CHALMERS, WILLIAM. - Scottish Jesuit theologian, later an Oratorian, called Camerarius, born at Aberdeen in the sixteenth century and died at Paris in 1678. He studied in Rome at the Scots College, subsequently entering the Society of Jesus. After teaching philosophy at Châlons-sur-Marne, he went to England. In 1625, having left the Society, he followed Fr. de Bérulle to France, where he taught philosophy at Angers and theology at Saumur. For many years he was associated by the bishop of St-Malo in the administration of the diocese.
An anti-Molinist, contrary to the prevailing tendency of the time in the Society, and an opponent of middle knowledge, he warmly upheld the Thomist doctrine of physical premotion, which he reconciled with freedom according to the system of Fr. Gibeuf (v.). Among other works, he wrote: Antiquitatis de novitate victoria sive justa defensio praemotionis physicae (Fastemburg 1634); Disputations theologicae de discrimine peccati venialis et mortalis (ibid. 1639); Dissertatio theologica de electione angelorum et hominum ad gloriam (Rennes 1641).