarship with erudition. The result of his research was his ''Geschichte der Päpste seit dem Ausgang des Mittelalters'' in sixteen volumes. The ''opus magnum'' was subsequently translated into English and published as ''History of the Popes From the Close of the Middle Ages''.
Pastor began his work in 1886 and wrote throughout the pontificates of Leo XIII, Pius X, Benedict XV and Pius XI, publishing fifteen volumes. The 16th and final volume was published posthumously in 1930. The English translations were published between 1899 and 1953.
==Academic memberships, honours and offices== In 1901, Pastor was appointed director of the Austrian Historical Institute in Rome, which he headed (with an interruption 1914-1919) until his death.
He also was a member of the Emperor Franz-Joseph Academy in Prague, corresponding member of the Società Colombaria in Florence, member of the Papal Academy in Rome, of the Academy of Cracow and the Académie Royale d'Archéologie de Belgique in Antwerp. He achieved an honorary membership of the Academy of St Luke in Rome, an honorary doctorate at the University of Leuven, and membership in the historical section of the Görres Society.
He received the positions of Commander of the Papal Order of St Sylvester Pope and Martyr, of Knight of the Papal Order of Pius IX, of Commander of the Austrian Order of Franz Joseph and of the Royal Italian Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus.
Emperor Francis Joseph I elevated him to the nobility in 1908 and gave him the title '''Freiherr von Campersfelden''' in 1916. In 1921 he was appointed the Republic of Austria's ambassador to the Holy See, and died in Innsbruck in 1928.<ref>[http://www.jstor.org/stable/25012611 Fellner, P. Felix. "Ludwig von Pastor, the Historian of the Popes", ''The Catholic Historical Review'', vol. 15, no. 2, 1929, pp. 154–70. JSTOR]</ref>
==Works== All forty volumes of ''The History of the Popes'' are available from the Internet Archive. Volumes I to VI are translated and edited by Frederick Ignatius Antrobus, volumes VII to XXIV by Ralph Francis Kerr, volumes XXV to XXXIV by Ernest Graf and volumes XXXV to LX by E. F. Peeler. The publishers vary and include K. Paul, Trench Trübner, & Co., Routledge, and K. Paul.
{{col-begin}} {{col-break}} * [https://archive.org/details/historyofthepope01pastuoft Vol. I], 1305–1447, Popes at Avignon, The Schism, Councils of Pisa and Constance, Martin V and Eugenius IV * [https://archive.org/details/historypopesfro03antrgoog Vol. II], 1447–1458, Nicholas V and Calixtus III * [https://archive.org/details/historypopesfro04antrgoog Vol. III], 1447–1464, Pius II * [https://archive.org/details/historyofthepope04pastuoft Vol. IV], 1464–1483, Paul II and Sixtus IV * [https://archive.org/details/historyofthepope05pastuoft Vol. V], 1484–1497, Innocent VIII and Alexander VI * [https://archive.org/details/historyofthepope06pastuoft Vol. VI], 1492–1511, Alexander VI, Pius III and Julius II * [https://archive.org/details/historyofpopesfr07pastuoft Vol. VII], 1513–1521, Leo X (Book I) * [https://archive.org/details/historyofpopesf08past Vol. VIII], 1513–1521, Leo X (Book II) * [https://archive.org/details/historyofpopesfr09pastuoft Vol. IX], 1522–1527, Adrian VI and Clement VII * [https://archive.org/details/historyofpopesfr10past_0 Vol. X], 1523–1534, Clement VII * [https://archive.org/details/historyofpopesfr11past Vol. XI], 1534–1540, Paul III * [https://archive.org/details/historyofpopesfr12past_0 Vol. XII], 1534–1549, Paul III * [https://archive.org/details/thehistoryofthep13pastuoft Vol. XIII], 1550–1555, Julius III * [https://archive.org/details/historyofpopesfr14past Vol. XIV], 1555–1559, Marcellus II and Paul IV * [https://archive.org/details/historyofthepope15pastuoft Vol. XV], 1559–1565, Pius IV * [https://archive.org/details/historyofthepope16pastuoft Vol. XVI], 1559–1565, Pius IV * [https://archive.org/details/historyofpopesf17past/page/n6 Vol. XVII], 1566–1572, Pius V * [https://archive.org/details/historyofthepope18pastuoft Vol. XVIII], 1566–1572, Pius V * [https://archive.org/details/thehistoryofthep19pastuoft Vol. XIX], 1572–1585, Gregory XIII * [https://archive.org/details/thehistoryofthep20pastuoft Vol. XX], 1572–1585, Gregory XIII{{col-break}} *[https://archive.org/details/thehistoryofthep21pastuoft Vol. XXI], 1585–1590, Sixtus V *[https://archive.org/details/thehistoryofthep22pastuoft Vol. XXII], 1585–1591, Sixtus V, Urban VII, Gregory XIV and Innocent IX *[https://archive.org/details/historyofpopesfr23past Vol. XXIII], 1592–1605, Clement VIII *[https://archive.org/details/historyofpopesfr24past Vol. XXIV], 1592–1605, Clement VIII *[https://archive.org/details/thehistoryofthep25pastuoft Vol. XXV], 1605–1621, Leo XI and Paul V *[https://archive.org/details/thehistoryofthep26pastuoft Vol. XXVI], 1605–1621, Leo XI and Paul V *[https://archive.org/details/historyofpopesfr27past Vol. XXVII], 1621–1644, Gregory XV and Urban VIII *[https://archive.org/details/historyofpopesfr28past Vol. XXVIII], 1621–1644, Gregory XV and Urban VIII *[https://archive.org/details/historyofpopesfr29past Vol. XXIX], 1621–1644, Gregory XV and Urban VIII *[https://archive.org/details/historyofpopesfr30past Vol. XXX], 1644–1655, Innocent X *[https://archive.org/details/historyofpopesfr31past Vol. XXXI], 1655–1676, Alexander VII, Clement IX and Clement X *[https://archive.org/details/historyofpopesfr32past Vol. XXXII], 1676–1700, Innocent XI, Alexander VIII and Innocent XII *[https://archive.org/details/historyofpopesfr33past Vol. XXXIII], 1700–1721, Clement XI *[https://archive.org/details/thehistoryofthep34pastuoft Vol. XXXIV], 1721–1740, Innocent XIII, Benedict XIII and Clement XII *[https://archive.org/details/thehistoryofthep35pastuoft Vol. XXXV], 1740–1758, Benedict XIV *[https://archive.org/details/thehistoryofthep36pastuoft Vol. XXXVI], 1740–1769, Benedict XIV and Clement XIII *[https://archive.org/details/historyofpopesfr37past Vol. XXXVII], 1758–1769, Clement XIII *[https://archive.org/details/historyofpopesfr38past Vol. XXXVIII], 1769–1774, Clement XIV *[https://archive.org/details/historyofpopesfr39past Vol. XXXIX], 1775–1799, Pius VI *[https://archive.org/details/historyofpopesfr40past Vol. XL], 1775–1799, Pius VI{{col-end}}
==References== {{reflist}}
==Sources== *{{BBKL|p/Pastor|band=6|autor= Thomas Brechenmacher|spalten=1588-1594}}
==External links== {{wikisource|works=or}} *{{BBKL|p/Pastor|band=6|autor= Thomas Brechenmacher|spalten=1588-1594}} *[https://web.archive.org/web/20060325181924/http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/ncd06336.htm Pastor @ New Catholic Dictionary] *[http://www.hti.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/pageviewer-idx?c=moajrnl;cc=moajrnl;rgn=full%20text;idno=bac8387.0067.397;didno=bac8387.0067.397;node=bac8387.0067.397%3A11;view=image;seq=0063 Ludwig Pastor, the Great German Historian: ''Catholic world'', Volume 67, Issue: 397, Apr 1898] @ the University of Michigan
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Pastor, Ludwig von}} Category:1854 births Category:1928 deaths Category:Converts to Roman Catholicism from Lutheranism Category:20th-century German historians Category:Historians of the Catholic Church Category:19th-century Austrian diplomats Category:Austrian barons Category:People from Aachen Category:People from the Rhine Province Category:University of Bonn alumni Category:University of Vienna alumni Category:Academic staff of the University of Innsbruck Category:German Roman Catholics Category:Pope Leo XIII Category:Commanders of the Order of Franz Joseph Category:Commanders of the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus Category:Knights of the Order of St. Sylvester Category:Knights of the Order of Pope Pius IX Category:German male non-fiction writers Category:19th-century German historians Category:20th-century Austrian diplomats Category:19th-century German male writers Category:20th-century German male writers