Franz Peter Knoodt

Franz Peter Knoodt (6 November 1811 – 27 January 1889) was a German Catholic theologian who was a native of Boppard.

He studied theology in Bonn und Tübingen, and later worked as a chaplain and teacher in Trier. In 1841-43 he furthered his studies in Vienna, where he was a student of Anton Günther (1783-1863). In 1844 he earned his doctorate of theology at Breslau, and in 1845 became a professor of philosophy at the Catholic faculty of theology at the University of Bonn. From May 1848 to February 1849 he was a member of the Frankfurt National Assembly.^[1]

Knoodt was an ardent follower of the philosophical teachings of Anton Günther, and several years after Günther's death, he published the biographical Anton Günther. Eine Biographie (1881, 2 volumes). This work has been praised as an important source of Catholic church history. Another noted work of Knoodt's was Günther und Clemens; Offene Briefe (Günther and Franz Jakob Clemens; Open Letters, 1853–54). Both publications were placed on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum (List of Prohibited Books) by the Roman Catholic Church.^[2][3] He was excommunicated in 1872, along with Bonn colleagues Joseph Langen, Franz Heinrich Reusch and Bernhard Josef Hilgers, by Paul Melchers, Archbishop of Cologne, in the debate over papal infallibility.