Johann Gropper

Johann Gropper (John or German: Johannes Gropper) (24 February 1503, Soest – 13 March 1559, Rome) was a Roman Catholic church politician of the Reformation period.

After being made keeper of the seal of the archbishopric of Cologne, he was appointed scholasticus of St. Gerson in 1527. Gropper was an adherent of Erasmus, and aided the reform efforts of Hermann von Wied, archbishop of Cologne. This led him, after having completed his legal studies at Cologne in 1525, to devote himself to theological study. He edited the Landrecht of Cologne, and also the canons of the provincial council at Cologne held in 1536 (both published in 1538, together with a detailed manual of Christian doctrine which he had composed).

In both of these Gropper's Erasmian tendency showed itself; in both he took pains to make the Bible and the Church Fathers his point of departure. In many matters, especially in the doctrine of justification, he approximated Protestant views, but he did not approve of the doctrine of the Reformers concerning the concept and the organization of the Church. He championed the seven sacraments and the veneration of images and relics. He rejected the doctrine of the priesthood of believers, he defended the hierarchical order of the Middle Ages and the primacy of the pope, though on these very points his differences with the representatives of the papal system were apparent. Protestant and Jesuit writers alike censured the book.

Gropper took a zealous part in the negotiations for church union and in the religious colloquies held in 1540 and 1541 in Hagenau, Worms, and Regensburg. In the latter place he secured agreement on the formulation of the doctrine of justification; but he and his sympathizers could not reach an understanding with the Protestants about the organization of the Church. When, therefore, Archbishop Hermann, felt himself committed to a far-reaching reform of ecclesiastical affairs in his archdiocese, and invited the Straßburg Reformer Martin Butzer for that purpose, Gropper came forward as the spokesman of the clergy of Cologne in opposition to the plans for Evangelical reform proposed by his former patron; as a representative of the cathedral chapter he sought in the Landtag of March and July, 1543, to persuade the Estates to oppose Hermann and Butzer.

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