PAPEBROCH (PAPENBROECK), DANIEL von. - Bollandist, b. at Antwerp on 17 March 1628, d. there on 28 June 1714. Having entered the Society of Jesus in 1646, he was, from 1659 until his death, a collaborator on the Acta Sanctorum, overseeing the publication of the volumes from the first of March (Antwerp 1668) to the fifth of June (ibid. 1709); in all 18 volumes, to which he contributed the best part.
With Fr. God. Hensken he made, in 1660-1662, a first research journey (of which he wrote a detailed diary) through Germany, Italy and France, bringing back from it a very copious body of material; a second he made in 1668, visiting the monasteries of the regions of the Meuse and the Moselle; a third, with Fr. C. Jenninck, in 1680 to Paderborn. He had to endure a harsh episode with the Spanish Inquisition. His having combated, in the prolegomena to the life of St. Albert, patriarch of Jerusalem (cf. Acta SS. Aprilis, I, ibid. 1675, pp. 776-802), the tradition that the Carmelites derived from the prophet Elijah, raised against him from 1681 to 1693 a whole series of works and pamphlets overflowing with accusations, invectives and puerilities. He was also denounced for heresies to the Spanish Inquisition, which in 1695 placed on the Index the 14 volumes of the Acta, elaborated by the Father. The latter responded and defended himself in the 3 volumes of Responsio ad Exhibitionem errorum per adm. R. P. Sebastianum a s. Paulo vulgatum a. 1693 Coloniae (Antwerp 1696-99). When the case was also brought to Rome, Innocent XII in 1698 imposed silence on both parties. The calm proved beneficial; the defense of the Bollandists, conducted with tact and prudence for nine years by Fr. G. Cassani, brought about in 1700 the withdrawal of the condemnation of 1695. There was placed on the Index, however (and it remained there until 1900), the volume Propylaeum Maii (ibid. 1668), where the Father had set out a Conatus chronologico-historicus ad catalogum Romanorum pontificum, where to the data on certain popes were added notices not always edifying about the conclaves (« Conclavium historii uniculare »). The Father also made, with his Propylaeum antiquarium circa veri et falsi discrimen in vetustis membranis (Acta SS. Aprilis, II, ibid. 1675, pp. 1-11), the first attempt to establish the rules of diplomatic criticism; but he went too far in suspecting the authenticity of the majority of ancient monastic diplomas; which gave occasion to Mabillon to set out definitively the doctrine on the subject in his masterpiece: De re diplomatica, to which the Father yielded, vanquished, with the serene humility of the scholar. After the publication of the volume V of June he ceased his work as hagiographer and devoted his last years to writing Annales Antverpienses (published posthumously by F. H. Mertens and E. Buschmann, 5 vols., ibid. 1845-48).
The work of the Father, admirable not only for its extent, but even more for its variety and value, demonstrates in him a great erudition, a full mastery of the material, a fine intuition of particulars; which does not detract, naturally, from the fact that in a field so thorny and unexplored he allowed observations and anticipations to escape him that were premature or hasty.
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