The von Hurter family belonged to the Swiss nobility; in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries three of them were known for their conversions to Roman Catholicism, their ecclesiastical careers in Austria and their theological writings.
Friedrich Emmanuel von Hurter (born at Schaffhausen, 19 March 1787; died at Graz, 27 August 1865) was a Swiss Protestant cleric and historian who converted to Roman Catholicism.
The appearance in 1834 of the first volume of the life of Pope Innocent III, on which he had been working for twenty years, caused a profound sensation in both Catholic and Protestant circles, and was soon translated into French, English, Italian, and Spanish.
As a result, he resigned his dignities in 1841, lived in retirement for three years, and in 1844 went to Rome, where on 16 June he made his profession of faith before Gregory XVI, his conversion being the signal for renewed attacks.
Hugo Adalbert Ferdinand von Hurter SJ, younger son of Friedrich (born at Schaffhausen, 11 January 1832; died 10 December 1914 at Innsbruck), was a Roman Catholic theologian.