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 Lille (, ; ; ; ; ) is a city in the northern part of France, within French Flanders. Positioned along the Deûle river, near France's border with Belgium, it is the capital of the Hauts-de-France Regions of France, region, the Prefectures in F ...

(a city in the

County of Flanders The County of Flanders was one of the most powerful political entities in the medieval Low Countries, located on the North Sea coast of modern-day Belgium and north-eastern France. Unlike the neighbouring states of Duchy of Brabant, Brabant and ...

, then under Habsburg rule), he was a priest and

canon Canon or Canons may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Canon (fiction), the material accepted as officially written by an author or an ascribed author * Literary canon, an accepted body of works considered as high culture ** Western canon, th ...

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 The Low Countries (; ), historically also known as the Netherlands (), is a coastal lowland region in Northwestern Europe forming the lower Drainage basin, basin of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta and consisting today of the three modern "Bene ...

, and it defended the production and use of devotional images, but enforcing the restrictions of the

Council of Trent The Council of Trent (), held between 1545 and 1563 in Trent (or Trento), now in northern Italy, was the 19th ecumenical council of the Catholic Church. Prompted by the Protestant Reformation at the time, it has been described as the "most ...

, 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 Augustine of Hippo ( , ; ; 13 November 354 – 28 August 430) was a theologian and philosopher of Berbers, Berber origin and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia (Roman province), Numidia, Roman North Africa. His writings deeply influenced th ...

(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.

Life

Molanus was born in

, in

Walloon Flanders Walloon Flanders (Dutch: ''Waals Vlaanderen'', French: ''Flandre wallonne'') was a semi-independent part of the County of Flanders, composed of the burgraviates of Lille, Douai and Orchies. It is sometimes referred to as ''Lille–Douai–Orchi ...

, 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

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

's short and inexplicit decrees on sacred images (1563) into minutely detailed instructions for artists, which were then widely enforced in Catholic countries mostly. His views on the older, originally

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

, depiction of the

Nativity of Jesus in art The Nativity of Jesus has been a major subject of Christian art since the 4th century. The artistic depictions of the ''Nativity'' or birth of Jesus, celebrated at Christmas, are based on the narratives in the Bible, in the Gospels of Matthew ...

are typical:

The Virgin is shown pale with pains, the midwives prepare a small (narcotic) drought for the childbirth. Why this? Is it because the Virgin Mary would have held back from any pain of childbirth, when in fact she brought forth her divine son without pain? And what pertains to the midwives who are mentioned in the apocryphal Book of the Infancy? Jerome says: There was no midwife! No obtrusiveness of women intervened! She, the Virgin, was both mother and midwife! I saw in not a few places the picture of the blessed Virgin lying on a bed, depicting childbirth, and she was suffering pains from this birth, but that is not true. How stupid! Those artists ought to be laughed at who paint Mary in the very act of childbirth pains, accompanied with pain, midwife, bed, little knives (to cut the umbilical cord), with hot compresses, and many other appurtenances. . . . Rather, those pictures should be promoted which show the birth of Christ in which the Blessed Virgin Mary with arms folded and on bended knee before her little son, as though he was just now brought forth into the light.

He objected on similar grounds to the ''

Death of the Virgin The Death of the Virgin Mary is a common subject in Western Christian art, and is the equivalent of the Dormition of the Theotokos in Eastern Orthodox art. This depiction became less common as the doctrine of the Assumption gained support in t ...

'', or depictions of her as swooning in scenes of '' Christ carrying the Cross'', or at the foot of the Cross during the Crucifixion itself. He also opposed her being shown supplicating Christ for mankind in ''

Last Judgement The Last Judgment is a concept found across the Abrahamic religions and the '' Frashokereti'' of Zoroastrianism. Christianity considers the Second Coming of Jesus Christ to entail the final judgment by God of all people who have ever lived, res ...

'' scenes. She would, he said, in fact be sitting alongside Christ in stern judgement:

Many painters show Mary and John the Baptist kneeling beside Our lord at the Last Judgment...But we may not think that at that day the Virgin Mary will kneel for us before the Judge, baring her breast to intercede for sinners. Nor may we think that John the Baptist will fall upon his knees to beg mercy for mankind in the way the painters show. Rather, the blessed Virgin and St. John shall sit beside the supreme Judge as assessors. The mercy which is extended now will have no place then. There will only be strict justice at that day.

Also condemned were

Saint Christopher Saint Christopher (, , ; ) is venerated by several Christian denominations. According to these traditions, he was a martyr killed in the reign of the 3rd-century Roman Empire, Roman emperor Decius (), or alternatively under the emperor Maximin ...

as a giant carrying Christ (and as the protector of travellers),

Saint George and the Dragon In a legend, Saint Georgea soldier venerated in Christianity—defeats a dragon. The story goes that the dragon originally extorted tribute from villagers. When they ran out of livestock and trinkets for the dragon, they started giving up a huma ...

, 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".Mâle, online Nudity, even of the infant Jesus, was to be avoided as much as possible, and drapes must cover the genitals where it could not be. Whilst condemning older depictions without a scriptural basis, he was not hesitant in creating new ones based on his own interpretation.Blunt 1985, p. 127; Mâle

Saint Joseph According to the canonical Gospels, Joseph (; ) was a 1st-century Jewish man of Nazareth who was married to Mary, the mother of Jesus, and was the legal father of Jesus. Joseph is venerated as Saint Joseph in the Catholic Church, Eastern O ...

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 The Holy Family consists of the Child Jesus, the Virgin Mary and Saint Joseph. The subject became popular in art from the 1490s on,Ainsworth, 122 but veneration of the Holy Family was formally begun in the 17th century by Saint François de La ...

Mary Magdalene Mary Magdalene (sometimes called Mary of Magdala, or simply the Magdalene or the Madeleine) was a woman who, according to the four canonical gospels, traveled with Jesus as one of his followers and was a witness to crucifixion of Jesus, his cr ...

should not be shown as an over-dressed prostitute, and generally dress should be simple.

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
*''Idea togatæ constantiæ sive Francisci Tailleri Dvbliniensis prætoris in persecutione congressus, & religionis catholicae defensione interitus... Authore Ioanne Molano'' (Paris, 1629
Available on KU Leuven Special Collections
*''Historiae Lovaniensium Libri XIV'', edited from an unpublished autograph manuscript by P.F.X de Ram and published as ''Les Quatorze Livres sur l'Histoire de la Ville de Louvain'', 2 vols. (Brussels, 1861) Available on Google Books
vol. 1vol. 2

Notes

References

* Blunt, Anthony, ''Artistic Theory in Italy, 1450-1660'', chapter VIII, especially pp. 107–128, 1940 (refs to 1985 edn

OUP Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...

, * Decavele, Johan, "Molanus, Johannes", Grove Art Online,

Oxford Art Online Oxford Art Online is an Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press ...

, Oxford University Press. Web. 4 Apr. 2017
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* Mâle, Émile, ''L'Art religieux après le Concile de Trente, étude sur l'iconographie de la fin du XVIe, du XVIIe et du XVIIIe siècles en Italie, en France, en Espagne et en Flandre'' (1932) * Penny, Nicholas, National Gallery Catalogues (new series): ''The Sixteenth Century Italian Paintings, Volume I'', 2004, National Gallery Publications Ltd,

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Molanus, Joannes 1533 births 1585 deaths People from Lille Dutch art critics Belgian art critics Academic staff of the Old University of Leuven Roman Catholic theologians from the Habsburg Netherlands