Gulielmus Estius

Even though the Four Gospels were the center of the controversies between Catholics and Protestants during the tumultuous age of Counter-Reformation, the Pauline and General Epistles were never ignored by Catholic commentators. While the Jesuits took the lead of the Scripture studies in the Catholic Church, there were a few non-Jesuits whose immense learning and erudition made them receive acclaims from all Catholics, including the Popes and Jesuits. In the heresy-stricken Netherlands, one theologian stood out as a commentator on all Twenty-One Epistles. This saintly commentator was Guilielmus Estius (Willem Est in Dutch).

The pious Scripture scholar was born in Gorinchem in 1542, then still a part of the Holy Roman Empire. After receiving and completing early education, he went to Utrecht, then Louvain, the center of Catholic Counter-Reformation and philosophical and theological studies at that time in the Low Countries, where he spent years dedicated to the study of Philosophy, Theology, and Patrology (Scripture and Tradition), eventually obtaining a Doctor of Theology degree on 22 November 1580.

He inherited the deep piety from his family, which suffered greatly for the triumph of the Church of God. During the Calvinists insurgency in Netherlands, the town in which he was born was captured by the enemies of Christ and His Holy Church, and his father, brother, and uncle, Nicolas Pieck, a Franciscan friar who was a missionary to the lands infected by heresies, were imprisoned. Although his father and brother escaped, his brave missionary-uncle was martyred along with 18 Catholic clerics in 1572. They were collectively called the Martyrs of Gorcum (Martelaren van Gorcum in Dutch). These men of heroic virtues were collectively beatified by Pope Clement X in 1675 and canonized by Pope Pius IX in 1867.
Soon in 1582, after obtaining his degree, he was sent to the University of Douai, where he spent 31 years as a Professor of Scholastic Theology and Sacred Scripture. He was the rector of the seminary of the Diocese of Douai, and spent the last 18 years of his life as the chancellor of the great University of Douai. He met the Judgement of Our Lord on 20 September 1613. His characters were summarized as “piety, erudition, modesty, and kindness”.

During his years in Douai, he, together with the Jesuit Fathers, abolished the abuse of denying Last Communion to the prisoners facing execution. He attributes this success to the Catholic Church listening to his report and favoring his request, documented in a posthumously published work, saying that all Estius wanted was to submit to the Church and the Roman Pontiff, and wished no persons or families to be depraved and desired them to enjoy all Christian kindness.

On occasions, however, he showed sympathy to Michael Baius, the theologian whose views on Divine Grace and Free Will were condemned. He was influenced by Baius to a certain degree, though far from falling into any form of heresy, but more in the range of the later Dominican theologians during their controversy against Ludovicus Molinus and

other Jesuits. However, he was in favor of a condemnation drawn by the theologians in Louvain and Douai and for this reason as well as the early influence of Baius on him, his commentaries on the Sacred Scripture was advised to be read with caution in order to avoid any kind of misinterpretation.

His In Omnes Divi Pauli et Septem Catholicas Epistolas Commentarii is the classic which earned him an enduring place in pantheon of all Catholic biblical commentators, especially those who commented on the Epistles. This great commentary was published in 1614 -1615 in Douai in 2 folio tomes. Several subsequent editions quickly came out, as a result of the popularity among Catholic biblical commentators. Examples include a Cologne edition in 1631,some Paris editions in 1623, 1630, 1653, 1659, and 1666, other years, and many Louvain editions. However, Hugo von Hurter believes the best editions are two Cologne editions in 1631 and 1679 and two Mainz Editions in 1845 and 1858, the last of which was bounded in 3 tomes. This work brings Scripture passages together to determine the correct sense, in some cases by comparing the writings of the Apostles themselves, and in some other cases by comparing the interpretations and expositions by the holy Fathers of the Church in Latin and Greek, as well as the definitions from the Ecumenical Councils. This commentary and the commentary by Cornelius Lapidus, the great Jesuit commentator, had been offered compendium as the standards for Pauline expositions. Two examples of such works are Epitome Commentariorum Guilielmi Estii et Cornelii a Lapide and Medulla Paulina.

Estius was lauded by several contemporaries and later commentators for his work. For example, Antonius Calmetus, the influential and orthodox Benedictine Biblical commentator from France, had said that among absolutely all the commentaries (on the Pauline and General Epistles) that had appeared at his time, he would recommend the commentary by Estius. Such a high appraisal is no way to be ignored or downgraded as vain flattery, considering the immense authority of Calmetus as a Scripture scholar. Carolus Iosephus Rudolphus Cornelius, the noted Jesuit Biblical commentator on the Pauline Epistles from Germany, said that the commentary by Estius was the best to recommend, since he more carefully investigated the correct sense of all Epistles, so that he could more diligently attend to the connection of the ideas conveyed by the Holy Pages. Cornelius was most certainly not the only Jesuit who talked about Estius with awe, and in fact, the whole Society of Jesus held high regard on Estius and his Epistle commentaries, despite the theological controversies during which Estius stood against the Jesuits. The admiration from the Jesuits, the group which had offered the highest amount of Scripture scholars within the Catholic Church, is the most solid and irrefutable testimony of the authority of the saintly Dutch theologian.

Another work on Sacred Scripture by Estius on Sacred Scripture was Annotationes in Praecipua ac Difficiliora Loca Sacrae Scripturae, a work of a series of annotations on the specific locations of Sacred Scripture which are harder and more obscure for the seminarians to understand. While admittedly less diffuse and influential than the chief work of Estius, this work was written with the same level of clarity and diligence by the author. There was one edition published in Venice in 1759, divided in 3 tomes, in which all the works on Sacred Scripture by Estius were collected.

However, Estius was not only a Biblical scholar. As a Professor of Scholastic Theology, he distinguished himself as a commentator of Libri Quattuor Sententiarum, the classic work by Peter Lombard which was gradually by Summa Theologiae, with an In Quatuor Libros Sententiarum Commentarii, making him one of the last commentators on this medieval classic, following the doctrines of Saint Thomas Aquinas. While this work was not his chief work, it deeply impressed the erudite Pope Benedict XIV, the Pope who was noted as a Canonist and a scholar who had wide reading on the medieval and renaissance philosophical and theological works. For this reason, he was bestowed the Scholastic accolade Doctor Fundatissimus.

Another two small works by him were Historiam Martyrum Gorcumensium, a work on the life and martyrdom of the Martyrs of Gorcum and considered the best history book about this event, and Orationes Theologicae, divided into 19 books, documenting his several lectures on Scholastic theology.