WILMERS, WILHELM. – Jesuit and theologian, born at Boke (Westphalia) on 30 June 1817, died at Roermond (Holland) on 9 May 1889.
He entered the Order in 1834 and was professor of philosophy and theology for his fellow religious at Issenheim, Louvain, Cologne, Bonn, Aachen, and Maria Laach; in 1860 he took part in the Provincial Council of Cologne, to which he had been summoned as a collaborator by Cardinal Geissel; in 1869–70 he attended the First Vatican Council as theologian to the Apostolic Vicar of Bombay. There, in response to the pamphlets of Rauscher, Hefele, and Mayer, and to Ketteler’s « quaestio », he published: Animadversiones in 4 contra Romani Pontificis infallibilitatem editos libellos (Rome 1870). Returning to his chair, he taught theology at the Theological Faculty of Poitiers (1875–80) and at St-Hélier (1880–82); thereafter he devoted himself exclusively to his works.
Of these, the principal one remains Lehrbuch der Religion (4 vols., Münster 1851–57; 7th ed., ibid. 1909–12, edited by Fr. J. Honteim; 8th ed., ibid. 1922–28, edited by Fr. A. Daneffe), which was widely circulated and much sought after; it was subsequently completed by a Geschichte der Religion (2 vols., ibid. 1858; 7th ed., ibid. 1924, edited by Fr. O. Pföll). The compendium Kurzgefasstes Handbuch der Religion (ibid. 1871, Italian translation, Rome 1901) was likewise widely circulated and translated into various languages as a school textbook. Finally, he devoted himself to completing his Latin theological treatises: De religione revelata (Regensburg 1897); De Ecclesia Christi (ibid. 1897); De Fide (ibid. 1902, posthumous, edited by Fr. A. Lehmkuhl). Having passed from Cartesianism, which he had learned while still a layman, to scholasticism after solid and prolonged study, W. is to be numbered, together with Fr. J. Klutgen, among the pioneers of neo-scholasticism, characterized by a clear, solid, and orderly exposition, even if generally concise.