Leonardus Lessius
Leonardus Lessius Dutch: Lenaert Leys; 1 October 1554, in Brecht – 15 January 1623, in Leuven was the Flemish moral theologian from a Jesuit order.
Life
At the age of thirteen the young Leonard won the Brecht scholarship to the University of Leuven. This university is the leading place he will be sent with for the next fifty years. In 1567 he matriculated in an arts department called Le Porc Porcus alit doctos, during theoral exam he was merited the designation of primus. He joined the Jesuits in 1572, together with after theological studies in Rome under Francisco Suarez & Robert Bellarmine, he became professor of theology at the University of Leuven. In his early teaching years, he was involved in the predestination theological debate that was raging in Leuven in 1587–88 against Baianism. Despite significant persecution and censorship that he get as a result, Lessius supported the theory of free will and predestination developed by Luis de Molina, which was seen by many theologians at the time as too little conservative position. In 1615 Pope Paul V thanked him personally for the services rendered to the Catholic Church.