(Pseudonym, LUDWIG CLARUS).
Born at Halberstadt 25 Jan., 1804; died at Erfurt 17 March, 1869. He came from a Lutheran family ; his father was a lawyer. After going to school at Halberstadt and Magdeburg, he studied from 1823 law at the Universities of Gottingen and Berlin. In 1826 he became an auscultator at Magdeburg, and in 1829 a referendar . In 1832 he made the acquaintance at Berlin of the law-professor George Philips , who was later a convert to Catholicism. Volk kept up their friendship by repeated visits to Munich. In this city he also formed friendships with Clemens Brentano and Joseph Görres, and was induced by them to devote himself to the study of mysticism and legend, which he continued to pursue during the rest of his life. In 1838 he was made a government councillor at Erfurt, and in 1858 he retired from active life. For a long time a son of the Catholic Church at heart, he entered it in 1855. He describes his inner change in the fascinating writing on his conversion, "Simeon, Wanderungen und Heimkehr eines christlichen Forschers" (3 vols., 1862-3). He also wrote a large number of pamphlets on religious, political and ecclesiastico-political questions of the time. Among the considerable number of large works should be mentioned: the biographies of St. Brigitta (4 vols., Ratisbon, 1856; 2nd ed., 1888), of St. Francis de Sales (Schaffhausen, 1860); 2nd ed., 1887), of St. Matilda (Quedlinburg, 1867); translations from Augustine, Petrarch, St. Theresa of Jesus, etc.; the historical compendium of Italian literature (1832-34), the account of Spanish literature in the Middle Ages (1846). He also wrote a number of original poems and translations from the Spanish, Italian, and Swedish.
The Catholic Encyclopedia is the most comprehensive resource on Catholic teaching, history, and information ever gathered in all of human history. This easy-to-search online version was originally printed between 1907 and 1912 in fifteen hard copy volumes.
Designed to present its readers with the full body of Catholic teaching, the Encyclopedia contains not only precise statements of what the Church has defined, but also an impartial record of different views of acknowledged authority on all disputed questions, national, political or factional. In the determination of the truth the most recent and acknowledged scientific methods are employed, and the results of the latest research in theology, philosophy, history, apologetics, archaeology, and other sciences are given careful consideration.
No one who is interested in human history, past and present, can ignore the Catholic Church, either as an institution which has been the central figure in the civilized world for nearly two thousand years, decisively affecting its destinies, religious, literary, scientific, social and political, or as an existing power whose influence and activity extend to every part of the globe. In the past century the Church has grown both extensively and intensively among English-speaking peoples. Their living interests demand that they should have the means of informing themselves about this vast institution, which, whether they are Catholics or not, affects their fortunes and their destiny.
Copyright © Catholic Encyclopedia. Robert Appleton Company New York, NY. Volume 1: 1907; Volume 2: 1907; Volume 3: 1908; Volume 4: 1908; Volume 5: 1909; Volume 6: 1909; Volume 7: 1910; Volume 8: 1910; Volume 9: 1910; Volume 10: 1911; Volume 11: - 1911; Volume 12: - 1911; Volume 13: - 1912; Volume 14: 1912; Volume 15: 1912
Catholic Online Catholic Encyclopedia Digital version Compiled and Copyright © Catholic Online