Dens

Dens, PETER, a well-known Roman Catholic theologian, was born in 1690, at Boom, near Antwerp. Little is known of his early life; but from the epitaph on his tomb in the chapel of the archiepiscopal college of Malines, it appears that he was reader in theology at Malines for twelve years, plebanus or parish priest of St Rumold's, and president of the College of Malines for forty years. He died 15th February 1775, in the eighty-fifth year of his age. The work which has rendered Dens's name familiar, even to the Protestant public, is his Theologia Moralis et Dogmatica. It is a systematic exposition and defence—in the form of a catechism—of every point of ethics and doctrine maintained by Roman Catholics, and is extensively adopted as the text-book of theology in their colleges. It appears to owe its popularity more to its being a handy and usable compilation than to any great talent exhibited by its author. The casuistical parts of the work have been severely criticised by Protestant moralists. An edition was published at Dublin in 1832.