LAURENTIUS, Joseph. – Jesuit canonist, b. at Krefeld in Germany on 24 Dec. 1861, d. at Valkenburg in Holland on 22 Mar. 1927. He entered the Society in 1879 and was ordained priest in 1891.
After completing his studies at the Gregorian in Rome, he was appointed to the chair of canon law at the College of St Ignatius in Valkenburg (1895). He brought to teaching a distinctly scientific character, conciseness and clarity of thought, and mastery of doctrine. He left teaching in 1913 for reasons of health, and for a time served as spiritual director, but owing to the war he returned to the chair from 1916 to 1919. Consultor to the Pontifical Commission for the Codification of Canon Law, he actively collaborated in adapting the rules of his own Order and of others to the norms of the CIC. He is best known for his Institutiones iuris ecclesiastici, published in 1903 and very favourably received; as a complement to this work he also published a Conspectus CIC in 1919.