Joannes Molanus facts for kids
Joannes Molanus (1533–1585), often cited simply as Molanus, is the Latinized name of Jan Vermeulen or Van der Meulen, an influential Counter Reformation Catholic theologian of Louvain University, where he was Professor of Theology, and Rector from 1578. Born at Lille (a city in the County of Flanders, then under Habsburg rule), he was a priest and canon of St. Peter's Church, Leuven, where he died.
He wrote numerous books, several only published posthumously. He is best known for his De Picturis et Imaginibus Sacris, pro vero earum usu contra abusus ("Treatise on Sacred Images"). This was published in 1570, four years after the Iconoclastic Fury had swept through the Low Countries, and it defended the production and use of devotional images, but enforcing the restrictions of the Council of Trent, as he interpreted them, in a brutally polemical fashion, which was very influential. Five further, enlarged, editions of this appeared between 1594 and 1771, and a modern French translation was published in 1996. He was also lead editor of an edition of the works of Saint Augustine (Antwerp, Plantin Press, 1566–1577), and wrote a manuscript history of Louvain that was printed in two volumes in 1861, edited by P. F. X. de Ram.
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Life
Molanus was born in Lille, in Walloon Flanders, in 1533, the son of Hendrik Vermeulen and Anna Peters. His father was from Holland and his mother from Brabant.
He matriculated at Louvain University on 27 February 1554, graduating in the Liberal Arts in 1558 and as Doctor of Theology in 1570. He sat on the committee of theologians overseeing Lucas Brugensis's revision of the Leuven Vulgate, published in 1574. He became a canon of St. Peter's Church, Leuven, and a professor of Theology, serving both as dean of the Faculty of Theology and as rector of the university. In 1579 he was appointed president of King's College.
Molanus died in Louvain on 18 September 1585, having made bequests in favour of the college over which he had presided.
Molanus and art
Molanus is today mainly remembered by art historians for being one of the first authorities to turn the Council of Trent's short and inexplicit decrees on sacred images (1563) into minutely detailed instructions for artists, which were then widely enforced in Catholic countries mostly.
He objected on similar grounds to the Death of the Virgin, her swooning at the foot of the Cross, and her being shown supplicating Christ for mankind in Last Judgement scenes.
Also condemned were Saint Christopher as a giant carrying Christ (and as the protector of travellers), Saint George and the Dragon, the Holy Kinship, the unicorn hunt in the Hortus Conclusus and many other depictions not verifiable from reliable sources – the Golden Legend was, he said, in fact of "lead".
..... Whilst condemning older depictions without a scriptural basis, he was not hesitant in creating new ones based on his own interpretation. Saint Joseph should not be shown as the old, semi-comical figure of the Middle Ages, but as young, vigorous and firmly in control of the Holy Family. ..... He opposed showing the Swooning Virgin Mary in scenes of Christ carrying the Cross or the Crucifixion itself.
Publications
- Usuardi martyrologium (Leuven, 1568) Available on Google Books
- De Picturis et Imaginibus Sacris (Leuven, 1570) Available on Google Books
- Reworked as the posthumously published Historia Sanctarum Imaginum (Leuven, 1594) Available on Google Books
- Indiculus Sanctorum Belgii (Leuven, 1573) Available on Google Books
- De fide haereticis servanda libri tres (Cologne, 1584) Available on Google Books
- Theologiae Practicae Compendium (Cologne, 1585) Available on Google Books
- Liber de piis testamentis (Cologne, 1585) Available on Google Books
- De Canonicis libri tres (Cologne, 1587) Available on Google Books
- Militia sacra ducum et principum Brabantiae (Antwerp, 1592), edited by Henricus van Cuyck for posthumous publication; available on Google Books
- Natales sanctorum Belgii (Antwerp, 1595), edited by Henricus van Cuyck for posthumous publication; available on Google Books
See also
In Spanish: Johannes Molanus para niños
