Hartmann Grisar

Born in Koblenz in 1845, Hartmann Grisar entered the Jesuit order in the 1860s and went on to become a historian and writer known for careful, document-based scholarship. He taught and researched in Germany and devoted much of his career to church history.

Grisar became especially well known for his multi-volume study of Martin Luther, a large project that helped shape Catholic historical writing on the Reformation in the early 20th century. He also wrote on Christian Rome and other subjects connected with the history of the Church.

He died in 1932. Today he is remembered mainly as a serious Jesuit historian whose work shows how strongly questions about Luther, Catholic reform, and the early Church mattered to his generation.