BALTZER, Johann Baptist. – Theologian, b. at Andernach-sur-le-Rhin on 16 July 1803, d. at Bonn on 1 October 1871. A disciple of Hermes, he taught his doctrines from the chair at Breslau (1830). After the condemnation of Hermes (1835), he took up the defence of A. Günther, whom he vainly attempted to defend in Rome in 1835, and whose doctrines he continued to profess even after Günther’s condemnation. For this the bishop of Breslau deprived him of the right to teach, but he rebelled. By denying submission to the definition of the Vatican Council on papal infallibility, he organized in Silesia the resistance of the “Old Catholics.” He died impenitent. A man of ability, but proud, open to novelties and little anchored in traditional principles, he might have rendered good service to the Church had he not ruined everything by his insubordination. He vigorously opposed Protestants, deploring a schism in Silesia. In his publications, in opposition to the prevailing materialism, he defended the truths of Revelation. Yet some of his works were condemned for defending his errors.
He published: *Hinweisungen auf den Grundcharakter des hermetischen Systems* (Bonn 1832); *Über die Entstehung religiöser Gegensätze in Katholizismus und Protestantismus* (s. l. 1833); *Beiträge zur Vermittlung eines richtigen Urteils über Katholizismus und Protestantismus* (Breslau 1839); *Neue theologische Briefe an A. Günther* (ibid. 1853; placed on the Index, 12 Dec. 1859); *Biblische Schöpfungsgeschichte, insbesondere die darin enthaltene Kosmo-und Geogonie*, I, Leipzig 1867, II, ibid. 1873, edited by J. P. Baltzer; *Über die Anfänge der Organismen und die Urgeschichte der Menschen* (Paderborn 1869).