BONACINA, MARTINO. – Moral theologian, born in Milan around 1585. Professor of canon and civil law at the seminary and subsequently rector of the Swiss College in the same city, founded by s. Carlo Borromeo. Having moved to Rome, he was summoned on account of his learning to serve as the personal theologian of Cardinal I. Aldobrandini, and Urban VIII appointed him titular bishop of Utica. He died while travelling as nuncio to Vienna (1631).
His Theologia moralis (Lyons 1624), published several times and also abridged into summaries, remains a classic work for its erudition, depth of doctrine, and clarity. In it he shows himself a supporter of probabilism.
BIBL.: F. Argelati, Biblioth. Script. Mediolan., I, Milan 1745, col. 188; Mazzuchelli, II, III, p. 1534 ff.; Hutter, III, cols. 888–89. Celestino Testore