Hilgers studied at the
University of Bonn, and in 1827 was ordained as a priest in
Cologne. He spent a year as an associate pastor in
Münstereifel, followed by five years service as a chaplain at the mental asylum in
Siegburg. In 1834 he received his doctorate of
theology at
Münster, and during the following year, obtained his
habilitation at the Catholic theological faculty in Bonn. From 1838 he served as pastor at the
Church of St Remigius, Bonn, then in 1846 became a full professor of church history at the university. He was excommunicated in 1872, along with Bonn colleagues
Franz Peter Knoodt,
Joseph Langen and
Franz Heinrich Reusch, by
Paul Melchers,
Archbishop of Cologne, in the debate over
papal infallibility. In 1841 he published "
Symbolische Theologie, oder die Lehrgegensätze des Katholicismus und Protestantismus" ("Symbolic theology, or the teaching opposites of Catholicism and Protestantism"). ==See also==