One of the seven Dominicans, who distinguished themselves in the struggle against Luther in Cologne. The others were Jacob van Hoogstraten, Conrad Collin, Bernard von Luxemburg , Johann Pesselius, Tillman Smeling and Johann Slotanus. Johann Host was born on a farm at Romberg, or Romberch, in Westphalia about 1480, and died at the close of 1532 or the beginning of 1533. At the age of sixteen he entered the Dominican Order, and we find him studying at the University of Bologna from 1516 to 1519. In 1520 he was appointed to the theological faculty of the University of Cologne, and despite the many religious controversies he was engaged in, he found time for considerable literary activity. Among the works he edited are Burchard von Barby, "Descriptio Terrae Sanctae", Fabri, "Antilogiarium Lutheri Babylonia " and the "Commentarium in Psalmos" of Dionysius the Carthusian . He has moreover left many controversial works. The fact of his being appointed to the facility of Cologne University is proof of the orthodoxy of his theology as that university held a sort of censorship over all the theological faculties of Germany Host's last work was the "Enchiridion Sacerdotum" which was published at Cologne in 1532. His fellow members on the university faculty, Hoogstraten and Collin, besides being distinguished churchmen were eminent among later German Humanists.

The Catholic Encyclopedia is the most comprehensive resource on Catholic teaching, history, and information ever gathered in all of human history. This easy-to-search online version was originally printed in fifteen hardcopy volumes.

Designed to present its readers with the full body of Catholic teaching, the Encyclopedia contains not only precise statements of what the Church has defined, but also an impartial record of different views of acknowledged authority on all disputed questions, national, political or factional. In the determination of the truth the most recent and acknowledged scientific methods are employed, and the results of the latest research in theology, philosophy, history, apologetics, archaeology, and other sciences are given careful consideration.

No one who is interested in human history, past and present, can ignore the Catholic Church, either as an institution which has been the central figure in the civilized world for nearly two thousand years, decisively affecting its destinies, religious, literary, scientific, social and political, or as an existing power whose influence and activity extend to every part of the globe. In the past century the Church has grown both extensively and intensively among English-speaking peoples. Their living interests demand that they should have the means of informing themselves about this vast institution, which, whether they are Catholics or not, affects their fortunes and their destiny.

Copyright © Catholic Encyclopedia. Robert Appleton Company New York, NY. Volume 1: 1907; Volume 2: 1907; Volume 3: 1908; Volume 4: 1908; Volume 5: 1909; Volume 6: 1909; Volume 7: 1910; Volume 8: 1910; Volume 9: 1910; Volume 10: 1911; Volume 11: - 1911; Volume 12: - 1911; Volume 13: - 1912; Volume 14: 1912; Volume 15: 1912

Catholic Online Catholic Encyclopedia Digital version Compiled and Copyright © Catholic Online