HERGENRÖTHER, JOSEPH VON (1824-1890), German theologian, was born at Würzburg in Bavaria on the 15th of September 1824. He studied at Würzburg and at Rome. After spending a year as parish priest at Zellingen, near his native city, he went, in 1850, at his bishop’s command, to the university of Munich, where he took his degree of doctor of theology the same year, becoming in 1851 Privatdozent, and in 1855 professor of ecclesiastical law and history. At Munich he gained the reputation of being one of the most learned theologians on the Ultramontane side of the Infallibility question, which had begun to be discussed; and in 1868 he was sent to Rome to arrange the proceedings of the Vatican Council. He was a stanch supporter of the infallibility dogma; and in 1870 he wrote Anti-Janus, an answer to The Pope and the Council, by “Janus” (Döllinger and J. Friedrich), which made a great sensation at the time. In 1877 he was made prelate of the papal household; he became cardinal deacon in 1879, and was afterwards made curator of the Vatican archives. He died in Rome on the 3rd of October 1890.
Hergenröther’s first published work was a dissertation on the doctrine of the Trinity according to Gregory Nazianzen (Regensburg, 1850), and from this time onward his literary activity was immense. After several articles and brochures on Hippolytus and the question of the authorship of the Philosophumena, he turned to the study of Photius, patriarch of Constantinople, and the history of the Greek schism. For twelve years he was engaged upon this work, the result being his monumental Photius, Patriarch von Constantinopel. Sein Leben, seine Schriften und das griechische Schisma (3 vols., Regensburg, 1867-1869); an additional volume (1869) gave, under the title Monumenta Graeca ad Photium ... pertinentia, a collection of the unpublished documents on which the work was largely based. Of Hergenröther’s other works, the most important are his history of the Papal States since the Revolution (Der Kirchenstaat seit der französischen Revolution, Freiburg i. B., 1860; Fr. trans., Leipzig, 1860), his great work on the relations of church and state (Katholische Kirche und christlicher Staat in ihrer geschichtlichen Entwickelung und in Beziehung auf Fragen der Gegenwart, 2 parts, Freiburg i. B., 1872; 2nd ed. expanded, 1876; Eng. trans., London, 1876, Baltimore, 1889), and his universal church history (Handbuch der allgemeinen Kirchengeschichte, 3 vols., Freiburg i. B., 1876-1880; 2nd ed., 1879, &c.; 3rd ed., 1884-1886; 4th ed., by Peter Kirsch, 1902, &c.; French trans., Paris, 1880, &c.). He also found time for a while to edit the new edition of Wetzer and Welte’s Kirchenlexikon (1877), to superintend the publication of part of the Regesta of Pope Leo X. (Freiburg i. B., 1884-1885), and to add two volumes to Hefele’s Conciliengeschichte (ib., 1887 and 1890).
HERINGSDORF, a seaside resort of Germany, in the Prussian province of Pomerania, on the north coast of the island of Usedom, 5 m. by rail N.W. of Swinemünde. It is surrounded by beech woods, and is perhaps the most popular seaside resort on the German shore of the Baltic, being frequented by some 12,000 visitors annually.
HERIOT, GEORGE (1563-1623), the founder of Heriot’s Hospital, Edinburgh, was descended from an old Haddington family; his father, a goldsmith in Edinburgh, represented the city in the Scottish parliament. George was born in 1563, and after receiving a good education was apprenticed to his father’s trade. In 1586 he married the daughter of a deceased Edinburgh merchant, and with the assistance of her patrimony set up in business on his own account. At first he occupied a small “buith” at the north-east corner of St Giles’s church, and afterwards a more pretentious shop at the west end of the building. To the business of a goldsmith he joined that of a money-lender, and in 1597 he had acquired such a reputation that he was appointed goldsmith to Queen Anne, consort of James VI. In 1601 he became jeweller to the king, and followed him to London, occupying a shop opposite the Exchange. Heriot was largely indebted for his fortune to the extravagance of the queen, and the imitation of this extravagance by the nobility. Latterly he had such an extensive business as a jeweller that on one occasion a government proclamation was issued calling upon all the magistrates of the kingdom to aid him in securing the workmen he required. He died in London on the 10th of February 1623. In 1608, having some time previously lost his first wife, he married Alison Primrose, daughter of James Primrose, grandfather of the first earl of Rosebery, but she died in 1612; by neither marriage had he any issue. The surplus of his estate, after deducting legacies to his nearest relations and some of his more intimate friends, was bequeathed to found a hospital for the education of freemen’s sons of the town of Edinburgh; and its value afterwards increased so greatly as to supply funds for the erection of several Heriot foundation schools in different parts of the city.
Heriot takes a leading part in Scott’s novel, The Fortunes of Nigel (see also the Introduction). A History of Heriot’s Hospital, with a Memoir of the Founder, by William Steven, D.D., appeared in 1827; 2nd ed. 1859.
HERIOT, by derivation the arms and equipment (geatwa) of a soldier or army (here); the O. Eng. word is thus here-geatwa. The lord of a fee provided his tenant with arms and a horse, either as a gift or loan, which he was to use in the military service paid by him. On the death of the tenant the lord claimed the return of the equipment. When by the 10th century land was being given instead of arms, the heriot was still paid, but more in the nature of a “relief” (q.v.). There seems to have been some connexion between the payment of the heriot and the power of making a will (F. W. Maitland, Domesday Book and Beyond, p. 298). By the 13th century the payment was made either in money or in kind by the handing over of the best beast or of the best other chattel of the tenant (see Pollock and Maitland, History of English Law, i. 270 sq.). For the manorial law relating to heriots, see [Copyhold].