BASTIDA, FERNANDO de la. - Spanish theologian, born at Valladolid in 1539, died there in 1637. Having entered the Jesuits in 1588, he taught theology in his native city; then, summoned to Rome, he was the principal champion of the Order (after Gregorio de Valencia and Pedro Arrubal) in the fourth phase of the controversy de auxiliis, in which he disputed against Fr. Tomas de Lemos O. P., in 1604 before Clemente VIII on middle knowledge, and in 1605-1606 before Paolo V on physical predetermination.
His speeches are found in Fr. Livino de Meyer’s Historia controversiarum de divinae gratiae auxiliis (Antwerp 1705). B. also intervened in defense of Paolo V in the controversy over the Venetian interdict: Antidoto a las venenosas consideraciones de fra Paulo de Venedia sobre las censuras de N. S. Paulo V (Venice and Lyons 1607; in Italian, Rome 1607).
In 1619 B. left the Society of Jesus (it was said that his Jewish descent had been discovered, which at that time constituted an impediment to admission into the Order), and he was made a canon and professor at the University of Valladolid. He is said to have left in manuscript two volumes on the history of the Congregation de auxiliis, later used by Fr. Gabriele Henao in his Stetitia media historica propugnata (Salamanca 1655).