ROHRBACHER, RENÉ-FRANÇOIS. - Church historian, b. 27 Sept. 1789 at Langatte near Sarrebourg, d. 17 Jan. 1856 in Paris.
He entered the major seminary of Nancy in 1810 and was ordained a priest two years later. He formed ties with F. La Mennais, followed him to La Chesnaie, and in 1828 settled at Malestroit, where he was entrusted with the philosophical and theological instruction of the novices of the Congregation that the La Mennais brothers intended to found. In 1826 he published two writings against Gallicanism, and in 1827 a Tableau des principales conversions qui ont eu lieu parmi les protestants depuis le commencement du XIXᵉ siècle, in polemic against the Lamennaisian assertion concerning the decadence of the contemporary Church. Having broken away from La Mennais after the encyclical Mirari vos, he returned to Lorraine in 1833 and became professor of Sacred Scripture at the major seminary of Nancy. His Histoire universelle de l'Église catholique, on which he had been working since 1826, came out in Paris in 28 vols., between 1842 and 1849 (2nd ed., ibid. 1849-53). Rich in information, though not critically elaborated, it tends to highlight the importance of the Church and the papacy in world history. With this Histoire, predominantly apologetic in character, R. contributed effectively to causing what remained of Jansenism and Gallicanism to disappear. The work was also translated into German (v. KNÖFFLER) and into English. Besides the Italian translation, G. Teglio also provided a version of Le Vite dei santi per ogni giorno dell'anno, whose original volumes were published by R. in 1853-54. The Storia universale was continued by P. Balan (v.) and by C. Bonacina.
Bibliography2 works
Silvio Furlani