WATTERICH, JOHANN BAPTIST. - Priest and historian, b. at Treviri on 22 Dec. 1826, d. at Beuron on 10 Jan. 1904.
After having been professor of history at Braunsberg from 1862 to 1870, he embraced the priestly life and was engaged in pastoral care at Andernach and subsequently served as a military chaplain. Unfortunately, in 1874 he embraced the errors of the Old Catholics and for many years was a propagator of heresy at Basilea 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 last period of his life in meditation and prayer.
An eminent historian, W. published numerous works of broad and profound learning, among them, before his defection, Gründung des deutsches Ordensstaats (1857) and Verfassung der Kirche im Jahrhundert der Apostel (1873). To W. is owed the valuable collection: Pontificum Romanorum, qui fuerunt inde ab exeunte saec. IX usque ad finem saec. XIII, vitae ab aequalibus conscriptae (Lipsia 1862), prepared at the invitation of the MGH, in anticipation of Liber Pontificalis (v.).
Renzo U. Montini