Réné François Rohrbacher (27 September 1789, Langatte – 17 January 1856,

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

) was an ecclesiastical historian. He studied for several months at

Sarrebourg Sarrebourg (; also , ; Lorraine Franconian: ; older ) is a commune of northeastern France. In 1895 a Mithraeum was discovered at Sarrebourg at the mouth of the pass leading from the Vosges Mountains. Geography Sarrebourg is located in the ...

and

Phalsbourg Phalsbourg (; ; Lorraine Franconian: ''Phalsburch'') is a Communes of France, commune in the Moselle (department), Moselle Departments of France, department in Grand Est in north-eastern France, with a population of about 5,000. It lies high on ...

(Pfalzburg) and at the age of seventeen had completed his Classical studies. He taught for three years at the college of Phalsbourg; entered in 1810 the ecclesiastical seminary at Nancy; and was ordained priest in 1812. Appointed assistant priest at

Insming Insming (; ) is a commune in the Moselle department in Grand Est in north-eastern France. Geography It is situated about 60 km southeast of Metz, about 80 km northeast of Nancy, and about 100 km northwest of Strasbourg. Its a ...

, he was transferred after six months to

Lunéville Lunéville ( ; German : ''Lünstadt'' ; Lorrain: ''Leneinvile'') is a commune in the northeastern French department of Meurthe-et-Moselle. It is a subprefecture of the department and lies on the river Meurthe at its confluence with the Ve ...

. A mission which he preached in 1821 at Flavigny led to the organization of a diocesan mission band. Several years later he became a member of the Congregation of St. Peter founded by Félicité and

Jean-Marie de Lamennais Jean-Marie Robert de La Mennais, FICP (or de Lamennais; 1780–1860) was a Breton Catholic priest and brother of the philosopher Felicité Robert de Lamennais, whom he influenced in their youth. He was a leading figure in the revival of the C ...

, and from 1827 to 1835 directed the philosophical and theological studies of young ecclesiastics who wished to become the assistants of the two brothers in their religious undertakings. When Felicite de La Mennais refused to submit to the condemnation pronounced against him by Rome, Rohrbacher separated from him and became professor of Church history at the ecclesiastical seminary of Nancy. Later he retired to Paris where he spent the last years of his life. His principal work is his monumental ''Histoire Universelle de l'Église Catholique'' (Nancy, 1842–49; 2nd ed., Paris, 1849–53). Several other editions were subsequently published and continuations added by Chantrel and Guillaume. Written from an apologetic point of view, the work contributed to the extirpation of

Gallicanism Gallicanism is the belief that popular secular authority—often represented by the monarch's or the state's authority—over the Catholic Church is comparable to that of the pope. Gallicanism is a rejection of ultramontanism; it has something ...

in the Church of France. It was translated into German and partially recast by Hülskamp, Rump, and numerous other writers. (For the other works of Rohrbacher, see Hurter, ''Nomenclator Lit.'', III nnsbruck, 1895 1069-71.)

References

;Attribution * **Rohrbacher, , ed. by GUILLAUME XII, (Paris, 1885), 122-33; **James McCaffrey, ''History of the Catholic Church in the Nineteenth Century'', II (Dublin, 1909), I, 60, II, 448, 475. {{DEFAULTSORT:Rohrbacher, Rene Francois 1789 births 1856 deaths People from Moselle (department) 19th-century French historians 19th-century French Catholic theologians French male non-fiction writers 19th-century French male writers