STOLBERG, FRIEDRICH LEOPOLD, COUNT:
German author and convert to the Roman Catholic faith; b. at Bramstedt (23 m. n. of Hamburg) Nov. 7, 1750; d. on the estate of Sondermuhlen near Osnabriick (65 m. s.s.w. of Bremen) Dec. 5, 1819. After the removal of his family to Copenhagen, he was educated there, together with his brother Christian, two years older than himself. Klopstock, a friend of the family, exercised a deep influence upon the two boys. They studied at Halle in 1770-71, and at Gottingen in 1772-73. In Gottingen they became a part of the well-known " Hainbund,"
RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Stoicism Stole
which names a certain period of development in modern poetry. In 1775 the two brothers undertook a journey through Germany to Switzerland, making the acquaintance of prominent men, in Frankfort associating with Goethe, and at Geneva meeting Voltaire. In 1776 Friedrich Leopold was appointed ambassador at the Danish court by the prince-bishop of Liibeck and the duke of Oldenburg. The literary productions of Stolberg were at that time in the region of lyrical poetry. At the same time he occupied himself with the study of the Greeks, translating the Iliad, also some portions of iEschylus, and composing several dramas in the Greek form. In 1785 he was sent on a mission to St. Petersburg, where he met Klinger. In 1789 he was appointed Danish ambassador in Berlin, and in 1791 the prince-bishop of Liibeck appointed him president of the government in Eutin, but before he entered his new position, he traveled to Italy, and also visited Munster, where he met the Princess Galitzin, a devoted Roman Catholic. Minister at that time was the seat of a Catholicism in which Biblical Christianity predominated over Romanism. An interview with the pope later rilled Stolberg with admiration. In 1793 he returned to Eutin and entered his new position, but remained in close contact with the circle of Munster while Voss, with whom he had hitherto been in close relations, seemed the representative of superficial rationalism. In 1793 Princess Galitzin returned his visit; in 1794 Stolberg visited in Munster, being powerfully attracted by Ftirstenberg and the princess. The change in his opinions appears in a letter to F. H. Jacobi, written in February, 1794, in which he says: " I know and love the mysticism of a Plato, one of my first favorites but the kind of rev-
elation that was granted them remains as distinct from that of the Bible as the heaven is above the earth "; while later it was declared of him: " The miserable condition of Protestantism, that leads to deism, atheism, to a rationalism that eats and destroys all mystic roots like cancer, the philosophy of Kant, and the whole Enlightenment repelled him more and more." In 1798 he visited the Brethren in Herrnhut to see whether he could there find peace and rest. On June 1, 1800, Stolberg, together with his family, adopted the Roman Catholic faith in the chapel of Princess Galitzin. By this step he offended most deeply all Protestant North Germany, but especially his older circle of friends, Voss, Jacobi, Gleim, and others. After tendering his resignation to the duke, Stolberg retired into private life and settled near Munster, on the estate of Lutjenbeck. In 1811 he removed to the estate of Tatenhausen near Bielefeld, and in 1816 to Sondermuhlen. Meanwhile he had published his lyrical poems, together with those of his brother Christian (Leipsic, 1779, new ed., 1821, and separately Vaterldndische Gedichte, again combined with those of his brother, Hamburg, 1815). He was the author also of Zwo Schriften des heiligen Augustin von der wahren Religion und von den Sitten der katholischen Kirche (1803). But the work which filled almost the whole remainder of his life was his Geschichte der Religion Jesu Christi (15 vols., Hamburg, 1806-18). It extends only to the year 430, and was continued by
F. von Kerz (vols, xvi.-xlv., Mainz, 1825-46) and by J. N. Brischar (vols, xlvi.-li., 1849-53). The work shows a lack of critical discernment and system, and a hasty pen. He also published Leben Alfreds des Grossen (Munster, 1817), with an introduction on Anglo-Saxon history; and Ein Biichlein von der Liebe (1818; Eng. transl., A Little Book of the Love of God, London, 1849), a coherent representation of the Biblical doctrine of love. His Reise in Deutschland, der Schweis, Italien und Sicilien (4 vols., Konigsberg, 1794) was translated into English (2 vols., London, 1796-97). (A. Feeybe.)
Bibliography: Biographies have been written by A. Nicolovius, Mainz, 1846; T. Menge, 2 vols., Gotha, 1862; J. Janssen, 3d ed., Freiburg, 1882; and K. Windel, 2d ed., Potsdam, 1896. Consult further: C. F. A. Schott, Voss und Stolberg, oder der Kampf des Zeiialters zwischen Licht und V erdunkclung , Stuttgart, 1820; W. von Bippen, Eutiner Skizzen. Zur Kultur- und Litteraturgeschichte des 18. Jahrhundert, Weimar, 1859; W. Herbst, Johannes H. Voss, vol. ii., Leipsic, 1874; also J. H. Hennes, F. L. Graf zu Stolberg und Herzog Peter Friedrich Ludwig von Oldenburg aus ihrem Briefwechsel, Mainz, 1870.
STOLE. See Vestments and Insignia, Ecclesiastical.
STOLE FEES, SURPLICE FEES: Name applied to fixed contributions to the clergy for certain official services rendered, paid by the person at whose behest such service is rendered. In a History in wider sense the term includes the fees the Roman of such lower clergy as cantors, organ- Catholic ists, and sacristans. The term first Church, appears in the later Middle Ages, and originated in the fact that the clergy in the Roman Catholic Church, then as now, was obligated to perform those offices clad in the stole. In the Eastern Church these fees are known by the corresponding term for stole, epitracfielium. In the Middle Ages there is mention of justitia, jura presbyteri, and jura parochialia, or the fee is designated according to the particular service performed, as baptisterium, nuptice, or sepultura. In the early Church, the bishops furnished the support of the clergy, but many voluntary gifts were made as evidences of gratitude, as well as for support. But, by authority of Matt. x. 8, the acceptance of a voluntary gift for the performance of a holy act was expressly forbidden. Nevertheless, the desire of the people to retain the good-will of the clergy and prove their own acknowledgment, on the one hand, and the cupidity of the latter, on the other, led not only to offensive practise among the ordinary clergy, but even the bishops came to accept gifts for such transactions as ordination, dedication of churches, and confirmation. Again and again it became necessary for the Church to forbid the practise, excepting, however, voluntary gifts to the support of the clergy (I Cor. ix. 11-14; Matt. x. 10), if not given specifically for services performed. This standpoint appears in the ecclesiastical enactments of the twelfth century. Meanwhile an influence among the lower churches and clergy operated to restrict the right of stole fees. This was the Germanic system of private temples. In the north, even in pagan times, the earl or private owner imposed upon those who frequented his temple a toll for the maintenance of the same and the support of his priest, as well as fees
Stole Stoning