Huygens, Gommaire

HUYGENS, GOMMAIRE. - Theologian, b. at Lierre on 26 Feb. 1631, d. at Louvain on 27 Oct. 1702. Having obtained his doctorate in theology at the University of Louvain, in 1668 he was sent to Rome together with Ulderico Randaxhe to defend, before Clement IX, certain ancient privileges of that University. After three years of negotiation, the two delegates succeeded in bringing their mission to a happy conclusion. Appointed professor of theology at the Adrian VI College, in 1687 he also became a member of the University's council. This appointment was recognized neither by the Holy See nor by the Belgian government, on account of the Jansenist errors that H. had defended in his writings (cf. his Mémoire sur l'affaire de Monsieur H., Louvain 1688). Intolerant of the decrees of the Holy See, in 1697 he was deprived of the faculty to hear confessions and preach by the bishop of Malines.

An indefatigable worker and a forceful writer, H. left numerous theological and religious-controversy writings; noteworthy: Methodus remittendi et retinendi peccata (Louvain 1674), condemned by the Spanish Inquisition on 28 Aug. 1681 "because it contains propositions of Jansenius already condemned or temerarious"; Compendium theologiae (ibid. 1679), placed on the Index on 17 Jan. 1691; Instructio theologica valde utilis ac salutaris pastoribus et confessariis (ibid. 1687).

Niccolò Del Re