KILBER, HEINRICH. - Jesuit and theologian, born at Magonza on 8 March 1710, died at Heidelberg on 25 Oct. 1783. He first taught literature at Würzburg and Heidelberg, then theology at Würzburg for twenty-two years, from 1764 also holding the newly established chair of Sacred Scripture. In 1773, upon the suppression of the Order, he was appointed rector of the Seminary of Heidelberg.
He was the author of the Institutiones theologicae (4 vols., Würzburg 1751-54), comprising only the treatises: De principiis theologicis; De Deo Uno et Trino; De peccatis et Gratia; De virtutibus theologicis. These, subsequently combined with the other treatises composed by Fathers I. Neubauer, T. Holtzelau,
U. Munier, formed the course known as that of the “Wirceburgesi”: Theologia dogmatica, polemica, scholastica et moralis (11 vols., ibid. 1766-71), extensive, solid, learned, and still valuable today. K.’s other work likewise enjoyed great success: Analysis biblica (3 vols., Heidelberg 1773-1779), an exposition of the books of the Old and New Testaments intended to provide a fuller and easier knowledge of Catholic dogmas (new ed. with additions, edited by J. Tailhan [Paris 1856]; edited by J. Klinkowström [Vienna 1869]).