Maldonado (Maldonatus), Giovanni

MALDONADO (Maldonatus), GIOVANNI. - One of the founders of modern exegesis, b. at Casas de la Reina (Estremadura) in 1533, d. at Rome on 5 Jan. 1583. At the University of Salamanca he acquired a solid humanistic, philosophical and theological formation under the guidance of distinguished masters (Dom. Soto, Melchior Cano, Fr. Toledo). He then succeeded Toledo in the chair of philosophy, and shortly afterwards in that of theology. Having entered the Society of Jesus at Rome on 10 Aug. 1562, he was ordained priest in 1563 and assigned to the College of Clermont, in Paris, where he taught philosophy, and then theology (1565-77).

The success was enormous. His lectures were followed with the greatest interest not only by students, but also by professors of other faculties, by ecclesiastics and by the Calvinists themselves. In the 15th century theology had gone astray, giving itself over excessively to questions of pure philosophical speculation. M., on the other hand, adapting the salutary reforms learned at Salamanca from the Dominican masters, treated theology by founding it on Scripture, the holy Fathers and ecclesiastical Tradition, thus making it an effective weapon against the snares of invading heresy. At the commission of Charles IX he also worked directly for the Catholic reform, holding missions and conferences in a fully Protestant environment. Because of the jealousies of the Sorbonne, M. was forced to leave Paris and theology, to withdraw to Bourges, where he devoted himself to the compilation of commentaries on Holy Scripture.

In 1578 he was appointed visitor of the Society in Lorraine; in Feb. 1581 he took part in the general Congregation of the Order. Gregory XIII had him remain in Rome as a member of the commission charged with revising and publishing the Greek Septuagint Bible. Having given the final touches to his commentary on the Gospels, on 21 Dec. 1582 he presented to the father general Claudio Acquaviva the first part of it, the commentary on Matthew. A few days later he died suddenly, barely fifty years old.

In his biblical commentaries, especially in that on the Gospels, which is his masterpiece, and one of the best modern commentaries, M. pours out his vast erudition, expounding the literal sense of the sacred text, and adding to it not a few historical-theological dissertations.

All of M.'s works are posthumous. The principal ones are: Commentarii in 4 Evangelistas (Pont-à-Mousson 1596, 2 vols. in-fol., reproduced in very many other editions); Commentarii in prophetas 4, Ieremiam, Ezechielem, Baruch et Danielem (Lyons 1609, and other subsequent edd.); Commentarii in praecipuos S. Scripturae libros Veteris Testamenti (Paris 1643); De caeremonii tractatus, on the ceremonies of the Mass, published by F. A. Zaccaria in Bibliotheca ritualis (II, II, Rome 1781, pp. 1-210)

Antonio Carrozzini