Zeger Bernhard van Espen

Zeger Bernhard van Espen (Espenius) (9 July 1646 at Leuven – 2 October 1728 at Amersfoort, Netherlands) was a Belgian canonist, who supported Gallican theories and was an ardent upholder of secular power against religious authority.

He soon began to teach canon law at the university where he was obliged to lecture only for six weeks during the summer vacation; the professor might explain one or other important chapter of the decretals, at his choice.

An attempt has been made to justify Espen's conduct in this matter, on the ground that he merely declared that episcopal ordination performed by a single bishop was valid.

The Augustinian Bernardus Désirant, professor at the old University of Leuven, was accused of fabricating false documents in the controversy with Espen (the "Forgery of Louvain").

He gained notoriety in the Jansenist conflicts, by denying the importance of the distinction between right and fact with regard to Cornelius Jansen's doctrine; he declared that it was of little consequence to admit that Jansen taught the propositions, condemned in 1713 by Pope Clement XI in Unigenitus, provided the doctrine itself was rejected.

According to Catholic Encyclopedia, the best edition of Ius ecclesiasticum universum was published in Louvain as four volumes in 1753: A fifth volume was published at Brussels in 1768, and contains biographical details: Peter-Ben Smit wrote, in Old Catholic and Philippine Independent Ecclesiologies in History, that "the Church of Utrecht used the entirety of the Corpus Juris Canonici," mainly van Espen's Ius Ecclesiasticum Universum and "a considerable body of particular canon law".