BROUWER, CHRISTOPH

Jesuit historian; b. Arnheim, Holland, Nov. 10, 1559;d. Trier, Germany, June 2, 1617. After studying humanities at the Jesuit college at Cologne, he entered the Society of Jesus on March 12, 1580. At the completion of his courses in philosophy and theology, he was ordained and subsequently taught philosophy at Trier until he was named rector of the college at Fulda. He then became rector of Trier and made this archiepiscopal see the major field of his historical research. Under the patronage of Johann VII of Schönberg and later Lothar of Metternich, archbishops of Trier, he undertook an annalistic history of the archdiocese to the year 1600, entitled Antiquitates et annales Trevirenses et episcoporum Trevirensis ecclesiae suffraganorum. It grew to 26 books. Because of his historical objectivity, he did not omit details that were unflattering to the archbishops, and he was accused of presenting a partisan view, especially in the conflict of the Prince Elector, Abp. Philippe Christoph de Soetern with the abbot of St. Maximin. The curial advisors of the archbishop succeeded in stopping the publication, confiscating the first 18 books already in print, and in 1626 preparing a greatly altered version. Mutius Vitelleschi, sixth general of the Society of Jesus, threatened to expose this mutilation of the original text. The Jesuits at Trier managed to obtain a copy of the first printing and the remaining manuscripts, and sent them to France. There they were enlarged by Jacob Masenius, SJ, to include events up to 1652. They were printed in their entirety in 1670 at Liège. Brouwer also published an edition of the poems of Venantius fortunatus, Venantii Honorii Clementiani opera (Mainz 1603), and of rabanus maurus, Hrabanus Maurus poemata (Mainz 1617); an account of the lives of some German saints, Sidera illustrium et sanctorum virorum (Mainz 1616); and the Antiquitatum Fuldensium libri 4 (Mainz 1612).

Bibliography: c. sommervogel et al., Bibliothèque de la Compagnie de Jésus (Brussels-Paris 1890–1932) 2:218–222. b. duhr, Geschichte der Jesuiten in den Ländern deutscher Zunge, 4v. in 5 (St. Louis 1907–28) 2.2:424–428. a. de bil, Dictionnaire d'histoire et de géographie ecclésiastiques (Paris 1912–) 10:865–866. Die Gesellschaft Jesu einst und jetzt 267–268.

[e. d. mcshane]