HOOGSTRAETEN, Jakob. - Dominican writer and polemicist, born in Hoogstraten (Brabant) c. 1460, died in Cologne on 27 January 1527. He first studied at Louvain, then at Cologne; there he entered the Order of Preachers, taught for many years, served as master of students (1498), regent of studies (1505, 1509), and prior of the convent (1510–11). He also taught theology at the university and served as inquisitor in the provinces of Cologne, Mainz, and Trier.
An intrepid defender of Catholicism, he confronted the greatest heretics of his time and waged a victorious open struggle against them. To safeguard the rights of the Mendicant Friars, he wrote: *Defensorium Fratrum Mendicantium contra curatos, qui privilegia fratrum iniuste impugnant* (Cologne 1507). Against a certain Peter of Ravenna, he composed: *Defensio scholastica principum Alemaniae in eo quod sceleratos detinent insepultos in ligno* (ibid. 1508), *Iustificatorium principum Alemaniae* (ibid. 1509), and *Protectorium principum Alemaniae de malefici non sepelendis* (ibid. 1511). He engaged in a protracted controversy with the celebrated humanist Johannes Reuchlin. The latter had written the *Speculum oculare* against the converted Jew J. Pfefferkorn, who in his *Speculum manuale* had argued that all Jewish books, including the Talmud, should be burned due to the numerous errors they contained regarding Jesus Christ and the Virgin. The II. [Hoogstraeten], with the approval of the University of Cologne, condemned certain ideas of Reuchlin; the latter responded with the *Defense against the Slanderers of Cologne*. The matter was referred to the Archbishop of Mainz, but Reuchlin appealed to Rome (September 1513); Leo X entrusted the examination of the case to the Bishop of Speyer (November 1513). Meanwhile, the It., acting as inquisitor, condemned the *Speculum*, which was burned (February 1514). The Bishop of Speyer deemed the condemnation offensive to himself and issued a favorable verdict for Reuchlin (24 April 1514). The II. appealed again to Rome. Meanwhile, the Faculty of Theology of Paris also condemned the *Speculum oculare* as heretical (2 August 1514). Similar condemnations were issued by the universities of Louvain, Mainz, and Erfurt. In Rome, however, the affair became entangled in political interventions, and a resolution was long delayed. Only on 13 June 1520 did Leo X declare the Bishop of Speyer’s sentence null and void, prohibit Reuchlin’s work as scandalous, and confirm the II. as inquisitor.
In this controversy, the II. wrote: *Libellus accusatorius contra oculare Speculum Joannis Reuchlin legum doctoris coram commissariis archiepiscopi Magontini productus*; and *Libellus alius supplex Romae Leonis X de eodem negotio oblatus anno 1525* (both published in *Acta iudiciorum inter Io. H. et Io. Reuchlin*, The Hague 1518); *Ad SS. Leonem papam X ac d. Maximilianum imperatorem Apologia* (Cologne 1518); and *Apologia altera* (ibid. 1519). He also wrote *Destructio cabalae seu cabalistae perfidiae* (ibid. 1519) against Reuchlin’s *Ars cabalistica* and *De verbo mirifico*. Among his other works are: *Margarita moralis philosophiae* (Cologne 1521); *Epitome de fide et operibus adversus chimericam illam atque monstruosam M. Lutheri libertatem falso ab eo christianam appellatam* (ibid. 1525); and *Aliquot disputationes contra lutheranos* (ibid. 1526).