GRUBER, HERMANN JOSEPH. - Jesuit, publicist, b. at Kufstein (Tyrol) on 5 February 1851, d. at Valkenburg (Holland) on 18 May 1930. After having devoted seven years (1881-87) to pastoral care among the Germans, at Arlon and at Bern, he gave himself exclusively to the mission of a writer, studying in a particular way the philosophical currents of his times and the harmful activity of Freemasonry.

Besides a substantial collaboration with several periodicals of culture (Stimmen aus Maria Laach, Stimmen der Zeit, Civiltà Cattolica, Theologie und Glaube, Theologisch praktische Quartalschrift, etc.) and with the various ecclesiastical encyclopedias, he wrote, on positivism, Auguste Comte, der Begründer des Positivismus (Freiburg i. Br. 1889; Italian trans., S. Vito al Tagliamento 1893); Der Positivismus von Tode Comtes bis auf unsere Tage (ibid. 1891; Italian trans., Rome 1899). The fruit of patient investigations, conducted and expounded with serenity of judgment and constant care for the truth, so much so as to be praised by his very adversaries, are the works: Die Freimaurerei und die öffentliche Ordnung (ibid. 1893); Der «Giftige Kern» oder die wahren Bestrebungen der Freimaurerei ahtenmässig nachgewiesene (Freiburg in Br. 1899); Mazzini, Freimaurerei und Revolution (ibid. 1901; Italian trans., Rome 1901). He also succeeded in unmasking at Amsterdam the Freemason, supposedly a convert, Paolo Rosen: Schwindler und Beschwindelte (ibid. 1891), and the false tricks of Leo Taxil: Leo Taxils Palladismus-Roman (3 vols., Bataille, Margiotta, Miss Diana Vaughan, ibid. 1897-98); Betrug als Ende eines Betrugs, die Kundgebung Leo Taxils vom 19. Aug. 1897 (ibid. 1897).

Bibliography3 works

BIBL.: Obituary in Mitteilungen aus den deutschen Provinzen, 12 (1930-31), pp. 181-83; cf. also P. Pirri, La massoneria americana e la riorganizzazione della massoneria in Europa, in Civ. Catt., 1930, IV, pp. 207-208; 1931, I, pp. 21-36 (concerning an interview of Masonic leaders with Fr. G.).

Celestino Testore

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Gruber, Hermann Joseph

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