Engelbert Des Bois (1578–1651) was the seventh
bishop of Namur (1630–1651).
Life
Des Bois was born in Brussels on 9 July 1578 to parents from Burgundy. He studied
civil law
Civil law may refer to:
* Civil law (common law), the part of law that concerns private citizens and legal persons
* Civil law (legal system), or continental law, a legal system originating in continental Europe and based on Roman law
** Private la ...
and
canon law, taking the degree of licentiate of laws, and became a canon and later archdeacon of
Cambrai Cathedral.
From 1618 to 1629 he was provost of the collegiate church of St Pierre in
Lille.
In 1629 he was named bishop of Namur, and he was installed in 1630. As bishop he was one of the representatives of the First Estate of the
County of Namur in the
Estates General of 1632
The Estates General of 1632 was a parliamentary assembly of representatives of the constituent provinces of the Habsburg Netherlands. It was the last such assembly.
Crisis
It had been over thirty years since a gathering of the Estates General had ...
.
Urban VIII issued the papal bull ''In eminenti'' in 1641, condemning a number of propositions drawn from the writings of
Cornelius Jansenius
Cornelius Jansen (, ; Latinized name Cornelius Jansenius; also Corneille Jansen; 28 October 1585 – 6 May 1638) was the Dutch Catholic bishop of Ypres in Flanders and the father of a theological movement known as Jansenism.
Biography
He ...
. In 1643 Des Bois was the first bishop in the
Habsburg Netherlands to publish the bull, which he did without government permission. This led to a period of troubled relations with the civil authorities.
[ E. H. J. Reusens, "Des Bois (Engelbert)", '' Biographie Nationale de Belgique'']
vol. 5
(Brussels, 1876), 699–701.
On 28 May 1645 he consecrated the new Jesuit church in Namur.
He died on 15 July 1651, at the
Abbey of Saint-Gérard de Brogne.
Publications
*
Praxis bonarum intentionum' (Douai, J. Bogardus, 1619), reprinted Vienna, 1620.
*
Decreta synodi diocoesanae Namurcensis, habitae in capella episcopali die septima junii anni M.DC.XXXIX' (Namur, Joannes van Must, 1639).
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Des Bois, Engelbert
1578 births
1651 deaths
Bishops of Namur