HELGESEN, PAUL

born c. 1485, , Varberg, Danish Sweden died c. 1535 Latin Paulus Helie, Paulus Eliae, or Paulus Eliesen Danish Humanist and champion of Scandinavian Roman Catholicism who opposed the Lutheran Reformation in Denmark. The author of several works against Scandinavian Reformers, he also translated works by the Dutch Humanist Erasmus and wrote the Skiby chronicle, a discussion of Danish religious and political events of his time. He refused to break with the pope and the Roman Catholic Church but criticized the worldliness of the church and the selling of indulgences. A Carmelite monk, he was professor of theology at the University of Copenhagen (1519-22) and was provincial (province superior) of the Scandinavian Carmelites (1522-34).