CANDIDUS, ALEXANDER. - Carmelite theologian of the Ancient Observance, born in Ghent at an unspecified date and died in Cologne on 31 Dec. 1555. His family name was Nicola Blankaert. Having professed his vows at Utrecht, he was sent to Cologne, where he obtained the degree of Doctor of Theology in 1546; not long afterwards (1551) he became a full professor of Theology, and later (1554) dean of the same University of Cologne. In the final years of his life, C. was prior of the convent in Cologne and parish priest of the church of St Nicholas. He was active and combative against Protestantism, particularly Calvinism.
Sent in 1551 to the Council of Trent as theologian to Mary of Austria, sister of Charles V and governor of the Netherlands, he delivered that year two discourses in the sessions of 25 Oct. and the Fourth Sunday of Advent; these discourses were published the same year in Cologne: Iudicium Ioh. Calvini de sanctorum reliquiis collatum cum orthodoxorum S. Ecclesiae catholicae Patrum sententiis, and Oratio de retributione iustorum statim a morte. However, C. is best remembered for an illustrated translation of the Bible into Flemish, carefully prepared from various Latin editions and far more accurate than its predecessors, published in Cologne in 1547.