Cornelius a Lapide

Cornelius Cornelii a Lapide (né Cornelis Cornelissen van den Steen; 18 December 1567 – 12 March 1637) was a Flemish Jesuit and exegete.

He was born at Bocholt, in Belgian Limburg. He studied humanities and philosophy at the Jesuit colleges of Maastricht and Cologne, theology first, for half a year, at the University of Douai, and afterwards for four years at the Old University of Leuven; he entered the Society of Jesus, 11 June 1592, and, after two years' novitiate and another year of theology, was ordained priest 24 December 1595. After teaching philosophy for half a year, he was made professor of Holy Scripture at Leuven in 1596 and next year of Hebrew also. Twenty years later, in 1616, he was called to Rome in the same capacity, where, on 3 November, he assumed the office which he filled for many years after. The latter years of his life, however, he seems to have devoted exclusively to finishing and correcting his commentaries. He died at Rome.

During his professorship at Leuven he liked to spend his holidays preaching and administering the sacraments, especially at the pilgrimage of Scherpenheuvel (Montaigu). He portrayed himself in a prayer to the Prophets at the end of his commentary on the Book of Daniel:

Cornelius a Lapide wrote commentaries on all the books of the Canon of Scripture (including the Deuterocanon), with the exception only of the Book of Job and the Psalms. Even before leaving Flanders, he edited the Commentaries in omnes divi Pauli epistolas (1614) and, In Pentateuchum (On the Pentateuch, 1616), both in Antwerp. The commentaries on the Greater and Lesser Prophets, on the Acts of the Apostles, the Canonical Epistles and the Apocalypse of St John, Wisdom of Sirach, and the Book of Proverbs, followed later on. The rest were edited only after his death; but all of them have been several times re-edited, both separately and collectively. Of the Commentary on the Epistles of St. Paul he himself lived to see at least eleven editions. The complete series, with Job and the Psalms added by other hands, appeared at Antwerp, 1681, 1714; at Venice, 1717, 1740, 1798; at Cologne, 1732; at Turin, 1838; at Lyons, 1839–42, 1865 and 1866; at Malta, 1843–46; at Naples, 1854; at Lyons and Paris, 1855 and 1856; at Milan, 1857; at Paris, 1859-63.

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