Ruard Tapper

Ruard Tapper (15 February 1487 – 2 March 1559) was a Dutch theologian of the Catholic Reformation, a chancellor of Leuven University, and an inquisitor.

Life Tapper was born at Enkhuizen, County of Holland, on 15 February 1487. He matriculated at Leuven University on 11 June 1503, and graduated M.A. in 1507, placing second highest in his year. While studying Theology he taught physics and logic, and in 1511 sat on the university council on behalf of the Faculty of Arts. In 1517 he served as dean of the Faculty of Arts. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1515, and graduated Licentiate of Sacred Theology on 3 June 1516 and Doctor of Sacred Theology on 16 August 1519.

On 6 July 1537, Pope Paul III appointed Tapper and Michael Drieux jointly as Inquisitors General of the Low Countries. Tapper was singled out for criticism as a merciless persecutor in Protestant texts, with one early history of the Reformation attributing to him the view that "It is no great matter whether those that die on this account be guilty or innocent, provided we terrify the people by these examples". In fact, Tapper was often more lenient than the letter of the law required, imposing public penances where the decrees of Charles V called for the death penalty, and insisting that spiritual ills required spiritual remedies. in response to which Tapper himself brought out a volume entitled Explicationis Articulorum in 1555, dedicated to Philip II, who had just married Mary I of England. The second volume included a letter of commendation from Philip dated Canterbury, 1 September 1556, in response to the first volume. The two volumes together covered only 20 of the 32 articles. The third volume was left uncompleted at the author's death. Explicationis articulorum (2 vols., Leuven, 1555–1557) Opera omnia (2 vols., Cologne, Birckmann office, 1582)