WATTERICH, JOHANN BAPTIST. - Priest and historian, b. at Trier on 22 Dec. 1826, d. at Beuron on 10 Jan. 1904.
After serving as professor of history at Braunsberg from 1862 to 1870, he embraced the priestly life and was engaged in parochial ministry at Andernach and later as a military chaplain. Unfortunately, in 1874 he embraced the errors of the Old Catholics and for many years was a herald of heresy at Basel and Baden-Baden. Touched by grace two years before his death, he returned to the Catholic faith in the abbey of Beuron, where he spent the final period of his life in meditation and prayer.
A distinguished historian, W. published numerous works of vast and profound learning, among which, before his fall, were *Grundung des deutsches Ordensstaats* (1857) and *Verfassung der Kirche im Jahrhundert der Apostel* (1873). To W. is owed the valuable collection: *Pontificium Romanorum, qui fuerunt inde ab exeunte saec. IX usque ad finem saec. XIII, vitae ab aequalibus conscriptae* (Leipzig 1862), prepared at the invitation of the MGH in anticipation of the edition of the *Liber Pontificalis* (q.v.).