BILLIK, EBERHARD. - Carmelite theologian, born in Cologne in 1499–1500 and died on 12 Jan. 1557. His family name was Steinberger. Professor in Cologne and prior of the convent, in 1542 he was elected provincial of Lower Germany. A steadfast opponent of the apostate archbishop of Cologne, Erm. de Wied, he made an effective contribution to his deposition, thereby saving the city’s faith. An opponent of Bucerio, Melantone, and Oldendorp, he fought them effectively by word and writings. At the invitation of Card. Morone, he refuted the Augsburg Confession in 1540. Summoned to Trent as a theologian, in 1551 he accompanied there the new archbishop of Cologne, Ad. de Schauenburg. On 22 Dec. 1556 Paul IV appointed him auxiliary bishop of Cologne, but he died shortly afterward without having been consecrated.
A history of the Council of Trent by him has been lost; there remain, however, besides his correspondence, valuable for the history of the period: Judicium deputatorum universitatis et secundarii cleri coloniensis de doctrina et vocatione Mart. Buceri ad Bonnum (Cologne 1543); Judicii universitatis et cleri coloniensis adversus calumnias Ph. Melanchthonis, Mart. Buceri, Oldendorpii et eorum asseclarum defensio cum diligenti explicatione materiorum controversarum (there 1545).