The American Cyclopædia (1879)/Baltzer, Johann Baptist

BALTZER, Johann Baptist, a German Roman Catholic theologian, born at Andernach, July 16, 1803, died in Bonn, Oct. 1, 1871. He left the university of Bonn in 1827, was ordained in Cologne in 1829, received his diploma as doctor of divinity at Munich in 1830, and subsequently became professor at Breslau. He was a disciple of Hermes, but afterward inclined to the philosophical school of Anthon Günther. The holy see requested him to relinquish his professorship, but he would not resign, though he discontinued his lectures. His course was approved by the ecclesiastical authorities of Berlin, but his subsequent protest against the Vatican resulted in his suspension. In 1853 he went to Rome at the request of Cardinal Schwarzenberg for the purpose of preventing the proposed condemnation by the pope of Günther's writings. One of his early works is Hinweisungen auf den Grundcharakter des Hermesischen Systems (Bonn, 1832); and among his subsequent writings, indicating his partial conversion to Günther's teachings, is Beiträge zur Vermittelung eines richtigen Urtheils über Katholicismus und Protestantismus (2 vols., Breslau, 1839-'40).