Vicariate Apostolic of Dahomey
Father Damien (Joseph de Veuster)
Antoine-Elisabeth Dareste de la Chavanne
Victor Augustin Isidore Dechamps
Feast of the Dedication (Scriptural)
Defender of the Matrimonial Tie
Definitors (in Religious Orders)
Dei gratia Dei et Apostolicæ Sedis gratia
Ferdinand-Victor-Eugène Delacroix
Ambrose Lisle March Phillipps De Lisle
Prefecture Apostolic of the Delta of the Nile
Johann Nepomuk Cosmas Michael Denis
Jacques-René de Brisay Denonville
Heinrich Joseph Dominicus Denzinger
Jean Desmarets de Saint-Sorlin
Deus in Adjutorium Meum Intende
Francisco Garcia Diego y Moreno
Melchior, Baron (Freiherr) von Diepenbrock
Dionysius the Pseudo-Areopagite
Institute of the Divine Compassion
Daughters of the Divine Redeemer
Johann Joseph Ignaz von Döllinger
Emmanuel-Henri-Dieudonné Domenech
Ferdinand-François-Auguste Donnet
Juan Francesco Maria de la Saludad Donoso Cortés
Clemens August von Droste-Vischering
Louis-Guillaume-Valentin Dubourg
Phillippe-Charles-Jean-Baptiste-Tronson Du Coudray
Daniel Greysolon, Sieur Du Lhut
Felix-Antoine-Philibert Dupanloup
Archdiocese of Durango (Durangum)
Theologian, b. about 1475 at Frankfort-on-the-Main, d. 4 Sept., 1537, at Mainz. He was educated in his native city, joined the Dominican Order, and soon distinguished himself by his attainments, both religious and intellectual. On 3 June, 1511, he registered at Cologne as a theological student; three years later, 23 September, 1514, he was admitted to the licentiate, and the next year, after some time spent at Heidelberg and Mainz, received the doctor's degree. Towards the end of 1517 Dietenberger was appointed Regens studiorum and interpreter of St. Thomas at Trier, where he opened his lectures 27 January, 1518. In the meantime he had been elected (1516) prior of his convent at Frankfort, and he retained this office until 1526, when he became prior at Coblenz. In 1530 Dietenberger attended the Diet of Augshurg and was chosen a member of the committee of twenty Catholic theologians selected at the meeting of 27 June and presided over by Eck, to draw up a refutation of the Protestant Confession. About the same time he received the appointment of general inquisitor for the Dioceses of Mainz and Cologne. His last years, from 1532, were devoted to teaching theology and exegesis in the Academy of Mainz.
Foremost among Dietenberger's works stands his catechism: "Evangelischer Bericht und Christliche Unterweisung der furnehmlichsten Stuck des waren heyligen Christlichen Glaubens", published first at Mainz in 1537 and often re-edited, lastly by Moufang (Die Mainzer Katechismen). Next should be mentioned Dietenberger's German Bible: "Biblia beider Allt und Newen Testamenten, new verdeutscht ", published at Mainz in 1534. This work, repeatedly corrected, especially by Caspar Ulenberg (Cologne, 1630) and the Jesuit theologians of Mainz (1661), was destined to become for the German people "Die Katholische Bibel", a title bespeaking its excellence. Dietenberger has been frequently charged with having purloined Luther's version. True, he used freely the New Testament of Emser (1527), of whom Luther was wont to say that "he had ploughed with his heifers"; he used likewise other translations compiled in pre-Reformation times, and so did Luther. These facts may account for many similarities; moreover, he was well acquainted with the versions of Luther and of Leo of Juda, and confessedly profited by them to improve his own. Besides these two important works, Dietenberger composed fifteen polemical tracts, treating various subjects then much mooted: Mass, confession, vows, faith, etc.
WEDEWER, Johannes Dietenberger, sein Leben und Wirken (Freiburg im Br., 1888); WEDEWER in Kirchenlex., s.v.; PANZER, Versuch einer kurzen Gesch. der romischkathol. deutschen Bibelubersetzung (Nuremberg; 1781); FRITSCHE, Deutsche Bibelubersetzungen in HERZOG'S Real-Encyc. (2d ed.), III, 543.
CHARLES L. SOUVAY