BILLUART, CHARLES-RENÉ. — Thomist theologian, born at Revin on the Meuse (Ardennes) on 8 January 1685, died there on 20 January 1757. He became a Dominican (1701), was five times prior of the convent at Revin, and three times provincial of Belgium. He taught at Douai (1710), at Revin (1711–15), and then again at Douai, where he successively served as master of students (1715), bachelor (1717–19), vice-regent (1719–21), and regent (1725).
His principal work is the Summa s. Thomae hodiernis Academiarum moribus accommodata (19 vols., Liège 1746–51), which he followed with the Supplementum cursus theologiae continens tractatus de opere sex dierum, de statu religioso et de mysteriis Christi (published posthumously, there, in 1759, by his confrere and friend P. A. Labye, who prefaced it with a brief Vita of B.). To make it more readily accessible, he himself compiled from this work, which went through many editions, a summary: Summa Summae s. Thomae sive compendium theologiae (6 vols., there 1754, Ghent, Würzburg 1765, Venice 1788, Rome 1834, Paris 1884–90, Mondovì 1903). He also wrote various polemical pamphlets in defense of s. Tommaso and his doctrine, especially concerning the problem of predestination and grace. We mention: Le Thomisme vengé de sa prétendue condamnation par la constitution Unigenitus (Brussels 1720); Lettre du p. C.R.B. à MM. les docteurs de la faculté de théologie de l'université de Douai (s. l. 1723); Le Thomisme triomphant par le bref « Demissus preces » de Benoît XIII (s. n. 1.); Apologie du Thomisme triomphant contre les neuf lettres anonymes qui ont paru depuis peu etc. (Liège 1731). He also left two volumes of sermons, edited by H. Lelièvre: Sermons (Paris 1846). B. was the most illustrious Thomist of his time and perhaps the best-known and most highly regarded theologian in the nineteenth century. Even in our own day, his Summa is one of the most frequently consulted theology manuals. He rightly owes this reputation to his absolute fidelity to the doctrine of s. Tommaso, the clarity of his exposition, and the precision of his language.