HAMONTANUS (KALKEBRENNER), GÉRARD. - Carthusian, b. at Hamont (Brabant) at the beginning of the 16th century, d. at Cologne on 2 Aug. 1566. After having been a lawyer and notary at Aachen, he entered the Carthusian monastery of Cologne, where, because of his great virtue, he was elected prior (1536) and, in the final years of his life, provincial vicar. His convent, which he succeeded in saving from Protestant threats, became a refuge for Catholic priests and especially for Jesuits, and a centre of ecclesiastical learning.
He induced his fellow religious Lorenzo Surio to write; he contributed to the Latin translation and edition of the works of G. Taulero (Cologne 1547), published those of G. di Ruysbroek (ibid. 1549), for which he wrote the prefaces, and a series of pamphlets by Dionigi il Certosino (ibid. 1550). He wrote several devotional works: Exercitia quaedam pia et salutifera de Psalterio gloriosae Virginis Mariae (ibid., n.d.) and others that remained in manuscript. The Hortulus devotionis, published anonymously at Cologne in 1541, is attributed to him by most scholars.