Michael Baius (151316 September 1589) was a

Belgian Belgian may refer to: * Something of, or related to, Belgium * Belgians, people from Belgium or of Belgian descent * Languages of Belgium, languages spoken in Belgium, such as Dutch, French, and German *Ancient Belgian language, an extinct languag ...

theologian Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...

. He formulated the school of thought now known as

Baianism Baianism is a term applied to the school of thought of Catholic theologian Michael Baius (1513-1589). Its foremost apologists, Baius among them, largely claimed this school and its teachings to be a return to a sort of Augustinianism, against the ...

Life

He was born at Meslin L'Eveque near Ath in Hainaut as Michel De Bay, the son of Jean de Bay, a farmer. De Bay studied humanities in

Brugelette Brugelette (; pcd, Brujlete; wa, Brudjlete) is a municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium. On January 1, 2006, Brugelette had a total population of 3,284. The total area is which gives a population density of . The ...

and in

Enghien Enghien (; nl, Edingen ; pcd, Inguî; vls, Enge) is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium. On 1January 2006, Enghien had a total population of 11,980. The total area is , which gives a population dens ...

and in 1533 he began studying philosophy at the Grand College het Varken of Leuven University. From 1535 he also studied theology at the Pope Adrian VI College.Sollier, Joseph. "Michel Baius." The Catholic Encyclopedia
Vol. 2. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1907. 26 Jan. 2021 He was an excellent student and was ordained a priest in 1542, and was appointed director of the Standonck-College in Leuven. In 1544 De Bay obtained his doctorate in philosophy and became a teacher at the College het Varken. In 1549 De Bay was appointed professor of scholastic philosophy. The following year, De Bay also obtained a license in theology and became president of the College Adrian, and also substituted for the professor of Holy Scripture, who was then absent at 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 ...

. From February to August 1553, he was the rector of the university.''A measure for nothing?'' ; by Guido Marnef; in ''The Archdiocese of Mechelen-Brussels, part 1'' , 2009, p. 84-86 Baius had very early formed a close friendship with

Jean Hessels Jan Hessels, Jean Leonardi Hasselius or Jean Hessels (Hasselt, 1522 – 1566) was a Flemish theologian and controversialist at the University of Louvain. He was a defender of Baianism. Life Hessels was born at Mechlin in 1522, and obtained his doc ...

. While Chancellor

Ruard Tapper Ruard Tapper (15 February 1487 – 2 March 1559) was a Dutch theologian of the Catholic Reformation, a chancellor of Leuven University, and an inquisitor. Life Tapper was born at Enkhuizen, County of Holland, on 15 February 1487. He matriculated ...

and

Josse Ravesteyn Josse Ravesteyn, also spelled Ravestein (ca. 1506–1570), was a Flemish Roman Catholic theologian. Biography Born about 1506, at Tielt, a small town in Flanders, hence often called ''Tiletanus (Jodacus)''). He studied philosophy at the Collè ...

, Professor of Theology were at the Council of Trent, Baius and Hessels took the occasion to introduce new methods and new doctrines. They believed that Catholic apologists were seriously handicapped by their reliance on the authority and methods of the Scholastics, and that if instead of appealing to the writings of St. Thomas as the ultimate criterion of truth they were to insist more on the authority of the Bible and of the works of the Early Fathers, such as St. Cyprian, St. Jerome, and St. Augustine, they would find themselves on much safer ground, and their arguments would be more likely to command the respect of their opponents. On his return from Trent in 1552, Tapper asked

Cardinal de Granvelle Antoine Perrenot de Granvelle (20 August 151721 September 1586), Comte de La Baume Saint Amour, was a Bisontin (Free Imperial City of Besançon) statesman, made a cardinal, who followed his father as a leading minister of the Spanish Habsburg ...

archbishop of Mechelen In Christian denominations, an archbishop is a bishop of higher rank or office. In most cases, such as the Catholic Church, there are many archbishops who either have jurisdiction over an ecclesiastical province in addition to their own archdioc ...

, to intervene. Granvelle succeeded in quieting the innovators for a while. De Bay's theories were very popular with theology students who spread it further. This was met with much opposition, and around 1558, later Cardinal

Antoine Perrenot de Granvelle Antoine Perrenot de Granvelle (20 August 151721 September 1586), Comte de La Baume Saint Amour, was a Bisontin ( Free Imperial City of Besançon) statesman, made a cardinal, who followed his father as a leading minister of the Spanish Habsb ...

and

Viglius Viglius (October 19, 1507, SwichumMay 5, 1577) was the name taken by Wigle Aytta van Zwichem, a Dutch statesman and jurist, a Frisian by birth. Biography He studied at various universities—Louvain, Dole and Bourges among others—devoting hi ...

tried unsuccessfully to persuade De Bay to make some adjustments to his positions. However, in 1560 at the request of the

Franciscans , image = FrancescoCoA PioM.svg , image_size = 200px , caption = A cross, Christ's arm and Saint Francis's arm, a universal symbol of the Franciscans , abbreviation = OFM , predecessor = , ...

, the Sorbonne condemned 18 of his statements. Baius answered the censure in a memoir now lost, and the controversy only increased in acridity.

Pope Pius IV Pope Pius IV ( it, Pio IV; 31 March 1499 – 9 December 1565), born Giovanni Angelo Medici, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 25 December 1559 to his death in December 1565. Born in Milan, his family considered ...

, through Cardinal Granvelle, imposed silence upon both Baius and the Franciscans, without, however, rendering any doctrinal decision.

Career

In 1563 he was nominated one of the Belgian representatives at the

, but arrived too late to take an important part in its deliberations. Indeed, there was resistance to his presence at the Council, and he was allowed to attend only as a theologian of the King of Spain. The Council Fathers looked upon him with not a little suspicion. Just before leaving for Trent, Baius had published his first tracts. The contents of those tracts were not within the programme of the last three sessions of the Council of Trent, so no public discussion of the disputed points took place. It is known, however, that Baius' and Hessels' views were distasteful to the Fathers, and that the Catholic king's prestige alone saved them from formal condemnation. Baius returned to Louvain in 1564 and the same year published new tracts. 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 obtained a great name as a leader in the anti-scholastic reaction of the 16th century. The champions of this reaction fought under the banner of

Augustine of Hippo Augustine of Hippo ( , ; la, Aurelius Augustinus Hipponensis; 13 November 354 – 28 August 430), also known as Saint Augustine, was a theologian and philosopher of Berber origin and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia, Roman North Af ...

though paradoxically undermined Augustine's doctrine of grace; as a result, Baius' heterodox-Augustinian predilections brought him into conflict with

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

on questions of grace, free-will and the like. In various respects, Baius was rightly seen as

Pelagian Pelagianism is a Christian theological position that holds that the original sin did not taint human nature and that humans by divine grace have free will to achieve human perfection. Pelagius ( – AD), an ascetic and philosopher from th ...

. Ravestein, who had succeeded Tapper as chancellor, informed Rome, requesting decisive action. On 1 October 1567,

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 ...

signed the papal Bull, "Ex omnibus afflictionibus", in which condemned seventy-nine propositions from his writings in the papal bull ''Ex omnibus afflictionibus'',Leszek Kolakowski, ''God owes Us Nothing'', (University of Chicago Press, 1998), 4. but without mention of Baius' name. To this Baius submitted; though certain indiscreet utterances on the part of himself and his supporters led to a renewal of the condemnation in 1579 by

Pope Gregory XIII Pope Gregory XIII ( la, Gregorius XIII; it, Gregorio XIII; 7 January 1502 – 10 April 1585), born Ugo Boncompagni, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 13 May 1572 to his death in April 1585. He is best known for ...

. Baius, however, was allowed to retain his professorship, and even became chancellor of Leuven in 1575.

Death

He died, still holding these two offices, in 1589. His writings are described by

Adolf Harnack Carl Gustav Adolf von Harnack (born Harnack; 7 May 1851 – 10 June 1930) was a Baltic German Lutheran theology, Lutheran theologian and prominent Church historian. He produced many religious publications from 1873 to 1912 (in which he is s ...

as a curious mixture of Catholic orthodoxy and unconscious tendencies to

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 ...

. His principal works were published in a collected form at

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 m ...

, 1696; some large treatises were excluded. There is a study of both books and author by Linsenmann, ''Michael Baius und die Grundlegung des Jansenismus'', published at

Tübingen Tübingen (, , Swabian: ''Dibenga'') is a traditional university city in central Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated south of the state capital, Stuttgart, and developed on both sides of the Neckar and Ammer rivers. about one in thr ...

in 1867.

Beliefs

The Bay based his theology on Holy Scripture and the

Fathers of the Church The Church Fathers, Early Church Fathers, Christian Fathers, or Fathers of the Church were ancient and influential Christian theologians and writers who established the intellectual and doctrinal foundations of Christianity. The historical pe ...

, especially on the teaching of Augustine of Hippo, introducing deviant scholastic terminologies. His doctrine, later referred to as ''

'', was based on sin, free will, and grace of God along with the fight against

papal infallibility Papal infallibility is a dogma of the Catholic Church which states that, in virtue of the promise of Jesus to Peter, the Pope when he speaks ''ex cathedra'' is preserved from the possibility of error on doctrine "initially given to the aposto ...

, saying that the episcopal legal power comes directly from God. Joseph Sollier, writing in the ''Catholic Encyclopedia'' sees Baius' as a precursor to the

Jansenism Jansenism was an early modern theological movement within Catholicism, primarily active in the Kingdom of France, that emphasized original sin, human depravity, the necessity of divine grace, and predestination. It was declared a heresy by t ...

and the

Port-Royal Port Royal is the former capital city of Jamaica. Port Royal or Port Royale may also refer to: Institutions * Port-Royal-des-Champs, an abbey near Paris, France, which spawned influential schools and writers of the 17th century ** Port-Royal A ...

theologians such as

Blaise Pascal Blaise Pascal ( , , ; ; 19 June 1623 – 19 August 1662) was a French mathematician, physicist, inventor, philosopher, and Catholic Church, Catholic writer. He was a child prodigy who was educated by his father, a tax collector in Rouen. Pa ...

References

External links