MOLINA, Luis de. - Jesuit theologian, whose name is linked to Molinism (v.), born in Cuenca (New Castile) in 1536, died in Toledo on 12 Oct. 1600. He entered the religious life at Alcalá (1553) and was soon sent to Coimbra to complete his studies. Appointed professor of dogmatic theology at Évora, he remained there for two decades (1566–1586).
When the controversy that had originated in Louvain over the theological theses of Lessius—who, in order to safeguard the freedom of the created will, denied the intrinsic efficacy of grace and upheld predestination *post praevisa merita*—also flared up in Spain, Molina, seeking a point of agreement with the opposing doctrines of the Dominicans, developed and applied to the question of grace the concept of the divine preordination of future contingents through *scientia media*, as already indicated by Fonseca. Thus arose his *Concordia liberi arbitrii cum Gratiae donis, divina praescientia, providentia, praedestinatione et reprobatione ad nonnullos primae partis D. Thomae articulos* (Lisbon 1588), prefaced by the Dominican Bartolomeo Ferreira, delegate censor of the Portuguese Inquisition. The work went through many editions (Cuenca 1592, Lyon 1593, Venice 1594); the last is that of Paris (1876), in which the title is slightly altered.
The governor of Portugal, Cardinal Alberto d’Austria, to whom the work was dedicated, prohibited its sale Báñez (v.), who had it examined by the University of Salamanca. This body found several propositions censurable. The cardinal forwarded these censures to Molina, who replied with a memorandum appended to the edition, after which its sale was permitted. The work, as its title indicates, is an extensive commentary on *Sum. Theol.*, I, q. 14, a. 13; q. 19, a. 6; q. 22 and 23. It nevertheless failed to achieve the irenic aim its author had set, for it intensified the debate over the doctrines it expounded, so much so that Clement VIII took the judgment of the work and the entire controversy upon himself (v. CONGREGAZIONI ROMANE, SACRE, III). For more than twenty years the *Concordia* stood in danger of condemnation. To prepare a better defense, Molina left Évora for the College of Cuenca, where he devoted himself to two new works: the *Commentaria in primam Divi Thomae partem* (2 vols., Cuenca 1592, Lyon 1593, Venice 1594) and the *De iustitia et iure* (6 vols., partly posthumous; partial editions: Cuenca 1593, 1597, 1600, Antwerp 1609; complete edition: Cologne 1613, Venice 1614, Antwerp 1615). In 1600 he was summoned by the visitor of the Toledo province to Madrid to occupy the newly established chair of moral theology, but he died after only six months.
Molina, a model religious of profound interior life, was placed by circumstances at the head of one of the most celebrated modern dogmatic schools. His importance, however, is not confined to the field of dogmatic theology, in which his personal contribution was limited to a single issue.
He excelled as a jurist and moralist. In his *De iustitia*, he did not merely engage in casuistry; by insisting on the philosophy of law, he sought to lay a scientific foundation for solutions and contributed greatly to loosening the ties between Church and State and to indicating, at least in principle, solutions to economic questions that were already pressing in his day.