PAPEBROCH (PAPENBROECK), DANIEL von. – Bollandist, born at Antwerp on 17 March 1628, died there on 28 June 1714. He entered the Society of Jesus in 1646 and, from 1659 until his death, collaborated on the Acta Sanctorum, overseeing the publication of the volumes from March I (Antwerp 1668) to June V (there 1709); 18 volumes in all, to which he contributed the finest 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 a very considerable amount of material; he made a second journey in 1668, visiting the monasteries of the regions of the Meuse and Moselle; and a third, with Fr. C. Jenninck, to Paderborn in 1680. He underwent a harsh ordeal with the Spanish Inquisition. His having attacked, in the prolegomena to the life of St. Albert, patriarch of Jerusalem (cf. Acta SS. Aprilis, I, there 1675, pp. 776–802), the tradition that the Carmelites descended from the prophet Elijah, provoked against him, from 1681 to 1693, an entire series of works and pamphlets overflowing with accusations, invective, and puerilities. He was also denounced for heresy to the Spanish Inquisition, which in 1695 placed on the Index the 14 volumes of the Acta prepared by P. He replied 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. Calm proved beneficial; the defense of the Bollandists, conducted with tact and prudence for nine years by Fr. G. Cassani, led in 1700 to the withdrawal of the condemnation of 1695. However, the volume Propylaeum Maii (there 1668) was placed on the Index (where it remained until 1900), in which P. had presented a Conatus chronologico-historicus ad catalogum Romanorum pontificum, where information on certain popes was supplemented by not always edifying accounts of the conclaves (“Conclavium historii uniculare”). P. also made, with his Propylaeum antiquarium circa veri et falsi discrimen in vetustis membranis (Acta SS. Aprilis, II, there 1675, pp. 1–11), the first attempt to establish the rules of diplomatic criticism; but he went too far in questioning the authenticity of most ancient monastic charters. This gave Mabillon occasion to expound the doctrine on the subject definitively in his masterpiece: De re diplomatica, to which P. conceded defeat with the serene humility of a learned man. After the publication of the June V volume, he ceased his work as a hagiographer and devoted his final years to writing Annales Antverpienses (published posthumously by F. H. Mertens and E. Buschmann, 5 vols., there 1845–48).
P.’s work, remarkable not only for its extent but even more for its variety and value, reveals in him great erudition, complete mastery of the subject, and a fine intuition for details; this does not, naturally, prevent the fact that, in so difficult and unexplored a field, he let premature or hasty observations and anticipations escape him.