PALMIERI, DOMENICO. - Jesuit, philosopher and theologian, b. at Piacenza on 4 July 1829, d. at Rome on 28 May 1909. He taught philosophy, theology and Sacred Scripture at the Seminary of Fermo, at the College of Spoleto, at the Gregorian University (1863-79) and at Maastricht in Holland (1880-87). Having returned to Rome, he was theologian of the Penitentiary, consultor of the Holy Office and then a member of the Commission for the CIC.
He wrote numerous works, remarkable for depth of doctrine and clarity of exposition. In the Institutiones philosophiae (3 vols., Rome 1874-76) he reveals himself as a acute reasoner, but unfortunately he did not always penetrate to the depths of the principles of Scholasticism, as in the question of the distinction of accidents from substance and of the union of the soul with the body. Of greater value are the theological works (De Deo creante et elevante, Rome 1878; De penitentia, ibid. 1879; De matrimonio christiano, ibid. 1880; De Gratia divina actuali, Gulpen 1885; De novissimis, Prato 1908; De ordine supernaturali et lapsu angelorum, ibid. 1910; in particular the Tractatus de Romano Pontifice cum prolegomeno de Ecclesia, Rome 1877, 3rd ed., Prato 1902). In the field of moral theology he prepared new editions of the Compendium theol. moralis of Gury and of the Opus theologicum morale of Ballerini (3rd ed., 7 vols., Prato 1898-1901). He also wrote works on Sacred Scripture and works of confutation of modernism (v.). Particular mention deserves his Commento alla Divina Commedia (3 vols., Prato 1898), remarkable for its exposition of the philosophical and theological thought of Alighieri.