Career
His fame rests principally on his erudition abilities. He was later professor of canon law in the universities of Ingolstadt, Dillingen and Innsbruck. In 1739 appeared his Catholische Anmerkung über die neueste uncatholische Controvers-Schreiber, directed against certain opponents in Zürich.
Biner published Heiligkeit der Kirche in 1750, discussing the marks of the "true Church" and giving sketches of eminent Catholics.
The best of his polemical works is De Summâ Trinitate, Fide Catholicâ et Hierarchiâ Ecclesiasticâ. lieutenant appeared in 1765 and shows him at his best as a theologian and canonist.
His last controversial treatise, which appeared the same year and was published like all the others at Vienna, is entitled: Kurzer Begriff der heutigen Glaubenstreitigkeiten. Biner"s chief work of a purely canonical character is Dissertationes juridicæ de beneficiis ecclesiasticis (Innsbruck, 1746).
His masterpiece is the Apparatus erudictionis ad jurisprudentiam ecclesiasticam.
The work, despite its title, is not restricted to canon law, but is also historical, polemical, and theological. lieutenant was published at Vienna in eight quarto volumes from 1754 to 1766. lieutenant is a work of vast erudition and a storehouse of history and canon law.
Dividing his material by centuries, Biner treats of the various species of law, of the history of the church councils, of the political and religious vicissitudes of the various nations, of treaties and concordats, et cetera
Interspersed in the work are many valuable excursuses on Jansenism, Probabilism, Public Penance, Origin of Imperial Electors, et cetera However the work is rendered less valuable for students by a nonsystematic arrangement of material and the want of an index.
The vastness of the knowledge which Biner displays, however, has received praise even from his opponents. He wrote many other works besides those mentioned, which may be found in De Backer and Sommervogel, cited below.