Markus Hansiz, known in Slovene as Marko Hanžič (April 25, 1683 - September 5, 1766) was a Jesuit historian.

Hansiz was born in the town of Volkermarkt

Völkermarkt

Völkermarkt is a city of about 11,000 inhabitants in Carinthia, Austria.According to the 2001 census 2.6% of the population are Carinthian Slovenes....

 in the Duchy of Carinthia

Duchy of Carinthia

The Duchy of Carinthia was a duchy located in southern Austria and parts of northern Slovenia. It was separated from the Duchy of Bavaria in 976, then the first newly created Imperial State beside the original German stem duchies....

 in a Carinthian Slovene

Carinthian Slovenes

Carinthian Slovenes are the Slovene-speaking population group in the Austrian State of Carinthia. The Carinthian Slovenes send representatives to the National Ethnic Groups Advisory Council...

 family. He was only fifteen when he entered the Society of Jesus

Society of Jesus

The Society of Jesus is a Catholic male religious order that follows the teachings of the Catholic Church. The members are called Jesuits, and are also known colloquially as "God's Army" and as "The Company," these being references to founder Ignatius of Loyola's military background and a...

 in the near town of Eberndorf

Eberndorf

Eberndorf is a town and summer resort in the district of Völkermarkt in Carinthia in Austria, the main town in the Jaun Valley , southeast of Lake Klopein....

. He was ordained a priest in 1708 and on the completion of his studies became professor of humanities at Vienna. From 1713 to 1717 he taught philosophy at Graz

Graz

The more recent population figures do not give the whole picture as only people with principal residence status are counted and people with secondary residence status are not. Most of the people with secondary residence status in Graz are students...

, and from 1717 devoted himself entirely to the study of history.

His interest in the Anglia Sacra of Henry Wharton

Henry Wharton

Henry Wharton was an English writer and librarian.-Life:He was descended from Thomas, 2nd Baron Wharton , being a son of the Rev. Edmund Wharton, vicar of Worstead, Norfolk. Born at Worstead, Wharton was educated by his father, and then at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge...

, the Gallia Christiana

Gallia Christiana

The Gallia Christiana, a type of work of which there have been several editions, is a documentary catalogue or list, with brief historical notices, of all the Catholic dioceses and abbeys of France from the earliest times, also of their occupants....

of Sainte-Marthe, Ughelli

Ferdinando Ughelli

Ferdinando Ughelli was an Italian Cistercian monk and church historian.-Biography:He was born in Florence. He entered the Cistercian Order and was sent to the Gregorian University in Rome, where he studied under the Jesuits Francesco Piccolomini and John de Lugo.He filled many important posts in...

's Italia Sacra, and other similar treatises, together with the advice of the scholarly librarian, Bernardo Gentilotti, made him determined to execute a comprehensive "Germania Sacra". For this purpose he examined numerous libraries and archives, and published (1727–1729) histories of the Church of Lorch

Lorch (Rheingau)

Lorch am Rhein is a small town in the Rheingau-Taunus-Kreis in the Regierungsbezirk of Darmstadt in Hesse, Germany. It belongs to the Rhine Gorge World Heritage Site.- Location :The town is characterized by winegrowing and tourism....

 and of the Sees

Episcopal See

An episcopal see is, in the original sense, the official seat of a bishop. This seat, which is also referred to as the bishop's cathedra, is placed in the bishop's principal church, which is therefore called the bishop's cathedral...

 of Passau

Passau

Passau is a town in Lower Bavaria, Germany. It is also known as the Dreiflüssestadt or "City of Three Rivers," because the Danube is joined at Passau by the Inn from the south and the Ilz from the north....

 and Salzburg

Salzburg

-Population development:In 1935, the population significantly increased when Salzburg absorbed adjacent municipalities. After World War II, numerous refugees found a new home in the city. New residential space was created for American soldiers of the postwar Occupation, and could be used for...

: Germaniae Sacrae tomus primus: Metropolis Laureacensis cum episcopatu Pataviensi chronologice proposita (Augsburg

Augsburg

Augsburg is a city in the south-west of Bavaria, Germany. It is a university town and home of the Regierungsbezirk Schwaben and the Bezirk Schwaben. Augsburg is an urban district and home to the institutions of the Landkreis Augsburg. It is, as of 2008, the third-largest city in Bavaria with a...

, 1727), and an Archiepiscopatus Salisburgensis chronologice propositus (Vienna, 1729). This work took him to Rome, where he became acquainted with Muratori and Maffei. Hansiz is also considered the first historian who advanced the theory of the Slavic settlement of the Eastern Alps

Slavic settlement of the Eastern Alps

Slavic settlement of the Eastern Alps region was a historic process that took place between the 6th and 9th century AD, having culminated in the final quarter of the 6th century...

 in the 6th century A.D., which was later generally accepted by historians.

Despite the composition of diverse short treatises, chiefly canonical and dogmatic, he did not lose sight of his main purpose, but gathered materials for his history of the Dioceses of Ratisbon, Vienna, Neustadt

Wiener Neustadt

-Main sights:* The Late-Romanesque Dom, consecrated in 1279 and cathedral from 1469 to 1785. The choir and transept, in Gothic style, are from the 14th century. In the late 15th century 12 statues of the Apostles were added in the apse, while the bust of Cardinal Melchior Klesl is attributed to...

, Seckau

Seckau

Seckau is a Marktgemeinde in the state of Styria, Austria. It is situated near Knittelfeld. It is known for the Benedictine Seckau Abbey, once the seat of the bishopric Graz-Seckau.-Sources and references:*, on the Catholic Encyclopædia...

, Gurk

Gurk

Gurk may mean:*A river in Carinthia, Austria: Gurk River*A river in Carniola, Slovenia: Krka *A market town in the District of Sankt Veit an der Glan, Carinthia: Gurk...

, Lavant

Lavant

Lavant was a prince-bishopric, suffragan of the Prince-archbishop of Salzburg, then in the southern part of imperial Austria's Styria. Later the area was re-assigned to presentday Slovenia. It became the Slovenian bishopric of Maribor, a suffragan of the Archbishop of Ljubljana, on 5 March 1962...

, and for the secular history of Carinthia

Duchy of Carinthia

The Duchy of Carinthia was a duchy located in southern Austria and parts of northern Slovenia. It was separated from the Duchy of Bavaria in 976, then the first newly created Imperial State beside the original German stem duchies....

. However, the only result of his industry published by him on these subjects was a preliminary inquiry into the earliest periods of the See of Ratisbon, Germaniae sacrae tomus tortius. De episcopatu Ratisbonensi (Vienna, 1754). His copious notes are preserved in the Hofbibliothek (Court Library) in Vienna. Contrary to the Salzburg tradition, he maintained in his second volume that this see was founded by St. Rupert at the close of the seventh century; this aroused oppositlon. The third volume also involved him in controversy with the canons of St. Emmeram of Regensburg

Emmeram of Regensburg

Saint Emmeram of Regensburg was born in Poitiers and was a Christian bishop and a martyr. He died circa 652 and is buried in St. Emmeram's in Regensburg, Germany. His feast day in the Catholic calendar of saints is 22 September.-Life:What we know of Emmeram comes to us second hand...

.

With advancing age he ceased personal researches, but induced his younger Jesuit peers, in Graz and Klagenfurt

Klagenfurt

-Name:Carinthia's eminent linguists Primus Lessiak and Eberhard Kranzmayer assumed that the city's name, which literally translates as "ford of lament" or "ford of complaints", had something to do with the superstitious thought that fateful fairies or demons tend to live around treacherous waters...

, to take up and carry on his work. With the same end in view he communicated, only a short time before his death, with the learned prince abbot, Martin Gerbert

Martin Gerbert

Martin Gerbert , German theologian, historian and writer on music, belonged to the noble family of Gerbert von Hornau, and was born at Horb am Neckar, Württemberg, on the 12th of August 1720....

, the result being that the Benedictine

Benedictine

Benedictine refers to the spirituality and consecrated life in accordance with the Rule of St Benedict, written by Benedict of Nursia in the sixth century for the cenobitic communities he founded in central Italy. The most notable of these is Monte Cassino, the first monastery founded by Benedict...

 Fathers, Emil Usserman, Ambrosius Eichhorn, and Trudpert Neugart

Trudpert Neugart

Trudpert Neugart was a Benedictine historian. Of middle-class origin, Neugart studied in the classical schools of the Benedictine Abbeys of St George and St...

, took charge of the work for the Dioceses of Würzburg

Würzburg

Würzburg is a city in the region of Franconia which lies in the northern tip of Bavaria, Germany. Located at the Main River, it is the capital of the Regierungsbezirk Lower Franconia. The regional dialect is Franconian....

, Chur, and Constanz.

He died in Vienna.

External links

• PLETZ, Wiener Theologische Zeitschrit (1834), I, 13, sq., 161 sq.;
• Allg. Deutsche Biographie, X (1879), 541 sq.
• Hurter, Nomenclator.