LATOMUS, BARTHOLOMEUS. - Luxembourgish theologian and humanist, b. at Arlon between 1485 and 1490, d. at Koblenz on 3 Jan. 1570. He Grecized his father's surname (stonemason: Steinmetz, Masson) into L. A friend of Erasmus, for 25 years (1517-42) he taught letters and philology at the Universities of Freiburg im Breisgau, Trier, Cologne, Louvain, and Paris.
A lover of classical antiquity, he did not fail to visit Italy (1539-40). Having turned from his studies to political life and religious controversies, in 1542 he moved to Koblenz, where, as counselor to the Elector of Trier, he opposed the spread of the "reformation" through his work and his writings. Present at the diets of Speyer (1544), Worms (1545), Regensburg (1546), and again Worms (1557), he took part in the disputations with the Protestant theologians. His polemical work is directed above all at combating M. Bucer, P. Dalthen, and J. Andreae; his work as a humanist at especially illuminating Cicero and Horace.
Of his theological works, the following are to be noted: Responsio B. L. ad epistulam M. Buceri (Cologne 1544); De Controversis... altera plenaque defensio (ibid. 1545), both published in the Corp. Cath. (VIII [1924]) edited by L. Keil; Refutatio calumniacorum insectationum M. Buceri (ibid. 1546); Handlungen des Colloquiums zu Regensburg (ibid. 1546); Spaltung der Augsburgischen Confession (Worms 1558); against P. Dalthen he published Responsio and Altera responsio (Cologne 1558 and 1560); De docta simplicitate primae ecclesiae (ibid. 1559) against J. Andreae.
Bibliography3 works
Vito Zolini