CROMBRUGGHE, CAMILLE van. - Theologian, born at Smeereble-Vlaersegem (Grammont) on 2 May 1876, died at Ghent on 14 Jan. 1940. Ordained a priest, he completed his theological studies at Louvain with the thesis that became famous: De soteriologiae christianae primis fontibus (Louvain 1905). From 1909 to 1921 he gave highly esteemed lectures at the University of Louvain on the history of religions, and from 1923 to 1927 held the chair of fundamental theology.
He published De Verbo Incarnato (2nd ed., Ghent 1920) and De Beata Maria Virgine (ibid. 1913), two model treatises; La présence réelle et la transubstantiation (ibid. 1906); he contributed to the Collationes Gandavenses, and in 1924 was one of the founders of the Ephemerides Theologicae Lovaniennes.
With the prestige of a thoroughly orthodox teacher, he preserved Louvain and his homeland from modernism, deserving to be called by Card. Mercier the best theologian in Belgium.