Johann Gropper, Christian and Catholic Counter-Arguments; Antididagma [1544]

Title: Christian and Catholic Response to a Report by a Venerable Cathedral Chapter in Cologne; Antididagma, or, A Defense of the Christian and Catholic Faith by the Canons of the Metropolitan Church of Cologne.

Author: [Johann Gropper] (1503–1559) [German lawyer and theologian, a leading defender of Catholicism in Cologne during the Reformation, cardinal].

Publisher: Coloniae, printed by Iaspar Gennepus.

Year of publication: 1544.

Format: 32 cm.

Volume: [13], CLXI, [2] folios; [10], CIX folios—complete.

Binding: Original leather binding.

First edition, in German and Latin, of the Catholic response to the attempt to introduce the Reformation in the Archdiocese of Cologne. In 1543, Archbishop-Elector Hermann von Wied announced a plan for church reform, developed with the participation of Martin Bucer and Philip Melanchthon. The cathedral chapter responded with a comprehensive exposition of Catholic doctrine, published on its behalf in 1544. The volume contains a German edition (“Christliche vnd Catholische gegen berichtung”) and a Latin edition, titled “Antididagma.” Johann Gropper is considered the principal author of both, and his text was approved by a commission of the chapter. The work refutes the reformers’ theses point by point and demands the archbishop’s removal from office. This demand was fulfilled on April 16, 1546, when Pope Paul III excommunicated and deposed Hermann von Wied, and Adolf von Schaumburg took over the archbishopric. Cologne, one of the most important ecclesiastical metropolises of the Holy Roman Empire, remained Catholic. This was one of the pivotal episodes of the early Counter-Reformation in Germany. The Latin version had already been reprinted in Paris in 1545.

Johann Gropper was born on February 24, 1503, in Soest, Westphalia. He studied law in Cologne and earned his doctorate in 1525; he studied theology on his own. In 1530, he accompanied Archbishop Hermann von Wied to the Diet of Augsburg. His *Enchiridion* (1538) was a treatise on the Catholic faith. Cardinals Contarini, Pole, and Morone regarded it as a text conducive to reconciliation with the Protestants. Gropper participated in the religious talks in Worms and Regensburg (1540–1541). Pope Paul IV appointed him cardinal in 1555, and Gropper accepted this title reluctantly. He died in Rome on March 13, 1559, and was laid to rest in the Church of Santa Maria dell’Anima.

Provenance: a piece without ownership inscriptions or seals.

This is a complete, bilingual first edition of the Cologne Manifesto of the Catholic Reformation, in folio format, bound in leather. A valuable item for scholars of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation, historians of theology, and collectors of 16th-century German prints.

The text block is complete, with minor discoloration and soiling on the pages. The leather binding has damage to the corners; the spine is from another book and has been glued to the text block.

Catalog ID: 14441-32-B-Y