MOLINA, LUIS de. — Jesuit theologian, Molinism (v.), b. at Cuenca (New Castile) in 1556, d. at Toledo on 12 October 1600. He entered religious life at Alcalà (1553) and was immediately sent to Coimbra to complete his studies. Appointed professor of dogmatic theology at Evora, he remained there for twenty years (1566–1586).
When the controversy originating at Louvain from the theological theses by which Lessius, in order to safeguard the freedom of created free will, denied the intrinsic efficacy of Grace and upheld predestination post praevisa merita, also broke out in Spain, M., with the intention of finding a point of agreement with the opposing doctrines of the Dominicans, thought to develop and apply to the question of Grace the concept of divine foreknowledge of futuribles through scientia media, as Fonseca had already indicated. Thus was born the Concordia liberi arbitrii cum Gratiae donis, divina praescientia, providentia, praedestinatione et reproductione ad nonnullos primae partis D. Thomae articulos (Lisbon 1588), with a laudatory presentation by the Dominican Bartolomeo Ferreira, delegated censor of the Portuguese Inquisition. It had numerous other editions (Cuenca 1592, Lyon 1593, Venice 1594); the last is that of Paris (1876), in which the title was slightly altered.
The governor of Portugal, Cardinal Alberto of Austria, to whom the work was dedicated, prohibited its sale Bañez (v.), who had it examined by the University of Salamanca, which found in it several censurable propositions. The cardinal submitted these censures to M., who replied with a memorandum, added in an appendix to the edition, after which its sale was permitted. As its title indicates, the work is an extensive commentary on the Sum. Theol., 1°, q. 14, a. 13, q. 19, a. 6; q. 22 and 23. It did not, however, achieve the author’s intended irenic purpose, since it sharpened the discussion of the doctrines set forth in it, to such an extent that Clement VIII took the judgment concerning the work and the entire question into his own hands (v. CONGREGAZIONI ROMANE SACRE, III). For more than twenty years the danger of condemnation hung over the Concordia. M., in order to prepare himself better for the defence, left Evora for the College of Cuenca. There 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 published posthumously; partial eds.: Cuenca 1593, 1597, 1600, Antwerp 1600; complete ed.: Cologne 1613, Venice 1614, Antwerp 1615). In 1600 he was summoned to Madrid by the visitor of the province of Toledo to occupy the chair of moral theology recently established there, but died after only six months.
M., an exemplary religious and a man of profound interior life, was placed by circumstances at the head of one of the most celebrated modern theological schools. M.’s importance, however, is not confined to the field of dogmatic theology, in which his personal contribution was limited to a single question.
He excelled as a jurist and moralist. In his De iustitia, he did not merely engage in casuistry but, insisting on the philosophy of law, sought to provide a scientific foundation for its solutions; he also contributed greatly to clarifying the relations between Church and State and to indicating, at least in principle, the solution of the economic questions that were already making themselves felt in his time.