TAPPER, RUARD

TAPPER, RUARD. — Theologian, born at Encusa (Belgium) on 14 February 1487, died at Brussels on 2 March 1559.

A disciple of Adriano Florensz (the future Adrian VI) at the University of Louvain, he became a priest, dean of the Pacultus artium (1517), doctor of theology (1519), dean of the Louvain Faculty of Theology (1530), and inquisitor general of the Netherlands (1537). His uncommon intellectual gifts and, above all, the balance and firmness he displayed in the office of inquisitor made him a widely esteemed personage.

and influential. Wishing to offer, in clear formulations, the Catholic doctrine to be preached to the people and set against Protestant heresy, he drew up a series of 59 dogmatic propositions, which he subsequently reduced to 32. The work, published at Louvain (1545), met with broad success and received the approval of Pius IV (1561). On these propositions T. composed two commentaries, summaries of his university teaching: Declaratio articulorum... adversus nostri temporis haereses (Lyons 1554); Explicaciones articulorum... circum dogmata ecclesiastica (Louvain 1555). Sent to Trent by Charles V (September 1551), T. won the admiration of the Council and worked actively on the drafting of session XIV (the Sacrament of Penance). Returning to Louvain (April 1552), he engaged in a determined struggle Baius (v.) and devoted himself to the establishment of new bishoprics in his homeland.

In addition to the works mentioned, he wrote: Quaestio quodlibetica de effectibus, quos consuetudo operatur in foro conscientiae (Louvain 1520); Orationes theologicae (Cologne 1577). Almost all of them were collected in: R. Tapperi omnia, quae haberi potuerunt, opera (there 1582).