PERRONE, GIOVANNI. – Jesuit, theologian, born at Chieri (diocese of Turin) on 11 March 1794, died at Castelgandolfo on 28 August 1876.
Having graduated in theology from the University of Turin, he entered the Society of Jesus, recently restored by Pius VII, on 14 December 1815. He was professor of dogmatic theology at Orvieto (1817–24), then transferred to the same teaching post at the Collegio Romano, continuing there until his death, interrupted only by three years as rector at Ferrara and approximately three years of exile in England because of the revolutionary disturbances of the Roman Republic (1848–51). He was a consultor to Gregory XVI in the controversy concerning Hermesianism and to Pius IX for the definition of the Immaculate Conception, whose definability he defended in De immaculata B. Mariae Virginis conceptus (Rome 1847; 10th ed. Milan 1852). His fame is linked above all to his theological textbooks, which made him one of the most distinguished restorers of ecclesiastical studies in the nineteenth century; his clarity, method, concision, and especially his extensive knowledge of patristic sources and positive theology made him appreciated and suitable for scholars of his time. He published: Praelectiones theologiae dogmaticae (9 vols., Rome 1835–42; of which, by 1888, there had been 34 editions, with complete or partial translations into various languages); Praelectiones... in compendium redactae (5 vols. [later 2], ibid. 1845; of which there had been 47 editions by 1892). In addition, as a supplement to the Praelectiones, various special treatises: De virtutibus fidei, spei et caritatis (Ratisbon 1865); De virtute religionis (Paris 1866), in which he combated especially the theories of mesmerism, somnambulism, and spiritism; De Domini Nostri Jesu Christi divinitate adversus huius aetatis incredulus (3 vols., Turin 1870); De matrimonio christiano (3 vols., ibid. 1870); De Romani Pontificis infallibilitate (ibid. 1874). He published many other controversial writings against the errors of G. Hermes, of whom he proved a formidable adversary; the principal were: l’Ermesianismo (3 fasc., Rome 1838–39), and against the Protestants: Il protestantesimo e la regola di fede (3 vols., ibid. 1853).