Kraus, Johann Baptist

Kraus, Johann Baptist a German Roman Catholic theologian, was born at Regensburg Jan. 12, 1700, entered the Benedictine order in 1715, and in 1721 was sent by his superior to Paris to study in the convent St. Germain under Montfaucon and Guarin; returned to Germany in 1724, and was ordained priest. In 1725 he was appointed to St. Emmeran Convent, and remained there until his death, June 14,1762. Kraus was a decided Roman Catholic, rather ultramontane in his views, and hardly suited for the liberal German associations which surrounded him. He battled earnestly in behalf of his sect, and opposed vigorously the liberal tendency of the Benedictine Rothfischer, who had frankly confessed the failings of some of the institutions of the Romish Church. For a list of the works of Kraus, see Doring, Gelehrte Theol. Deutschlands, ii, 189 sq.