KEPLER, PAUL WILHELM. - Bishop, b. 28 Sept. 1852 at Schwäbisch-Gmünd, d. 16 July 1926 at Rottenburg. Ordained a priest in 1875, he subsequently carried out pastoral work in the parish of Cannstatt. Professor of New Testament exegesis at Tubinga in 1883, he taught there until 1894, having transferred in 1889 to the chair of moral theology and pastoral theology. Professor of moral theology at Friburgo in Br. in 1894, he became bishop of Rottenburg in 1898, where he remained until his death. An effective preacher, he regarded the importance of Holy Scripture as the primary source of homiletics as fundamental.
As head of the diocese of Rottenburg, he was deeply concerned with the fate of all those harmed by the First World War and by inflation, and displayed great pastoral activity, providing for the foundation of new convents. He took an active part in the anti-Modernist struggle; he promoted studies in Christian art, directed the Archiv für christliche Kunst from 1885 to 1894, and himself published in 1888 the monograph Württembergs kirchliche
