J. - F. von Schulte

Johann Friedrich von Schulte (April 23, 1827 to December 19, 1914) was a legal historian and professor of canon law. Born in Winterberg, Westphalia, Germany, he was a leading authority on Catholic canon law. In 1854 he became a lecturer at the University of Bonn, and during the following year was appointed professor of German legal history and canon law at the University of Prague. In 1873 he returned to Bonn, where he held a chair in canon law until 1906. Schulte opposed the First Vatican Council, and developed basic templates of church law for the organization of the German Old Catholic Church. He authored the Synodal- und Gemeindeordnung (Synodal and Municipal Order) in 1874, which became the fundamental law of the Old Catholic Church in Germany. From 1874 to 1879 he was a member of the German Reichstag (for the National Liberal Party), and died in Obermais near Meran in 1914.