MARTINO de Azpilcueta (Navarrus). - Moral theologian and canonist, b. 13 May 1492 at Barason in Navarre, d. in Rome on 21 June 1586. He was a cousin of St Francis Xavier, with whom he maintained epistolary relations; doctor (1541) and professor of canon law at Cahors (before 1520) and then at Toulouse, where he had studied and been ordained; at Salamanca he was professor of decretals (1532), then of Prima (1533) at Coimbra, where he helped to organize the university (1538-55).
He intervened as a theologian in the dispute between Philip II and Paul IV, which bordered on schism, through excessive accommodation to the king. However, he later defended the same archbishop Carranza, both in Rome and as an advocate, which the king never forgave him. In Rome he was esteemed by Popes Pius V, Gregory XIII and Sixtus V; he was named consultor of the Penitentiary but was denied the cardinal’s hat only through Philip II’s opposition. Against this, M. published an indignant justification: *Epistola apologetica ad... ducem Albuquerquensem* (Rome 1570). A man of refined intellect and austere life, full of charity toward his neighbour, he ranks among the greatest of his age as moralist, canonist and ascetical writer. His works, repeatedly printed even after his death, were in part regarded as classics. Among the best known is his *Manuale sive enchiridion confessariorum et paenitentium* (Antwerp 1573), a reworking of his *Manual de confessores y penitentes* (Coimbra 1553). His output in canon law is immense; especially famous is *De redditibus beneficiorum ecclesiasticorum* (Rome 1568, 1574; 1st ed. in Spanish, Valladolid 1566). He also wrote extensively on the Breviary, religious orders, ecclesiastical property, etc., which were published in complete editions at Rome (3 vols., 1590), Lyons (1589-91), Venice (5 vols., 1602) and Cologne (2 vols., 1615).