Alber, János Nepomuk

ALBER, JÁNOS NEPOMUK. - Hungarian Piarist, exegete and historian, b. at Magyaróvár on 7 July 1753, d. at Pest on 21 June 1830. He taught science and biblical languages and church history, first to his confreres, then at the theological academy of Pest.

Well versed in patristic literature and in philological criticism, he published the extensive commentary Interpretatio S. Scripturae per omnes Veteris et Novi Testamenti libros (16 vols., Pest 1801-1804), with a serene refutation of rationalist and Protestant theses, which gained credit even in Catholic circles. Less success attended his Institutiones hermeneuticae Scripturae S. (3 vols. for the New Testament, Pest 1818; 3 vols. for the Old Testament, Pest 1827), and Institutiones linguae hebraicae (Pest 1826). Pius VII honored A. with a laudatory brief.

Another fruit of his long teaching is the Institutiones historiae ecclesiasticae (2 vols., Pest 1793; 5 vols., Eger 1825), of which he published an Epitome (Eger 1826), and Dissertationes in selecta capita historiae ecclesiast. (2 vols., Vienna 1820). He defended the rights of the Church against his Josephinist colleague Adamo Breganoczy, professor of canon law at Pest, who sought to refute him with the Responsum datum Jo. Alber theologiae professori de nonnullis iuris ecclesiastici sententiis (Pest 1824).

Antonino Romeo