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A work of learning and pastoral wisdom by a moderate inquisitor

ROSEMONDT, Godschalk.
Confessionale sive libellus modum confitendi pulcherrime complectens, necessarius atque utilis, & cuilibet recte confiteri volenti, & ipsis sacerdotibus, qui aliorum confessiones audire habent. Editus a celeberrimo academie Lovaniensis. Denuo recognitus et castigatus.

Title in red & black with red woodcut rebus of the author's name: a rose followed by 'mondt' = Rosemondt; woodcut initials.

Title in red & black with red woodcut rebus of the author's name: a rose followed by 'mondt' = Rosemondt; woodcut initials.

Title in red & black with red woodcut rebus of the author's name: a rose followed by 'mondt' = Rosemondt; woodcut initials.

Title in red & black with red woodcut rebus of the author's name: a rose followed by 'mondt' = Rosemondt; woodcut initials.



Antwerp, Michiel Hillen van Hoochstraten, June 27 - (colophon:) July 8, 1519. 8vo. Re-cased in a 17th-century binding (overlapping vellum), title in ink on spine. Title in red & black with red woodcut rebus of the author's name: a rose followed by 'mondt' = Rosemondt; woodcut initials. 251 (5) ff. [Collation: (A)8 B-2K8].

Rare early edition of this interesting Latin work on confession by the highly respected Louvain (moderate) inquisitor and professor of theology Godschalk Rosemont. The first edition was published in May 1518, followed by an edition of March 1519 (for H.E. van Homberch), this edition, and an edition in 1525, all published by Van Hoochstraten.
Godschalc Rosemondt (1483-1526) of Eindhoven was a distinguished alumnus of Louvain where he was appointed extraordinary professor of theology in 1515 and ordinary professor in 1520. For the half-year August 1520-February 1521 he was rector of the university and it was at this time that he was in communication with Erasmus (cf. Allen Ep. 1153, 1164 & 1172), who called him in one letter: "Vir melior quam pro vulgari sorte theologorum". Rosemondt was less dogmatic than most inquisitors and his writings have been compared with those of Erasmus. He was also known as an eloquent vicar and friend of the Dutch Pope Adrian VI.
Between 1516 and 1519 he composed many devotional works, all but the Confessionale in Dutch. The Confessionale is partially a translation of the Boecxken van der Biechten but is far more detailed and lengthy. It shares some of its content as well as its amiable tone with the Boecxken, published one year earlier. The content reflects the fact that it is intended for a better-educated reader. It is the first book in which the Summa of Thomas Aquinas is used for resolving conflicts of conscience. For his audacious statements in chapter XX, 'De excommunicatione' Rosemondt was rebuked by Pope Benedict XIV, who considered the book to be in discord with the views of the church. Although Rosemondt based his arguments on old concepts of Catholic clerical law, he expanded these principles to a much greater extent than the church was prepared to accept. The conrector of the Latin School at Antwerp, Levinus Linius (+1533) contributed a laudatory poem, printed on the verso of the title. Tentler considers the Confessionale as 'A work of learning and pastoral wisdom'.

Fine copy with various contemp. annotations and underlinings in text and ownership's entry on title (others erased).- (Title sl. stained).
NK 1821 (mentions 4 copies); BCNI 713; Machiels R-267;NNBW V, cols. 612-3; Biogr. Nationale de Belgique XX, pp. 102-10 (list of works by Rosemondt compiled by Willem de Vreese; see 107-8 for this work); Adams R-782 (ed. Antwerp, M. Hillen van Hoochstraten, March 1519); Gistelinck & Sabbe 783 (ed. Antwerp, M. Hillen van Hoochstraten, 1525); C. COPPENS, 'Het "Confessionale" van Godschalc Rosemondt, spiegel van een nieuwe maatschappij', in: Ex Officina: Bulletin van de vrienden van de Leuvense Universiteitsbibl., 2 (1985), pp. 13-36, 94-108; Th.N. Tentler, Sin and confession onnthe Eve of the Reformation (1977), pp. 37-8.

Related Subjects: 16th Century  Antwerp  Catholicism  Post Incunabula  Religion 

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