Jacobus Latomus

Jacobus Latomus
Jacobus Latomus from Boissard's Bibliotheca chalcographica (1669)
Born	ca. 1475 Cambron, present-day France
Died	29 May 1544 (aged 68–69) Leuven, Flanders
Nationality	Flemish
Institutions	Old University of Leuven

Jacobus Latomus (or Jacques Masson) (ca. 1475, Cambron – 29 May 1544, Leuven) was a Flemish theologian, a distinguished member of the Faculty of Theology at the University of Leuven. Latomus was a theological adviser to the Inquisition, and his exchange with William Tyndale is particularly noted. The general focus of his academic work centered on opposing Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation, supporting the divine right of the papacy and the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church.Etymology: Latinized Latomus = Masson from Greek lā-tómos 'stone-cutter, quarryman', thus 'mason'.

Latomus completed his studies in Paris at the Collège de Montaigu, where he obtained a doctorate in theology in 1519. In the same year, he began teaching theology in Leuven, becoming a full professor in 1535. Having risen to the post of dean of the Faculty of Theology, he became rector of the University of Leuven in 1537.

His first work was published in 1519, a criticism of Biblical language studies at the Collegium Trilingue in Leuven, as well as work against Desiderius Erasmus, which initiated a long-standing literary dispute between Erasmus and Latomus. Other writings included criticism of Martin Luther, a defense of the theologians of Leuven, and arguments against Johannes Oecolampadius and Philipp Melanchthon.

Nicholas Crane has described Latomus as a "tiny, chilling, man with thin lips, dark, bagged eyes and a limp". Erasmus referred to his opponent's limp, assigning him the "Hephestion", a reference to the crippled metal-smith of Greek mythology.