About Louis Billot
Louis Billot (12 January 1846 in Sierck-les-Bains, Moselle, France – 18 December 1931 in Ariccia, Latium, Italy) was a French Jesuit priest and theologian. He became a cardinal in 1911 and resigned from that status in 1927, the only person to do so in the twentieth century. While largely unknown in the modern age, he was nonetheless considered "the most important Thomistic speculative theologian of the late nineteenth century." Billot's support for the deeply conservative movement Action Française eventually created tension between him and the Holy See. Pius X created him Cardinal Deacon of Santa Maria in Via Lata in the consistory of 27 November 1911. In 1885, Billot became a professor of dogmatic theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. A keen proponent of Thomistic scholasticism, Billot became a leading figure in metaphysical and speculative theology.
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