- Emmanuel Schelstrate
Emmanuel Schelstrate (1649–
6 April 1692 ) was aCatholic theologian born atAntwerp in 1649. While he was a canon of the cathedral of Antwerp, he was called toRome byPope Innocent IX and made an assistant librarian of theVatican Library .He was a fine scholar in early ecclesiastical history and became the accredited defender of the
papal supremacy. For this reason his writings have often been very severely judged.His "Antiquitas illustrata circa concilia generalia et provincialia" (Antwerp, 1678) contains decrees of the popes and various matters of Catholic church history; in it he attacked the errors of
Jean Launoy in regard to the primacy of Rome. Schelstrate was only able to issue two volumes of a second edition which he had planned on a large scale (1692 and 1697). He carried on controversies with Arnauld andLouis Maimbourg concerning the authority of the general councils and of the popes; he opposed the declaration of theGallican clergy in 1682, and wrote a treatise on the origin of theAnglican Church in a controversy withEdward Stillingfleet , Dean of St. Paul's,London . He also published numerous other works.He died at Rome on
6 April 1692 .
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