Hessels, John

, or Hesselius, a celebrated professor of theology at Louvain, was born there in 1522. Being | sent as a legate to the council of Trent, he greatly distirrguished himself by his profound erudition. He was particularly conversant in the works of St. Austin and St. Jerom, and was more remarkable for judgment than for eloquence. After having been afflicted by the stone, he died of an apoplexy at the early age of forty-four, in 1566, and was buried in the church of St. Peter at Louvain, of which he was a canon. He wrote a great number of controversial works against the protestants, which in his time were much esteemed. Also, 1. “Commentaries on St. Matthew, and several of the Epistles.” 2. “A famous Catechism,” containing a vast mass of moral and theological learning. His epitaph says, “Hoereses suo tern pore grassantes turn viva voce, turn editis libris strenue profligavit.” “The heresies which were spreading in his time he stoutly defeated both by speeches and books,” which means no more than that he wrote ably against the reformers. ¹