Name Henry Stephens | ||
Henry Robert Stephens (5 August 1665 at Liege – 15 June 1723) was a Belgian Jesuit theologian.
Contents
Life
He entered the Society of Jesus, 7 September 1683, and for over twenty years was attached to the episcopal seminary of Liege, first as professor of dogmatic theology and later as its superior. During this period the Jansenists were active in Belgium, both in attacking the Jesuits and in opposing the papal decrees condemnatory of Jansenism. All of Father Stephens's published works were occasioned by these attacks.
Works
In "Specimen doctrinae a Jesuitis in Seminario Leodiensi traditae" the Jesuits were accused, among other things, of corrupting faith and morals by their teaching. In answer to these accusations Stephens published a set of theses, "Conclusiones theologicae miscellaneae" (Liege, 1702) and had them publicly defended by one of his pupils.
In answer to another Jansenistic work known as the "Epistola Leodiensis de formula Alexandri VII", he published his "Vera defensio authoritatis Ecclesiae" (Liege, 1707). The Jansenist, Henry Denys, thereupon defended the "Epistola" in an anonymously published work which called forth Stephens's "Author epistolae Leodiensis denuo confutatus" (Liege, 1709).
His other works are the "Dissertatio theologica de Condemnatione Libri Janseniani" (Liege, 1710), and the "Consilium pacis adversariis propriis inter se disputantibus" (Liege, 1710). In all these works his name appears in the Latinized form of Stephani.