Keller, James

, or in Latin Cellarius, was born in 1568, at Seckingen. He entered the Jesuits’ order in 1588, was appointed rector of the college at Ratisbon, afterwards of that at Munich, and was for a long time confessor to prince Albert of Bavaria, and the princess his wife. The elector Maximilian had a particular esteem for him, and frequently employed him in affairs of the utmost importance. Keller disputed publicly with James Kailbrunner, the duke of Neuburg’s most celebrated minister, on the accusation brought against the Lutheran ministers, of having corrupted several passages quoted from the Fathers, in a German work entitled “Papatus Acatholicus;” their | dispute was held at Neuburg, 1615. Father Keller died at Munich, February 23, 1631, aged sixty-three, leaving some controversial works, and several political ones, concerning the affairs of Germany, in which he frequently conceals himself under the names of Fabius Hercynianus, Aurirnontius, Didacus Tamias, &c. His book against France, entitled “Mysteria Politica,” 1625, 4to, was burnt. by a sentence of the Chatelet, censured in the Sorbonne, and condemned by the French clergy. It is a collection of eight letters respecting the alliance of France with England, Venice, Holland, and Transylvania. The “Canea Turturis,” in answer to the learned Gravina’s Song of the Turtle, is attributed to Keller. ¹