BIERLING, bî’'ār-ling, ERNST RUDOLF: German Protestant jurist; b. at Zittau (49 m. s.e. of Dresden) Jan. 7, 1841. He was educated at the universities of Leipsic (1859-63) and Göttingen (1864-65), and after being a lawyer in his native city in 1868-71 was privat-docent at Göttingen for two years. Since 1873 he has been professor of canon and criminal law at Greifswald. In addition to being a member of the Pomeranian provincial synod in 1878-99 and of the general synod in 1875 and 1884-1902, he was a member of the House of Deputies in 1881-85 and of the Upper House after 1889. His publications include Gesetzgebungsrecht evangelischer Kirchen im Gebiete der Kirchenlehre (Leipsic, 1869); Zur Kritik der juristischen Grundbegriffe (2 vols., Gotha, 1877-82); Die konfessionelle Schule in Preussen und ihr Recht (1885); and Juristische Prinzipienlehre (3 vols., Tübingen, 1894-1905).