GROPPER, JOHANN. - Theologian and jurist, born at Soest (Westphalia) on 24 Feb. 1503, died at Rome on 13 March 1559. After completing his studies at Cologne, he held various important positions, including that of chancellor of the episcopal principality, scholasticus of St Gereon, dean in Soest, and from 1547 provost and archdeacon of Bonn.
As codifier of the law of the ecclesiastical principality of Cologne and compiler of the decrees of the provincial synod of 1536, he acted with intelligence and courage to counter the machinations of the apostate archbishop Hermann von Wied, thereby saving Catholicism in Cologne. In the religious controversies of the time, he represented the moderate tendency, which guided him in the diets and colloquies in which he participated: Augsburg (1530), Hagenau, Worms (1540), Ratisbon (1541), and in the Augsburg Interim (1548), of which he was the principal drafter. His doctrine on the duplex iustitia was condemned by the Council of Trent (1546). In 1551 he accompanied to Trent the archbishop Adolf von Schauenburg. He firmly refused the cardinal’s hat, which Paul IV wished to confer upon him in 1555. In 1558, when Gebhard von Mansfeld, of doubtful orthodoxy, was elected archbishop of Cologne, Gropper went to Rome to prevent his confirmation; on that occasion he had to defend himself against accusations of dogmatic errors, but this did not diminish the Pope’s trust in him, and he was employed as a counsellor and praised for his virtues in the funeral oration delivered on the occasion of his burial in the church of Santa Maria dell’Anima.
Works: Canones Concilii provincialis Coloniensis, with the Enchiridion appended (Cologne 1538); Antididagma (iv 1544); Wahrhaftige Antwort und Gegenberichtung (iv 1545); Capita institutionis ad pietatem (iv 1546); Von warer Gegenwertigkeit des Leyds und Bluts Christi (iv 1548); Institutio Catholica (iv 1550).