BAIUS, or DE

See also:

• BAY

BAY,

See also:

• MICHAEL
• MICHAEL (1596-1645)
• MICHAEL (Hebrew Sn,q, " Who is like God? ")

MICHAEL (1513–1589)  , Belgian theologian, was born at Melun in Hainault in 1513 . Educated at Louvain University, he studied philosophy and theology with distinguished success, and was rewarded by a series of academic appointments . In 1552 Charles V. appointed him professor of scriptural interpretation in the university . In 1563 he was nominated one of the Belgian representatives at the council of Trent, but arrived too late to take an important part in its deliberations . At Louvain, however, 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 St Augustine; and Baius' Augustinian predilections brought him into conflict with Rorne on questions of grace, free-will and the like . In 1567 Pius V. condemned seventy-nine propositions from his writings in the Bull Ex omnibus afflictionibus . 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 Gregory XIII . Baius, however, was not disturbed in the tenure of his professorship, and even became chancellor of Louvain in 1575 . He died, still in the enjoyment of these two dignities, in 1589 . Baius is chiefly interesting as a forerunner of the more celebrated Cornelius Jansen (see JANSEN) . His writings are described by Harnack as a curious mixture of Catholic orthodoxy and unconscious tendencies to Protestantism; their most noticeable point is the great importance they attach to the fact of sin, both original and actual .

His

principal works were published in a collected form at Cologne, 1696, 1 vol . 4to, in two parts; some large treatises have not been published . There is an excellent study of both books and author by Linsenmann, Michael Baius, und-die Grundlegung des Jansenismus, published at Tubingen in 1867 .