GOTTARDO BELL’HUOMO (BELLOMO), Gottardo. - Ascetic writer and Jesuit, born at Castiglione delle Stiviere (Mantua) on 7 June 1612, died there on 26 Nov. 1690. Professor of letters, philosophy and theology, he governed the house at Busseto (Parma) and the colleges at Padua and Modena.
All his works, except the Microcosmus immobilis (a compendium of philosophy, Mantua 1655), are of an ascetic nature: Initium sapientiae sive considerationes (Bologna 1657); Le fiumine del Santuario (meditations on the Passion, Venice 1672); La pace di coscienza (ibid. 1685).
Il pregio e l’ordine delle orazioni ordinarie e mistiche (Modena 1678) is his most important work, written to refute the errors of the Quietists, Molinos, Petrucci and Malaval, though these authors are never named; in a severe expository and polemical style it firmly denies that their kind of prayer is for all. The book had wide repercussions, together with a similar work by Fr Segneri; but it was placed on the Index “donec corrigatur” (26 Nov. 1681).