Johann Nepomuk Huber was a German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 philosophical

Philosophy

Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...

 and theological

Theology

Theology is the systematic and rational study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truths, or the learned profession acquired by completing specialized training in religious studies, usually at a university or school of divinity or seminary.-Definition:Augustine of Hippo...

 writer, and a leader of the "Old Catholic Church

Old Catholic Church

The term Old Catholic Church is commonly used to describe a number of Ultrajectine Christian churches that originated with groups that split from the Roman Catholic Church over certain doctrines, most importantly that of Papal Infallibility...

".

Life

He was born at Munich

Munich

Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...

. Originally destined for the priesthood, he studied theology from childhood. The writings of Spinoza

Baruch Spinoza

Baruch de Spinoza and later Benedict de Spinoza was a Dutch Jewish philosopher. Revealing considerable scientific aptitude, the breadth and importance of Spinoza's work was not fully realized until years after his death...

 and Lorenz Oken

Lorenz Oken

Lorenz Oken was a German naturalist.Oken was born Lorenz Okenfuss in Bohlsbach in Baden and studied natural history and medicine at the universities of Freiburg and Würzburg. He went on to the University of Göttingen, where he became a Privatdozent , and shortened his name to Oken...

 attracted him to philosophy, and it was in philosophy that he "habilitated" (1854) in the university of his native place, where he ultimately became professor (extraordinarius, 1859; ordinarius, 1864). With Döllinger

Johann Joseph Ignaz von Döllinger

Johann Joseph Ignaz von Döllinger was a German theologian, Catholic priest and church historian who rejected the dogma of papal infallibility...

 and others he attracted a large amount of public attention. Firstly in 1869 by the challenge to the Ultramontane promoters of the First Vatican Council

First Vatican Council

The First Vatican Council was convoked by Pope Pius IX on 29 June 1868, after a period of planning and preparation that began on 6 December 1864. This twentieth ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic Church, held three centuries after the Council of Trent, opened on 8 December 1869 and adjourned...

 in the treatise Der Papst und das Koncil, which appeared under the pseudonym of "Janus,". Secondly in 1870 by a series of letters (Römische Briefe, a redaction of secret reports sent from Rome during the sitting of the council), which were published over the pseudonym Quirinus in the Allgemeine Zeitung. He died suddenly of heart disease at Munich.

Works

• The treatise Über die Willensfreiheit (1858), followed in 1859 by Die Philosophie der Kirchenväter, which was promptly placed upon the Index
  Index Librorum Prohibitorum
  The Index Librorum Prohibitorum was a list of publications prohibited by the Catholic Church. A first version was promulgated by Pope Paul IV in 1559, and a revised and somewhat relaxed form was authorized at the Council of Trent...
  
  , and led to the prohibition of all Catholic students from attending his lectures.
• Johannes Scotus Erigena (1861)
• Die Idee der Unsterblichkeit (1864)
• Studien (1867)
• Der Proletarier
• Zur Orientirung in der sozialen Frage (1865)
• Der Jesuitenorden nach seiner Verfassung und Doctrin, Wirksamkeit und Geschichte (1873), also placed upon the Index
• Der Pessimismus (1876)
• Die Forschung nach der Materie (1877)
• Zur Philosophie der Astronomie (1878)
• Das Gedächtnis (1878).

Huber also published adverse criticisms of Charles Darwin

Charles Darwin

Charles Robert Darwin FRS was an English naturalist. He established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestry, and proposed the scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection.He published his theory...

, David Strauss

David Strauss

David Friedrich Strauss was a German theologian and writer. He scandalized Christian Europe with his portrayal of the "historical Jesus," whose divine nature he denied...

, Hartmann

Karl Robert Eduard von Hartmann

Karl Robert Eduard von Hartmann , was a German philosopher.- Biography :He was born in Berlin, and educated with the intention of a military career. He entered the artillery of the Guards as an officer in 1860, but was forced to leave in 1865 because of a knee problem...

 and Hackel; pamphlets on Des Papsttum und der Staat (1870), and Die Freiheiten der französischen Kirche (1871); and a volume of Kleine Schriften

Kleine Schriften

is a German phrase often used as a title for a collection of articles and essays written by a single scholar over the course of a career. "Collected Papers" is an English equivalent. These shorter works were usually published previously in various periodicals or in collections of papers written...

(1871).

He is mentioned in the Monty Python

Monty Python's Flying Circus

Monty Python’s Flying Circus is a BBC TV sketch comedy series. The shows were composed of surreality, risqué or innuendo-laden humour, sight gags and observational sketches without punchlines...

song Decomposing Composers.