PIGHHE (PIGHIUS), Albert. – Theologian and controversialist, born at Kempen (whence the name Campensis) in 1490, died at Utrecht on 26 December 1542. He studied philosophy and theology at Louvain, where his teachers were Driedo (q.v.) and Adrian Florensz, later Pope Adrian VI, who took him to Rome on trustworthy missions. On his return home he held the prebend of St John’s at Utrecht until his death. In 1540, on Paul III’s instructions, he attended the Diet of Worms as theologian in an attempt to reach agreement with the Protestants.
Besides works on astronomy and geography, he composed the *Hierarchiae Ecclesiasticae assertio* (Cologne 1538), a pamphlet of particular historical importance for its forthright reaction against conciliar ideas; and the *Controversiarum explicatio* (ibid. 1542), a doctrinal report on the Regensburg Colloquies in which, at the Diet, he advanced on the question of justification the theory of ‘double justice’, accepted by the Protestants but rejected by the Council of Trent in its sixth session. According to this theory, in the just man there is an inherent justice distinct from the justice of Christ, which is imputed to the just man and truly sanctifies him; original sin he treats as a mere imputation and not as a real and physical entity. While thus approaching Protestantism, Pighius intended to remain under the authority of the Church, of which he speaks with sincere devotion, and he lacks the theological pessimism that makes man a mere transcript of guilt. Sharing with others of his age the nominalist principles that barred him from grasping medieval scholastic entities such as habitus and relatio, he was unable to illustrate the reality of Christian mysteries.