Ullmann, Kari^, an eminent German doctor and professor of theology, was born March ib, 179(5, at Epfen- bach, in the Palatinate, and studied at the University of Tubingen, where he formed an intimate friendship with Uhland, Ptizer, and Schwab. In 1819 he took his'de- gree as doctor of philosophy, and commenced his pro- fessional career at Heidelberg with lectures on exegesis and Church history. For ten years he stayed at Heidel- berg and published during this period, Der zweite Brief Petri, kritisch nntersucht (Heitlelb. 1821): — Ueber den durch W. Fr. Rinck ans armen. Ueber setzung bekannt (/e?nitchfen dritlen Firief Paitli an die Corinther (ibid. 1823) : — De Ilypsistariis (ibid, eod.) : — Gregory uf Nazi- (inzun (Darmstadt, 1825; 2d ed. 1867), which, as Dr. SchaflF says, is •' the most complete work on the life and iloctrines of this eminent divine of the ancient Greek ('lunch, who, for his able defence of the Nicene faith and the divinity of Christ, was emphatically styled the ■Theologian.'" In 1828, together with his friend Um- breit (q. v.), he also commenced the publication of the well-known Studien und Kri/iken, which has been be- fore the public ever since, and is still one of the ablest and most learned theological journals of (iermany. For the first volume of this journal Ullmann wrote an essay on the Sinkssness of Jesus, which was afterwards printed separateh', and published in its seventh edition in 18i)3 (Engl, transl. by S.Taylor, Edinb. 1870). "In its im- proved form," says Dr. Schaff, "it must certainly be numbered among the most valuable contributions to the apologetic literature of the Church, and is better calculated, in our judgment, to satisfy an in()uiring and well-cultivated mind on the claims of our holy religion than many large volumes on the evidences of Chris- tianity. It shows the way by which the author him- self found the truth, and by which many a theological student of (ierinany has since escaped the whirlpool of rationalism and pantheism. ... It is impossible to read this book attentively without being edified as well as instructed, and overwhelmed with the glory of the only begotten of the Father that shines through the veil of his flesh upon the eye of faith and enlightened rea- son." In 1829 Ullmann was called to Halle, and for about seven years he lectured, besides Church history, on symbolics and dogmatics; and in ]83() he returned again to Heidelberg as professor of ecclesiastical his- tory and Church councillor, and spent there the best years of his manhood. \\'lic'n, in 1853, Ullmann was elected to the prelacy, or the highest ecclesiastical dig- nity of the Evangelical Church, in the grand-duchy of Baden, he withdrew from the academic chair and took his residence at Carlsruhe, devoting his whole en- ergy to the affairs of the Church. In connection with his like-minded colleague, the learned Dr. Biihr, au- thor of Symbolism of the Mosaic Worship, he faith-
fully endeavored to build up the Protestant Church of Baden, which was deeiily inidermined by thenlogical rationalism and political red - re])ublicaiiisin. When, however, the liberal element became too strong, he re- tired in 18()1 from all [)ublic afl'airs, and died Jan. 12, 18tJ5.
L'llmann, starting from the school of Schleiermaclu r and Ncander, was at first somewhat latitudinarian in doctrine ami too compromising in disjiosition, but he grew with the better spirit of the age in orthodoxy and evangelical sentiment. 'I'hiis he not only took part, while at Halle, in the efforts made against 'the still existing remnant of rationalism, but also used all means at tiie General Synod, which met at Carlsruhe in 1855, to have the rationalistic catechism heretofore in use replaced by a better one constructed on the basis of the small Lutheran an<i Heidelberg catechisms. Similar reforms he introduced with regard to the litur- gy and the common school-books. But more than through his ecclesiastical reforms, he accpiired a last- ing reputation by a ntmiber of works "ecjually distin- guished for solid and well-diffused historical informa- tion, comprehensive views, calm and clear reflect ion, dignified and conciliating tone, and masterly power of exhibition." Besides those already mentioned, we name his Historisch oder Afythisch (Hamburg, 1838), in which he brings out the signification of Christ's personality under a historical point of view, as an inianswerable ar- gument to the infidel work of Strauss on the life of Jesus: — Das Wesen des Christenthunis (ibid. 1845; 5th ed. 18G5), with a critical appendix on Feuerbach's in- famous book on the essence of Christianity : — De Bt- ryllo Bostreno ejusque Doctiina Commentatio ( ibid. 1835). But his main work, which has assigned to liim a rank among the first Church historians of the present century, is his Reformers before the Reformation (18-11- 42, 2 vols., forming also a part of Clark's Foreign Theo- logicai Library). This work "is certainly one of the strongest historical arguments for the Reformation that have yet been presented. . . . What Flaciiis at- tempted in a crude form in the infancy of Protestant historiography, and with an unmeasured iwlemical zeal against the Komanists of his age, Ullmaini has carried out with all the help of modern erudition, in the calm, truth-loving spirit of an impartial hist(u-ian, and with full acknowledgment of the great and abiding merits of Catholicism as the Christianizer and civilizer of the barbarian nations of the Dark Ages. AVith him the Reformation is not so much a rebellion as the flower and fruit rather of the better and deejjer life of (!'hris- tianity that slumbered in the maternal bosom of ine- dijeval Catholicism. This, it seems to us, is the no- blest and strongest historical vindication of it" (Schaff). In these two volumes special attention is paid to the (ierman and Dutch forerunners of the Reformation from the 13th to the 15th century, who are treated with ex- haustive minuteness of detail. Here we find trustworthy and carefully sifted information on the life and theol- ogy of John (ioch, John Wessel. the Brethren of the Common Life, and the various schools of the mystics, Ruysbroek, Suso, Tauler, Thomas a Kempis, the anony- mous author of the curious tract on (ierman tlieology, and Staupitz, the patron and early friend of Lutlur. The latter and principal part of the second volume con- tains the author's former monograph on John Wessel (Hamburg, 1834) in an improved form which leaves but little to be added. "But the work of Ullmann, al- though very satisfactory as far as it goes, does not ex- haust the general subject, which would rc()uirc two or three additional volumes. He leaves out of view the important preparatory movement f>f Wycliffe and the Lollards in England, of Hiiss and the Hussites in Bo- hemia, of Savonarola in Italy, and of what is generally called the Revival of Letters and Classical Learnii g by such men as Erasmus, Reuchlin, Agricola; not to speak of the more negative preparation of the Reforma- tion by the anti-Catholic sects of the Middle Ages, es-