HUMME LAUER, FRANZ. — Jesuit exegete, b. in Vienna (Austria) on 14 Aug. 1842, d. at S'Heerenberg (Holland) on 12 Apr. 1914. On 2 Aug. 1860 he entered the Society of Jesus; he resided for a long time (1895–1908) at Valkenburg; in 1903 he was appointed among the first consultors of the Biblical Commission; from 1908 to 1911 he devoted himself to apostolic ministries in Berlin; he spent his last years, infirm, in the novitiate house at S'Heerenberg.
He began his exegetical work with 18 articles on the origins of the human race, which he published in the periodical Stimmen aus Maria Loach (1873–82). He then commented, in volumes published in the collection Cursus Scripturae Sacrae (Paris), on the Pentateuch and the following historical books: Libri Samuels seu I-II Regum (1883), Indices et Ruth (1888), Genesis (1895), Exodus et Leviticus (1897), Numeri (1899), Deuteronomium (1901), Josue (1903), Liber I Paralipomenon (1905); but he did not complete II Paralipomenon nor III and IV (I-II) Re. He also wrote four monographs, twice dealing with Der Biblische Schöpfungsbericht (Freiburg 1877–98), and then Exegetisches zur Inspirationsfrage ([*Bibl. Studien, 9, iv], Freiburg im Br. 1904). This work especially provoked objections, and it cannot be denied that some conclusions are less sound and some assertions hasty; nevertheless, everything was said with profound learning, in the pure intention of opening a path toward the solution of present-day difficulties. He left an excellent book of meditations: S. Ignatii de libro Exercitiorum meditationum et contemplationum puncta* (Freiburg im Br. 1896; 3rd ed. there, 1925).