Johann Gropper, *Christliche und catholische Gegenberichtung*; *Antididagma*, Cologne 1544

Title: Christian and Catholic Replies 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].

Publisher: Coloniae, printed by Iaspar Gennepus.

Year of publication: 1544.

Size: 32 cm.

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

Binding: Original leather binding.

The 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, prepared 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 version (“Christliche vnd Catholische gegen berichtung”) and a Latin version, 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 occurred on April 16, 1546, when Pope Paul III excommunicated and deposed Hermann von Wied; 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 defining moments 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, earned his doctorate in 1525, and studied theology on his own. In 1530, he accompanied Archbishop Hermann von Wied to the Diet of Augsburg. His *Enchiridion* (1538) was an exposition of the Catholic faith that Cardinals Contarini, Pole, and Morone valued as a text conducive to reconciliation with the Protestants. Gropper participated in religious discussions in Worms and Regensburg (1540–1541). In 1555, Pope Paul IV intended to elevate him to the rank of cardinal. He died in Rome on March 13, 1559, and was buried in the Church of Santa Maria dell’Anima.

Provenance: This copy has no ownership notations or stamps.

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

The book block is complete, with minor discoloration and stains on the pages. The leather binding has damaged corners; the spine comes from a different book and has been glued to the book block.