Pighius (Pigghe), Albert

PIGHIUS (PIGGHE), ALBERT. - Theologian and controversialist, b. at Kempen, whence the name Campensis, in 1490, d. at Utrecht on 26 Dec. 1542. He studied philosophy and theology at Louvain, where his teachers were Driedo (v.) and Adriaan Florensz, later Pope Adrian VI, who took him along to Rome with positions of trust. Having returned to his homeland, he held the provostship of St. John in Utrecht, which he kept until his death. At the commission of Paul III, in 1540 he took part in the Diet of Worms as a theologian, in the attempt at agreements with the Protestants.

Besides works on astronomy, geography, etc., he composed the Hierarchiae Ecclesiasticae assertio (Cologne 1538): an ecclesiology of particular historical importance for its decided reaction against conciliar ideas; the Controversiarum explicatio (ibid. 1542): a doctrinal report on the colloquies of Regensburg where, at the Diet, he proposed, on the question of justification, the theory of "double justice," accepted by the Protestants, but rejected by the Council of Trent in sess. VI. According to it, in the just man there is an inherent justice distinct from the justice of Christ, which is imputed to the just man and which truly sanctifies him; of original sin P. speaks as of a simple imputation and not of a "physical" reality. Although in this he skirted Protestantism, P. intended to remain under the authority of the Church, of which he speaks with heartfelt devotion, and there is lacking in him the theological pessimism that makes of man a plaything of sin. With others of his age he shared the nominalistic principles that barred his way to understanding the medieval scholastic "entities," the habitus and the relatio, indispensable for illustrating the reality of the Christian mysteries.