Belgian theologian. Born on 12 September 1690 at Boom, Belgium; died on 15 February 1775. Spent over 50 years as student, teacher and president of the archiepiscopal college of Mechelen. Author of Theologia Moralis et Dogmatica, a powerful vindication in catechetical form of the tenets of the Catholic Church; it was used as a text-book in Catholic colleges. <\/p>\n
Theologian, b. at Boom, near Antwerp, Belgium, 12 September, 1690; d. at Mechlin, 15 February, 1775. He completed his earlier studies under the direction of the Fathers of the Oratory at Mechlin, and in 1711 became a master of arts of the University of Louvain, where he afterwards devoted himself to the study of theology. He lectured on this subject to the religious of the Afflighem Abbey (1717-1723), and after receiving the licentiate in theology at the University of Louvain (5 October, 1723), he was successively professor of theology at the seminary of Mechlin (until 1729), pastor of the metropolitan church there (1729-1737), president of the seminary (1735-1775), canon and Scholasticus (1737), then penitentiary (1751), and finally archpriest of the chapter (1754-1775). The work which he had undertaken of enlarging the seminary compelled him to relinquish the chair of theology which he had again occcupied 1741-1747. He was always distinguished by his simplicity, solid piety, and love for the poor, and above all by his zeal for the moral and scientific training of the clergy. The organization of the concursus for the collation of the cures and the reform of the theological instruction in the Diocese of Mechlin were in great measure his work. He is not the author of the complete course of theological lectures entitled “Theologia ad usum seminariorum” which was pulished under his name in 1777, and is still published, though greatly modified, by the professors fo the seminary of Mechlin (Theologia ad usum seminarii Mechliniensis, olim sub nomine P. Dens edita); but he published a treatise on penance and on the virture of religion (Supplementum theologiae Laur. Neesen. De virtute religionis; Dictata de sacramento Poenitentiae. Mechlin, 1758), and several tracts against the Recollet John Tomson, in favour of the custom existing in some parishes of the Diocese of Mechlin, of asking and inscribing in a register the names of those who went to confession (Reponsio P. Dens ad dissertationem et apologiam Joannis Tomson. Mechlin, 1759), and against the Augustinian monk Maugis, professor at the University of Louvain (Collectio scriptorum quae separatim in lucem edita sunt circa quaestionem theologicam an sacerdos vel beneficiarius recitans horas canonicas in affectu peccati mortalis satisfaciat praecepto seu obligationi recitandi horas canonicas. Louvain, 1765).<\/p>\n
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Biographical notice in the first volume of the oldest editions of the Theologia ad usum seminariorum Journal historique et litteraire (Liege, 1839), VI, 243; DEWALQUE in Biographie nationale (Brussels, 1876), V 599; HURTER, Nomenclator literarius, III, 41; BAETEN Naamrollen betrekkelijk de kerkelijke geschiedenis van het aartsbisdom van Mechelen (Mechlin, 1881), I, 308.<\/p>\n
A. VAN HOVE Transcribed by Rita Muller <\/p>\n
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume IVCopyright © 1908 by Robert Appleton CompanyOnline Edition Copyright © 2003 by K. KnightNihil Obstat. Remy Lafort, CensorImprimatur. +John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York<\/p>\n
a Roman Catholic theologian, was born in 1690 at Boom, in Belgium. Apparently nothing is known at least by Protestant writers-regarding the incidents of his life, as his name appears in no encyclopaedia or biographical work that we are acquainted with. The scanty information we possess is derived from the epitaph inscribed on his tomb in the chapel of the archiepiscopal college of Malines by the present (1857) rector. From this epitaph it appears that he was reader in theology at Malines for twelve years, plebanus or parish parish of St. Rumold’s or Rumbold’s Church in the same city, and president of the College of Malines for forty years. He also held various honorary church offices. He was canon and penitentiary, synodical examiner and scholastic archpriest of St. Rumold’s the metropolitan church of Belgium. He died February 15, 1775, in the 85th year of his age. The work which has rendered Dens’s name familiar, even to the Protestant public, is his Theologia Moralis et Dogmatica (new ed. Dublin, 1832, 8 vols. 12mo). It is a systematic Exposition and defense in the form of a catechism of every point of ethics and doctrine maintained by Roman Catholics, and is extensively adopted as the text- book of theology in their colleges. It appears to owe its popularity more to its being a handy compilation than to any great talent exhibited by its author (Chambers, Encyclopaedia, s.v.). A synopsis of the work by Dr. J. F. Berg, with copious notes illustrating the dangerous tendency of the Romanist moral theology, was published in 1840 (Philadelphia), and passed through repeated editions.<\/p>\n
Dens, Peter Belgian theologian. Born on 12 September 1690 at Boom, Belgium; died on 15 February 1775. Spent over 50 years as student, teacher and president of the archiepiscopal college of Mechelen. Author of Theologia Moralis et Dogmatica, a powerful vindication in catechetical form of the tenets of the Catholic Church; it was used as … Continue reading “Dens Peter”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42384","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-encyclopedic-dictionary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/dictionaries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42384","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/dictionaries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/dictionaries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/dictionaries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/dictionaries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42384"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/dictionaries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42384\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/dictionaries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/dictionaries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/dictionaries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}