Teaching Romans 7 after Trent: Michael Baius and his Lecture Hall on Concupiscence and Original Sin in Early Modern Louvain (1552–1589)
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Jarrik Van Der Biest
Abstract
This article introduces a new corpus of sources relevant to the sixteenth-century Baianist controversy at the University of Louvain: student notes made during Michael Baius’ lectures on the Bible during the 1560s. The commentary on Romans 7 taught by the Royal Professor of Sacred Scripture contains a discussion on the sinfulness of concupiscence, the effect of the Fall driving humankind to sin. A contested concept between Catholics and Protestants, the nature of concupiscentia also lies at the core of debates on the orthodoxy of Baius’ justification theology, both early modern and more recent. The professor’s lecture on Romans 7 is analysed against his published treatises, the censures (1565–1567) and papal bull (1567) condemning certain propositions as heretical, and the Tridentine Decree on Original Sin (1546). While Baius’ Augustinian revaluation of humanity’s wounded nature (natura viciata) moved away from the Thomistic conception of concupiscence as innate, but disordered, he did respect the boundaries set by the Council of Trent. Indeed, Baius taught his positive theology in the interstices between the educational application of the Tridentine Decrees and the gradual assertion of dominance by a renewed Thomism in Catholic orthodoxy. I argue that such a historical reading of Baius’ ideas is the key to avoid the earlier dogmatic assessments of his theology.
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank the organising committee of Totus Noster? – Augustinus zwischen den Konfessionen for encouraging me to present my research, and Violet Soen, Wim François, Mathijs Lamberigts and the peer reviewer for their comments.
© 2021 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Research Articles
- Sebastian Münster and his Sources: The Messiah in Rome and the Convergence of Christian-Jewish Polemic and Intra-Christian Conflict
- Von Rossen und Wagen: Das Verhältnis von Stadt und Land in der Ulmer Reformation
- The Doctrine of Justification in the Neo-Latin Biblical Poetry of Silesian Reformation Poets and their Interpretation of the Biblical Theme of the Fall of the First Parents
- Teaching Romans 7 after Trent: Michael Baius and his Lecture Hall on Concupiscence and Original Sin in Early Modern Louvain (1552–1589)
- Maintaining the Common Peace: Security and the Religious Peace of 1578 during the Dutch Revolt
- Conciliar Infallibility and Error in the Thomistic Ecclesiology of St. Robert Bellarmine, S.J.
- Reforming the Holy Name: The Afterlife of the IHS in Early Modern England
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Research Articles
- Sebastian Münster and his Sources: The Messiah in Rome and the Convergence of Christian-Jewish Polemic and Intra-Christian Conflict
- Von Rossen und Wagen: Das Verhältnis von Stadt und Land in der Ulmer Reformation
- The Doctrine of Justification in the Neo-Latin Biblical Poetry of Silesian Reformation Poets and their Interpretation of the Biblical Theme of the Fall of the First Parents
- Teaching Romans 7 after Trent: Michael Baius and his Lecture Hall on Concupiscence and Original Sin in Early Modern Louvain (1552–1589)
- Maintaining the Common Peace: Security and the Religious Peace of 1578 during the Dutch Revolt
- Conciliar Infallibility and Error in the Thomistic Ecclesiology of St. Robert Bellarmine, S.J.
- Reforming the Holy Name: The Afterlife of the IHS in Early Modern England
