Gams, Pius
GAMS, PIUS
Church historian; b. Mittelbuch (Württemberg), Germany, Jan. 23, 1816; d. Munich, May 11, 1892. He studied in Tübingen (1834–38), was ordained in 1839, and became professor of history and theology at Hildesheim (1847–55). In 1855, he entered the Benedictine Abbey of St. Boniface in Munich. Four of the five volumes of his Kirchengeschichte von Spanien (1862–79; Graz 1959) deal with the period before 1492. At times the work becomes an ecclesiastical chronicle, but it includes many valuable studies of difficult problems. His gigantic Series episcoporum (1873; Leipzig 1931; Graz 1957), brought up to date in two supplements (1879, 1886), lists all bishops known in the history of the Church.
Bibliography: f. lauchert, Studien und Mitteilungen zur Geschichte des Benediktiner-Ordens 27 (1906) 634–649; 28 (1907) 53–71, 299–315. b. heurtebize, Dictionnaire de théology catholique, ed. a. vacant et al. 15 v. (Paris 1903–50) 6.1:1141–42. h. lang, Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, ed. j. hÖfer and k. rahner, 10 v. (1957–) 4:511.
[e. p. colbert]