John Slotanus (also Schlottanus or van der Slootien, John Geffen) (died July 9, 1560) was a Dutch

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

polemic Polemic ( , ) is contentious rhetoric intended to support a specific position by forthright claims and to undermine the opposing position. The practice of such argumentation is called polemics, which are seen in arguments on controversial to ...

al writer. He lived and worked most of his life in Cologne.

Life

Slotanus was born in Geffen, Brabant. He joined the

Dominican Order The Order of Preachers (, abbreviated OP), commonly known as the Dominican Order, is a Catholic Church, Catholic mendicant order of pontifical right that was founded in France by a Castilians, Castilian priest named Saint Dominic, Dominic de Gu ...

Cologne Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of the States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city pr ...

about 1525. For many years he worked to defend Roman Catholicism against its opponents through preaching and writing. Later he taught sacred literature at Cologne. In 1554 was made a

Doctor of Theology Doctor of Theology (, abbreviated DTh, ThD, DTheol, or Dr. theol.) is a terminal degree in the academic discipline of theology. The ThD, like the ecclesiastical Doctor of Sacred Theology, is an advanced research degree equivalent to the Doctor o ...

. About this same time he became

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of his convent at Cologne. In this role he exercised the offices of censor of the faith and papal inquisitor throughout the Archdiocese of Cologne and the

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country. In the discharge of these duties Slotanus came into conflict with the learned

Justus Velsius Justus Velsius, Haganus, or ''Joost Welsens'' in Dutch (c. 1510, The Hague, Low Countries – after 1581 at an unknown location), was a Dutch humanist, physician, and mathematician. Velsius started his career as a highly respected professor of ...

, who in 1556, on account of teachings deemed heretical by the Church, was obliged to leave Cologne. The vehement writings which Velsius afterwards published against the Cologne theologians moved Slotanus to write two works covering nearly all the heretical doctrines of his time. He died in Cologne.

Works

Among Slotanus's various works those most worthy of mention are: ''Disputationum adversus hæreticos liber unus'' (Cologne, 1558); ''De retinenda fide orthodoxa et catholica adversus hæreses et sectas'' (Cologne, 1560); and ''De barbaris nationibus convertendis ad Christum'' (Cologne, 1559). In the last-named work Slotanus displays the ardent missionary zeal which fired the religious men of his time.

References

;Attribution cites: **

Jacques Échard Jacques Échard (22 September 1644, in Rouen Rouen (, ; or ) is a city on the River Seine, in northwestern France. It is in the prefecture of Regions of France, region of Normandy (administrative region), Normandy and the Departments of Fr ...

, , II, 175 ** Hugo Hurter, **Meuser, ''Zur Geschichte der Kölner Theologen im 16. Jahrh. in Kath. Zeitschr. für Wissenschaft und Kunst'', II (Cologne, 1845), 79 sq. **Paulus, ''Kölner Dominicanerschriftsteller a.d. 16. Jahrh. in Katholik'' II (1897) 238 sq. {{DEFAULTSORT:Slotanus, Johannes 1560 deaths 16th-century births Dutch Dominicans Dutch male writers Priors 16th-century Dutch Roman Catholic theologians People from Maasdonk