BENZI, BERNARDINO. – Jesuit moral theologian, born in Venice on 16 July 1688, died there on 28 February 1768. He entered religious life in 1705 and subsequently taught grammar, rhetoric, and philosophy in various colleges, and then theology in Venice.
One of his works, Dissertatio in casus reservatos Venetae diaccesos (Venice 1743), was placed on the Index on 16 April 1744 because of a proposition « de tactu mamillari », and the same fate befell, on 22 May 1745, the Praxis tribunalis conscientiae seu tractatus theologicus moralis de sacramento paenitentiae (Bologna 1742). These incidents gave rise to an extremely violent controversy between Dominican theologians (Concina, Patuzzi, etc.) and Jesuits (B., Faure, Poli, etc.).
BIBL.: Sommervogel, I, coll. 1315-16; F. Reusch, Der Index der verbotenen Bücher, II, Bonn 1885, pp. 817-20; J. Brucker, s. V. in DThC, I, col. 719; E. Lamalle, s. V. in DHG, VIII, col. 295. Edmondo Lamalle