He began the study of medicine, but relinquished it after renouncing Judaism for Roman Catholicism in 1829, then taking up theology.
This too he was forced to abandon in the second year, owing to deafness caused by a severe illness; and after this disappointment, which he felt keenly, he devoted himself to what became his life work, namely, the study of the Middle Ages.
He foretold the time of his death to the minute three days before it occurred; there have been in his family several cases of similar premonition.
291-372); "Ueber Badewesen in Mittelalterlicher und Späterer Zeit" (in "Archiv für Kunde Oesterreichischer Geschichtsquellen," xxi.
5-183); "Ueber ein für den Jugendunterricht des Kaisers Max I. Abgefasstes Lateinisches Gesprächsbüchlein" (ib.