FORER, Lorenz. - Jesuit theologian and controversialist, b. at Lucerne in 1580, d. at Ratisbon on 7 Jan. 1659. Professor of dogmatics at the Universities of Ingolstadt and Dillingen, he was a vigorous polemicist who attacked Protestant theology at the very height of Lutheran orthodoxy.
Among his anti-Protestant writings are to be noted: *Lutherus thanaturgus* (Dillingen 1624); *Bellum ubiquisticum vetus et novum* (ibid. 1627); *Manutissa antianatomica Iesuitica* (ibid. 1635): important for the history of 17th-century controversies; *Antiquitas papatus* (4 vols., ibid. 1633-35): his principal work, in which F. treats of Scripture and Tradition, of the Church and the pope, of the sacraments of Penance, Baptism and the Eucharist (especially of real presence and the Mass); *Questio vexata ac plus quam integro saeculo agitata: ubimam terrarum ac gentium fuerit ante Lutherum, Zwinglium, Calvinum protestantium ecclesia* (I, Amberg 1653; II, Ingolstadt 1655). He also wrote various philosophical works.