BALTZER, JOHANN BAPTIST. – Theologian, b. at Andernach-sur-le-Rhin on 16 July 1803 and 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 devoted himself to supporting A. Günther, whom he unsuccessfully attempted to defend in Rome in 1835, and whose doctrines he continued to profess even after his condemnation. For this reason, the bishop of Breslau deprived him of the faculty to teach, but he rebelled. Refusing to submit to the definition of the First Vatican Council concerning papal infallibility, he organized the resistance of the “Old Catholics” in Silesia. He died impenitent. A capable but proud man, susceptible to novelties and insufficiently anchored in traditional principles, he would also have been a benefactor of the Church had he not ruined everything through his insubordination. He vigorously opposed the Protestants, deploring a schism in Silesia. In his publications, he defended the truths of Revelation against the prevailing materialism. Some of his works, however, were also condemned because of his 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 (there 1853: placed on the Index, 12 December 1859); Biblische Schöpfungsgeschichte, insbesondere die darin enthaltenen Kosmo- und Geogonie, I, Leipzig 1867, II, there 1873, edited by J. P. Baltzer); Über die Anfänge der Organismen und die Urgeschichte der Menschen (Paderborn 1869).