Chalmers, William (Camerarius)
CHALMERS, WILLIAM (CAMERARIUS)
Theologian; b. Aberdeen, Scotland, date unknown; d. Paris in 1678. After training for the priesthood at the Scots' College in Rome, he became a Jesuit. In 1625, following a brief sojourn in England, he left the Jesuits and became an Oratorian. He published his Selectae disputationes philosophicae in Paris in 1630. He edited several opuscula of Augustine, Anselm and Fulgentius in 1634. A work on moral theology, Disputationes theologicae de discrimine peccati venialis et mortalis (Fastemburg), appeared in 1639. He published a short ecclesiastical history of Scotland, Scotianae ecclesiae infantia, virilis aetas, senectus (Paris 1643). He is, however, known mostly for his spirited rejection of molinism and vigorous defense of physical premotion in his Antiquitatis de novitate victoria (Fastemburg 1634) and his Dissertatio theologica de electione angelorum et hominum ad gloriam (Rennes 1641).
Bibliography: a. ingold, Dictionnaire de théologie catholique, ed. a. vacant et al., 15 v. (Paris 1903–50) 2.2:2211.
[c. r. meyer]