JANSSENS, FRANÇOIS ELINGA. — Dominican theologian and polemicist, born in Bruges around 1635, died there on 22 November 1715. He entered religious life in his native city (1653), studied at Lovanio, and taught at Anversa, where he was also regent of studies (1671–83). In 1675 he obtained the doctorate in theology and was twice provincial of the Netherlands (1684–88; 1696–1700).
He wrote various works polemicizing against the Franciscan Pietro d'Alva on the question of the Immaculate Conception. More important were his works defending the infallibility of the Roman pontiff: Summa totina doctrinae de Pontificis auctoritate et infallibilitate (Bruges 1690), against Natale Alessandro and Felice Deschamps; Suprema Romani pontificis auctoritas eiusque extra concilium generale definientis infallibilitas (there 1698), against Gilberto di Choiseul, bishop of Tournai; Forme en Wesen van de Kercke Christi (Anversa 1702), against the Protestants. He had already defended the same doctrine in a treatise that he prefixed to the Summa Conciliorum of Bartolomeo Carranza, which he edited (Lovanio 1668). He also wrote in defense of the Dominican doctrine on Grace; noteworthy is: Veritas manifestata circa praedeterminationem physicarum (Anversa 1675).