Pighius, Albert

Pighius, Albert whose family name was Van Campen, was born about the year 1490 at Campen, in the Netherlands. He studied first philosophy and mathematics at Louvain, then theology, on which he lectured at the latter place and at Cologne, where he had also been honored with the doctorate of divinity. He accompanied pope Adrian VI (q.v.) to Spain and Italy, and after the death of Adrian he resided at Rome, and acted on several important missions as the representative of Rome, as at Worms and Regensburg. Under pope Paul III (q.v.) he was made provost of the church of St. John at Utrecht, where he died, December 24, 1543. Although Pighius was very fierce against Protestants, yet among his own coreligionists his orthodoxy to the Catholic faith was doubted very much. Of his works we mention, Adversus Progynosticatorum vulgus, qui animas praedictiones edunt et se astrologos mentiuntur, astrologiae defensio: — De cequinoctiorum solstitiorumque inventione, nec non de ratione paschalis celebrationis et de restitutione ecclesiastici calendarii:Adversus novam Marci Beneventani astronomiam apologia: — Assertio hierarchiae ecclesiasticae lib. 6 (Cologne, 1538, and often): — and De libero hominis arbitrio et divina gratia libri x adversus Lutherum, Calvinum, et alios, to which Calvin replied in his Defensio sanae et orthodoxies doctrinae de Servitute et Liberatione humani Arbitrii advers. Calumnias Alb. Pighii Camipensis (Geneva, 1545), published in his tractatus. See Dupin, Nouvelle Bibliothique des Auteurs ecclesiastiques, etc., t. 16; Bayle, Dict. s.v.; Schweizer, Centraldogmen, 1:180; Herzog, Real-Encyklop. s.v.; Theologisches Universal-Lexikon, s.v.; Jocher, Gelehrten-Lexikon, s.v.; Hagenbach, History of Doctrines, 2:197 sq. (B.P.)