GIANSENIO (JANSENS), CORNELIO (Kornelius). — Flemish theologian and exegete, born at Hulst in 1510, died at Ghent on 11 April 1576. Educated at the University of Louvain, he taught theology to the Premonstratensians (Tongerloo Abbey, 1534–42), then became parish priest of S. Martin at Courtray, and from 1560 dean of the Faculty of Theology at Louvain. Margaret of Austria sent him with Hessels and Baius to the Council of Trent (1563); in 1568 he was appointed bishop of Ghent, where he applied the norms of the Council of Trent.
He knew Greek and Hebrew well. His writings are exegetical; in them G. emphasizes the literal-historical sense. He commented on the Psalms, Proverbs, Wisdom, and Ecclesiasticus, and, more extensively, on the four Gospels, which he himself wove together into an orderly Historia evangelica. All these works, which possessed many merits, were reprinted many times and are still consulted with profit today. They (apart from the paraphrases of the Psalms) rank among the most distinguished Catholic commentaries of the sixteenth century. He published: Concordia evangelica... (Louvain 1549); Paraphrases in omnes Ps. (there 1568); Comm. in Prov. Salomonis (there 1569); Annotationes in librum Sap. et Commentarii in Eccl. (Antwerp 1569); Corn. Jansenii ep. Gand. commentarius in suam Concordiam ac totam hist. evangelicam (Louvain 1572).