Cornelius Jansen, the Elder (; 1510,

Hulst Hulst () is a municipality and city in southwestern Netherlands in the east of Zeelandic Flanders. History Hulst received city rights in the 12th century. Hulst was captured from the Spanish in 1591 by Maurice of Orange but was recaptured b ...

– 11 April 1576,

Ghent Ghent ( nl, Gent ; french: Gand ; traditional English: Gaunt) is a city and a municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of the East Flanders province, and the third largest in the country, exceeded in ...

) was a Catholic exegete and the first

Bishop of Ghent The Diocese of Ghent (Latin: ''Dioecesis Gandavensis'') is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church in Belgium. It is a suffragan in the ecclesiastical province of the metropolis (religious jurisdiction), metropoli ...

. According to M.A. Screech, Jansen is considered by many to be the most outstanding Roman Catholic biblical scholar of his age.Schreech, M.A., ''Laughter At The Foot Of The Cross'', Chapter 6, Routledge, 2019
/ref>

Life

He received his early education at Ghent from the

Brethren of the Common Life The Brethren of the Common Life (Latin: Fratres Vitae Communis, FVC) was a Roman Catholic pietist religious community founded in the Netherlands in the 14th century by Gerard Groote, formerly a successful and worldly educator who had had a religio ...

(called at Ghent the Hieronymites), and later studied theology and Oriental languages at

Leuven Leuven (, ) or Louvain (, , ; german: link=no, Löwen ) is the capital and largest city of the province of Flemish Brabant in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is located about east of Brussels. The municipality itself comprises the historic ...

. He was a good Greek scholar. After he had become a licentiate of theology in 1534, at the request of the abbot of the

Premonstratensian The Order of Canons Regular of Prémontré (), also known as the Premonstratensians, the Norbertines and, in Britain and Ireland, as the White Canons (from the colour of their habit), is a religious order of canons regular of the Catholic Church ...

Abbey of Tongerloo, he lectured on the Holy Scripture, to the young monks until 1542, from which date until 1562 he discharged the duties of pastor of the parish of St. Martin at

Kortrijk Kortrijk ( , ; vls, Kortryk or ''Kortrik''; french: Courtrai ; la, Cortoriacum), sometimes known in English as Courtrai or Courtray ( ), is a Belgian City status in Belgium, city and Municipalities in Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Regio ...

. Having finally attained the degree of

Doctor of Theology Doctor of Theology ( la, Doctor Theologiae, abbreviated DTh, ThD, DTheol, or Dr. theol.) is a terminal degree in the academic discipline of theology. The ThD, like the ecclesiastical Doctor of Sacred Theology, is an advanced research degree equiva ...

in 1562, he was immediately appointed professor of theology at the

Old University of Leuven The Old University of Leuven (or of Louvain) is the name historians give to the university, or ''studium generale'', founded in Leuven, Brabant (then part of the Burgundian Netherlands, now part of Belgium), in 1425. The university was closed in ...

, became in the following year dean of the collegiate seminary of St. James, and attended the last sessions of the

Council of Trent The Council of Trent ( la, Concilium Tridentinum), held between 1545 and 1563 in Trento, Trent (or Trento), now in northern Italian Peninsula, Italy, was the 19th ecumenical council of the Catholic Church. Prompted by the Protestant Reformation ...

as delegate of the university.Schlager, Patricius. "Cornelius Jansen, the Elder." The Catholic Encyclopedia
Vol. 8. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1910. 27 January 2021 On his return,

Philip II of Spain Philip II) in Spain, while in Portugal and his Italian kingdoms he ruled as Philip I ( pt, Filipe I). (21 May 152713 September 1598), also known as Philip the Prudent ( es, Felipe el Prudente), was King of Spain from 1556, King of Portugal from ...

appointed him first bishop of the newly founded See of Ghent, which dated only from 1559. For a long time he refused to assume the dignity, on account of the difficult conditions in the diocese, and was not preconized until 1568, by

Pope Pius V Pope Pius V ( it, Pio V; 17 January 1504 – 1 May 1572), born Antonio Ghislieri (from 1518 called Michele Ghislieri, O.P.), was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 8 January 1566 to his death in May 1572. He is v ...

. As bishop he devoted himself especially to checking the advance of

Protestantism Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...

, and to carrying out the decrees of the Council of Trent. With this object in view, in 1569, he founded the

Major Seminary of Ghent The Major Seminary in Ghent was an institution for the training of Catholic clergy for the diocese of Ghent, first founded in 1569. It has been established at three different locations in the city. Since 2006 diocesan clergy from Ghent have been tra ...

in the

Geeraard de Duivelsteen The Geeraard de Duivelsteen ("Geeraard the Devil Castle") is a 13th century gothic architecture building in Ghent, Belgium. It served as defense (military), defense of the Portus Ganda, the city's port. History The building was built in the 13 ...

, held diocesan synods in 1571 and 1574, and published a ritual for his diocese. He was entrusted with the compilation of a ritual to be used in the ecclesiastical province of

Mechlin Mechelen (; french: Malines ; traditional English name: MechlinMechelen has been known in English as ''Mechlin'', from where the adjective ''Mechlinian'' is derived. This name may still be used, especially in a traditional or historical contex ...

, but did not finish it.

Works

While at Tongerloo he wrote a great deal, and, as pastor at

, had already become widely known for his exegetical work. Among Jansen's writings is the ''Concordia evangelica'' (Leuven, 1529), to which he later added the "Commentarius in Concordiam et totem historiam evangelicam" (Leuven, 1572), undoubtedly his best work. The ''Concordia Evangelica'' was epoch-making in the history of Catholic exegesis, for Jansen insisted on the literal interpretation, as against the mystical interpretation of his predecessors, emphasized also the importance of the original text, and of a profound study of Oriental languages as aids to a full comprehension of the

Latin Vulgate The Vulgate (; also called (Bible in common tongue), ) is a late-4th-century Latin translation of the Bible. The Vulgate is largely the work of Jerome who, in 382, had been commissioned by Pope Damasus I to revise the Gospels us ...

. He published also: "Commentarius in Proverbia Salomonis" (Leuven, 1567), and "Commentarius in Ecclesiasticum" (Leuven, 1569), both of which were republished in one work at Antwerp in 1589;Weeks, Stuart. ''The Making of Many Books: Printed Works on Ecclesiastes 1523—1875'', Penn State Press, 2014, p.27
/ref> "Commentarius in omnes Psalmos Davidicos" (Leuven, 1569), with an introduction to each psalm, an excellent paraphrase of the text, and explanations of the difficult passages; "Paraphrases in ea Veteris Testamenti Cantica, quae per ferias singulas totius anni usus ecclesiasticus observat" (Leuven, 1569). After his death appeared "Annotationes in Librum Sapientiae" (Leuven, 1577).

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Jansen, Cornelius (1510-1576) 1510 births 1576 deaths 16th-century Roman Catholic bishops in the Holy Roman Empire Bishops of Ghent Belgian biblical scholars 16th-century Dutch Roman Catholic theologians Participants in the Council of Trent People from Hulst Old University of Leuven alumni Academic staff of the Old University of Leuven