HENRY OF ST. IGNATIUS

Carmelite theologian, whose family name was D'Aumérie; b. Ath, Belgium, c. 1630; d. Wandre, near Liège, April 1, 1719. He entered the Carmelites c. 1646 and was ordained in 1652. For many years he taught theology, and he also held various administrative positions in the three Carmelite provinces to which at different times he belonged. He vigorously attacked the teaching of the Carmelite Francis Bonne-Espérance (1617–77) and his followers. An indefatigable controversialist, he wrote against the Jesuits and Molinism and roundly condemned the moral laxism he detected in the writings of many who attacked Jansenism. His best-known work, Ethica amoris, sive theologia sanctorum … (3 v. Liège 1709), was condemned by the bishop of Liège, the Holy Office, and the parlement of Paris. Henry stoutly maintained that his doctrine was in accord with that of Aristotle, Augustine, Aquinas, and the English Carmelite John Baconthorpe (Bacon). The accusation of Jansenism made against Henry is false if understood to mean that he actually propounded Jansenist doctrine.

Bibliography: e. mangenot, Dictionnaire de théologie catholique, ed. a. vacant et al., 15 v. (Paris 1903–50; Tables Générales 1951–) 6.2:2195–97. i. rosier, Biographisch en bibliographisch overzicht van de vroomheid in de Nederlandse Carmel van 1235 tot het midden der achttiende eeuw (Studiën en tekstuitgaven van ons geestelijk erf 10; Tielt 1950) 155–156. l. ceyssens, "Les Deébuts janseénistes du P. Henri de S. Ignace," Analecta Ordinis Carmelitarum Calceatorum 18 (1953) 56–122, ed. of correspondence, 186–297.

[k. j. egan]