Pierre Sutor

Petrus Sutor (French: Pierre Cousturier; c. 1480 – 18 June 1537) was a French theologian and Carthusian monk. Born in Chemere-le-Roy in the latter part of the 15th century, he earned a doctorate of theology at the Sorbonne in 1510 and then taught at the College of St. Barbe from about 1495 until about 1502. He later became a monk in the Carthusian order. Between 1514 and 1531, he was the prior of four Carthusian houses: Val-Dieu, Vauvert, Preize, and Notre-Dame-du-Parc. He was a follower of theologian Natalis Beda. In 1519, he was made governor of the Carthusians of Paris.

Sutor is known for being an outspoken critic of Erasmus, Martin Luther, and Protestantism more generally. For example, in his 1525 work De Translatione Bibliae ("On the Translation of the Bible"), he vehemently opposed the translation of the Bible into vernacular languages while upholding the sufficiency of St. Jerome's Latin Vulgate. He "considered it sufficient that the people could recite the Lord's Prayer, the Decalogue, the Creed and the Commandments of the Church."

Works

De vita cartusiana libri duo [On the Carthusian Life, in Two Books] (Paris, 1522; Louvain, 1572; Cologne, 1609) De triplici connubio divae Annae disceptatio [A Disputation on the Threefold Marriage of St. Anne] (Paris, 1523) De tralatione Bibliae et novarum reprobatione interpretationum [On the Translation of the Bible and the Rejection of New Interpretations] (Paris, 1525) Antapologia ... in quamdam Erasmi apologiam [Counter-Apology against a Certain Apologia of Erasmus] (Paris, 1526) Apologeticum in novos Anticomaritas, praeclaris beatissimae Virginis Mariae laudibus detrahentes [A Defense against the New Anticomarites, Who Detract from the Praises of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary] (Paris, 1526) Apologia ... in damnatam Lutheri haeresim de votis monasticis [A Defense against the Condemned Heresy of Luther concerning Monastic Vows] (Paris, 1531) De potestate ecclesiae in occultis [On the Power of the Church in Hidden Matters] (Paris, 1534; 1546)