Dictionary.net

A Hungarian historian and novelist (1756-1839). A Capuchin priest, his secret communication to Joseph II. in 1781 regarding the monasteries brought about a radical reformation of them. Appointed professor of Oriental languages in the Vienna University, he had to leave the post and Austria for his atheistic and seditious tragedy "Sidney" (1787); similar reasons cost him a professorship in the Alexander Nevsky Academy of St. Petersburg; afterward he became general superintendent of the Lutheran congregations in that city. He wrote the historical novels "Marcus Aurelius" (1790); "Aristides and Themistocles" (1792); "Matthias Corvinus" (1793); "Attila" (1794). His greatest work is a "History of Hungary" (10 vols., 1812-25). He wrote voluminously on Freemasonry, and published an interesting autobiography, "A Review of my Seventy Years' Pilgrimage" (1826).