BALTZER, JOHANN BAPTIST. - Theologian, b. at Andernach on the Rhine on 16 July 1803 and d. at Bonn on 1 Oct. 1871. A disciple of Hermes, he taught his doctrines from the chair of Breslau (1830). After the condemnation of Hermes (1835), he set about supporting A. Günther, whom he tried in vain to defend in Rome in 1835, and whose doctrines he continued to profess even after their condemnation. For this the bishop of Breslau deprived him of the right to teach, but he rebelled. Refusing to submit to the Vatican Council's definition on papal infallibility, he organized in Silesia the resistance of the "Old Catholics." He died impenitent. A man of ability, but proud, receptive to novelties and little anchored in traditional principles, he would also have been deserving of the Church, had he not ruined everything with his insubordination. He opposed the Protestants vigorously, deprecating a schism in Silesia. In his publications, against the prevailing materialism, he defended the truths of Revelation. He also had, however, some works condemned for the defense of his errors.
He published: Hinzeisungen 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 Urtheils 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 enthaltenen Kosmound Geogonie, I, Leipzig 1867, II, ibid. 1873, edited by J. P. Baltzer); Über die Anfänge der Organismen und die Urgeschichte der Menschen (Paderborn 1869).
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Vito Zollini