Oberrauch, Anton Nicolaus (called also Ilercn- hmus). a Roman Catholic theologian of note, was born in the Sarnthal, in Tyrol, Dec. 5, 1728. His early edu- cation he received at Innspruck, where he studied phi- losophy and theolog}-. In the year 1750 he joined the Order of Franciscans, and continued his studies until the year 1756. After having been engaged as an in- structor in the Franciscan monastery for some years, in 1762 he was appointed professor of theology at Botzen; from 17t')3 to 1765 he lectured on ecclesiastical law at Halle ; from 1766 to 1782 he occupied the chair of moral theology at Innspruck, and died in 1808 at the monastery of Schwaz. He wrote, besides several smaller works,
OBERTHUR
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OBIZZINI
Instilntiones justilice Chrislianm s. theologia moralis (1774-75, 8 vols.; 2d ed. 179G), which had the honor of being placed in 1797 on the Index lihrorum prohibi- torum: — Tractatus de lege Dei (sterna (1776). He also left in MS. pretty well advanced Be Juventute religiose educanda. See Theologisches Unicersal- Lexikon, s.\.\ Jocher, Allgemeines Gelehrten-Lexi/con, in the supple- mentary volume of Kottermund, v, 895 ; De Luca, Ge- lehrfes Oesterreick, i, 1 ; Nova Bibl. Eccles. Friburgensis, 1775, No. 28 ; Wetzer und Welte, Kirchen-Lexikon, vii, 679,680; Waitzenegger, Gel- v. Schriftstelkr-Lexikon d. deutschen Kath. Geistlichkeit, ii, 47-71. (B. P.)
Oberthiir, Franz, Dr., a noted Roman Catholic theologian, was born at Wiirzburg Aug. 6, 1745. Pat- ronized by the bishop, Adam Frc<lerick, count of Seixs- heim, he was admitted into the Julius Hospital at Wiirzburg, where from 1763 to 1771 he studied philos- ophy, theology, and law, and was afterwards sent by his patron to Rome, in order to complete his studies there. In 1773 he was appointed counsellor of curacy and con- sistory, and in 1774 he was elected professor of dogmat- ics at Wiirzburg. In 1782 he was appointed spiritual counsellor and head of the city schools, in which posi- tion he labored especially with a view to reformation. On account of the liberal dogmatic views which Ober- thiir expounded in his Idea biblica erclesue Dei, a divi- sion was caused between him and his bishop. Oberthiir was tendered another position instead of his professor- ship, which offer he, however, refused; but he was finally deprived of his position in 1803, and again in 1809, at the new organization of the university. In 1821 he was appointed as theologian of the chapter, which posi- tion he held until his death, Aug. 30, 1831. Oberthiir was a very learned man, of a practical and catholic mind, who not only had the wants of the students at heart, but also those of the common people, to enlarge whose ideas was one of his main objects in life. In this his reformatory movement he also perceived the gooil in those who were not of his own creed, and, as his biographer Ruland states: "Maxime est gavisus laudari ab iis, qui erant aliens confessionis." Oberthiir was a fertile writer. He published, Dogmaticce et po- lemicce pars una (Wiirzburg, 1776) : — Idea biblica eccle- sice Dei (1790-1821, 6 vols.): — Biblische A nthropologie (Miinster, 1807-10, 4 vols.) •.^Encyclopcedia (Wiirzburg, 1786; Germ. QL\.im9,):—Methodologia (1828) :— C^pera polemica Sanctorum Patriim de veritate religionis Chris- tiana contra Gentiles et Judceos (ibid. 1777-92, etc., 34 vols.). See Ruland, Series et vitce professorum S. S. Theolog., qtii Wirceburgi a fund. A cademia usque in ann. 1834 docuerunt (ibid. 1835); Dlix, in Wetzer und Welte's Kirchen-Lexikon, vol. vii, s. v.; Theologisches Universal-Lexikon, s. v. ; Fiirst, Bibl. Jud. iii, 44 ; Briihl, Gesch. der Kathol. Literatur Deutschlnnds (1861), p. 713 sq. ; Werner, Gesch, der Kathol. Theolugie (see Index). (B. P.)
Oberto, Francesco di, was the earliest painter of the (ienoese school, and his works are still extant. Lanzi mentions an altar-piece by him in the church of St. Domenico at Genoa, representing the Virgin between two angels, signed " Franciscos de Oberto, 1368." See Sjiooner, Biog, Hist, of the Fine Arts, ii, 624.
O'beth (QiM]^), a Groecized form (1 Esdr. viii, 32) of the name of Ebed (q. v.), son of Jonathan (Ezra
viii, 6).
Obi. See Obeaii.
O'bil (Heb. Obil', b-^^niS, from the Arabic abul, an orerseer of camels ; Sept. Oi'i/iiac v. r. 'Afilag and 'Q/3(/\ ; Vulg. Ubil), an Ishmaelite, or Arab, doubtless of the nomade tribes, who had charge of the royal camels in the time of David — an exceedingly fit employment for an Arab (1 Chron. xxvii, 30). As the name means in Arabic '■ a keeper of camels," Jerome (ii, 2) infers that the person had his uame from his ofiice, which has al-
ways been a very common circumstance in the East (see Bochart, Hieroz. I, ii, 2).
Obit (Lat. obitus, a going down, i. e. to death, there- fore decease), of an individual, is used in ecclesiastical language to designate the commemoration of a saint's death ; called also his celebration, departure, falling asleep, or, if a martyr, his passion. The term is a con- traction of the phrase " Obit mortem," i. e. he meets death, and is used speci.ally to designate a funeral office, performed for the dead, and for his soul's health, as they say, at certain times and places. The Assumption is ascribed to the blessed Virgin, the Deposition to St. John, from the tradition that he laid himself down in his grave.