ROBERT BELLARMINE, Saint. - Doctor of the Church, b. at Montepulciano on 4 Oct. 1542, d. at Rome on 17 Sept. 1621. Of a noble family (his mother Cintia was the sister of Cardinal Cervini, the future Marcellus II), he was to leave for the University of Padua when in 1558, immediately after the arrival of the Jesuits at Montepulciano, the young man asked Lainez (v.) to enter the Society of Jesus.
Admitted there on 21 Sept. 1560, R. successfully attended at the Roman College the course of philosophy taught by Toledo and Mariana (v.). After five years (1563-67) of teaching letters in the Colleges of Florence and Mondovì, he began at Padua the theological course, which he completed at Louvain, where in 1569 St. Francis Borgia (v.) sent him, as a preacher against Protestantism in the Netherlands. Ordained priest at Ghent on 25 March 1570, the B. achieved notable success in preaching and in the struggle he engaged in against the errors of Michael Baius (already condemned by Pius V, on 1 Oct. 1567), as soon as he began teaching theology in the house of the Jesuits (Oct. 1570), in which he took as his text, commenting on it, the Summa Theologica of St. Thomas. Recalled to Rome, for reasons of health, by the Father General Mercurian, he was entrusted, at the Roman College, with the new chair of controversies, which he was to make illustrious with the Disputationes et controversiae christianae fidei, composed over 14 years of assiduous teaching (1575-88). In Oct. 1589 he left for Paris as theologian of Cardinal legate Gaetani, sent by Sixtus V to protect Catholic interests, after the assassination of Henry III. The balanced attitude of the B. attracted the admiration of Henry IV himself, who, having converted, always saw in the Saint a sincere friend. After the death of Sixtus V (27 Aug. 1590), the B. returned to Rome where he worked intensely for the Sixto-Clementine edition of the Vulgate (1591-92). He resumed the office of spiritual father at the Roman College (the assignment had been given to him in 1588, at the end of his controversialist teaching) and as such directed in his last months, assisting him at the moment of death, St. Aloysius Gonzaga (21 June 1591).
Rector of the Roman College in 1592, he attended, the following year, the V General Congregation of the Order, where he was designated as a member of the Commission established to give the final touch to the Ratio studiorum the Celestines in 1289, receiving the habit from Peter Celestine, to whom in 1294 he announced his elevation to the pontificate, exhorting him in vain to hide in the woods.
When the cardinalate was then offered to him by his holy master, he humbly refused it. Ordained priest in 1298, he subsequently held the offices of prior and procurator general; he opened new monasteries. He was especially distinguished in the spirit of mortification, in prayer and contemplation, in charity and patience. He was of the Society. The B. made wise proposals, accepted unanimously, above all that of establishing as a rule the following of St. Thomas in speculative (scholastic) theology. In 1595 he was named provincial of Naples, where for his moral qualities he was highly esteemed by St. Bernardino Realino himself. After the death of Cardinal Toledo, theologian of the Pope, Clement VIII, on the advice of Baronio, chose the B. for that office and therefore recalled him to Rome at the beginning of 1597, appointing him at the same time consultor of the Holy Office and examiner of bishops, until on 3 March 1599 he created him cardinal, with the title of St. Mary in Via, later changed, out of devotion to St. Charles Borromeo, to that of St. Praxedes. A member of many congregations (Holy Office, Rites, Index, Reform of the Breviary, Examination of the marriage of Henry IV) and an esteemed counselor of Clement VIII, Cardinal B. continued his theological activity as before, changing nothing in his habits as a humble religious. An enemy of flattery, he made known to the Pope with noble frankness the abuses to be corrected in the government of the Church, with the well-known memorial De rebus reformandis. In the controversy on Grace, hotly agitated in the Congregation de auxiliis, the B. substantially supported the side of Molina (v.) and of his Order, yet seeking common ground between the two parties and advising the Pope against proceeding further; with a certain vehemence he announced to Clement VIII that he would never reach a definitive resolution of the controversy.
When the archbishopric of Capua became vacant, the B. was elected to that see and consecrated bishop by the Pontiff himself on 21 Apr. 1602. Whatever the reasons for this sudden removal from Rome, St. R. B. immediately went to Capua for residence and gave proof of excellent pastoral qualities, in preaching, in teaching the catechism, in synodal dispositions, in reforms, in relations with his clergy, for whom he wrote the Spiegazione del Simbolo (Rome [?], 1604). After the death of Clement VIII (3 March 1605), the B. took part in the subsequent conclaves where he received many votes and from which emerged, at a short distance, Leo XI and Paul V; the latter wanted St. R. in Rome, who, renouncing the see of Capua, became part of the new Congregation de auxiliis, charged with ending the by now too long controversy on Grace. Once the debate was concluded, without any theoretical decision, the B. worked, with great energy, in the subsequent and grave politico-religious questions in which the Holy See was involved: the Venetian controversy (1606-1607), rekindled by the anti-Roman hatred of Paolo Sarpi (v.), in which the B. rebutted point by point the errors of Sarpi and of the seven Venetian theologians his collaborators; the Anglican controversy (1607-1609), aroused by the anti-papal oath, imposed by the English king James I on Catholic subjects on 5 July 1606. On 22 Sept. 1606 the Pope declared such an act unlawful, but the archpriest Blackwell refused to publish the pontifical brief; the B., availing himself of an old friendship with the archpriest, in a letter full of charity and doctrine, showed him how the oath implied the rejection of the primacy of the Apostolic See; Blackwell persisted in his error and was deposed. King James wished to intervene polemically in the affair: in 1608 he circulated an anonymous work: Triplici nodo triplex cuneus (the three knots were: the two pontifical briefs and the letter of the B.); the cardinal responded under the pseudonym of Matteo Torti. The English monarch republished, enlarged, the previous pamphlet, to which he prefixed a pompous preface, where, addressing the emperor Rudolf II and colleagues from the continent, he made himself defender of the divine right of kings; the B. replied with an apology for his response (1609). James I fell silent, but in his place Andrews, bishop of Chichester, continued with the Tortura Torti (London 1609), to which two confreres of the cardinal responded. The Gallican controversy (1610-12) originated from the posthumous and anonymous publication of the work of the Catholic jurist William Barclay: De potestate papae (London 1609), where the author advocated the absolute independence of civil power from ecclesiastical power, denying the Roman Pontiff any power, even indirect, over temporal matters: in his anti-papal indictment Barclay attacked in particular the De Romano Pontefice of the B. The cardinal masterfully confuted the work of the deceased jurist, giving new clarifications on the doctrine of indirect power, which he considered the best expression of Catholic doctrine on the matter. The work of the B., presented to the Parliament of Paris, was prohibited on 10 Nov. 1610. The timely intervention of Paul V and a letter of the B. to the regent Maria de' Medici succeeded in having its execution suspended. Meanwhile the son of Barclay wrote a book in defense of his father's work, to which a confrere of St. R. replied
In the last decade the cardinal continued to be "the porter of the Roman Congregations" (as the B. was called by his colleagues), sustaining further labors for the good of the Church: the administration of the diocese of Montepulciano (1607-11), the laborious and fruitful protectorate of the Celestines (reconciling the two branches of France and Italy), active participation in the famous trials of Galileo (v.), Giordano Bruno (v.) and Campanella (v.), the support given to St. Francis de Sales for the approval of the Visitandines (1616), the defense of the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception (1616-17). After taking part in the Conclave, from which Gregory XV emerged on 9 February 1612, the B., worn out by years and labors, obtained permission to retire to S. Andrea del Quirinale, where, visited by the Pontiff and his colleagues, he died piously.
Regarded as a saint by all, his cause of beatification began the year after his death and was not concluded until 1923. The delay is due to a complex of historical circumstances, among which stand out the animosities of the Gallican courts and the not brief period in which the Society was suppressed. The heroicity of the virtues of the distinguished cardinal, acknowledged orally, but not officially, by Benedict XIV, was proclaimed by Benedict XV in July 1920. Beatified in 1923 and canonized on 29 June 1930 by Pius XI, he received, on 17 September 1931, the title of Doctor of the Church.
WORKS
An extraordinarily prolific author, the Blessed touched on almost every subject of ecclesiastical learning.
1. Theological controversy
His masterpiece is the Disputationes de controversiis christianae fidei adversus huius temporis haereticos (3 vols., Ingolstadt 1586-93; 2nd ed. revised by the author, 4 vols., Venice 1596, which was the model for all the following, very numerous, editions, of which the most esteemed are: Paris 1608, Prague 1721, Rome 1832-33), in which he sets out the whole doctrine in dispute between Catholics and Protestants, on a simple and complete plan: I. CHRIST: 1. Word of God, revealed (Inspiration), written (Bible) and handed down orally (Tradition); 2. Incarnate Word, Head of the Church: Trinity, Incarnation, Hypostatic Union, human knowledge of Christ, descent into hell; mediation of Christ; 3. The Supreme Pontiff, Vicar of Christ: primacy of the Roman pontiff, the pope and the antichrist, infallibility, power of the pope in temporalibus. - II. CHURCH: 1. gathered in Council and dispersed throughout the world; 2. members of the Church militant (clerics, monks, laypeople); 3. Church suffering: purgatory;
4. Church triumphant (happiness and cult of the saints, cult of images and relics, practices of piety toward the saints)
III. SACRAMENTS: 1. in general; 2. in particular (Baptism and Confirmation; Eucharist: real presence, sacrament, sacrifice; Penance and Extreme Unction, Order and Matrimony). IV. GRACE: 1. primitive state of man; 2. original sin; 3. restoration through the work of Christ (communication of Grace; predestination; Grace and free will); 4. justification and merit.
The Blessed, on the occasion of the numerous religious debates, in which he was pars magna, developed, in further writings, particular points touched on or sketched in the major work. The principal ones are: De exemptione clericorum (Paris 1599), which was later incorporated into the De membris Ecclesiae in the Controversiae; De indulgentiis et iubilaeo (Cologne 1599) drawn up in preparation for the jubilee of 1600. Particularly interesting, for the history of the Church and of theology, are the Blessed's replies to the attacks directed against Rome in the various circumstances mentioned above: Iudicium de libro Concordiae (Ingolstadt 1585) a critical source on the famous symbolic book of Lutheranism; De translatione imperii Romani a Graecis ad Francos (Antwerp 1589); replies to Flacius Illyricus, who denied the translation of the empire made by pontifical authority; on the occasion of the interdict on Venice, St. Robert replied to Sarpi and his companions with 4 short works in Italian, later translated into Latin.
2. Exegesis
In omnes Psalmos dilucida expositio (Rome 1611); there are more than 30 subsequent editions: although not immune from certain errors of literal interpretation (the Blessed was self-taught in the Hebrew language), nevertheless this learned expositio, suffused with intimate piety, helped to make the clergy aware of the doctrinal and ascetic value of the Psalter; De editione latina vulgata, quo sensu a Concilio Tridentino definitum sit, ut ea pro authentica habeatur (posthumous, Würzburg 1749).
3. Ascetics
Numerous short works reveal his intense fervor: De ascensione mentis in Deum (Rome 1615); De aeterna felicitate sanctorum (ibid. 1616); De gemitu columbae seu de bono lacrymarum (ibid. 1616); De septem verbis a Christo in Cruce prolatis (Antwerp 1618); De arte bene moriendi (Rome 1620); De cognitione Dei (posthumous, Louvain 1861).
For those persons to whom God has given greater social responsibility, the Saint dictated precise norms for personal sanctification and for the good government of the Church and the State: De officio primario Summi Pontificis et eiusdem Pontificis responsiones (in the appendix to the Epistolae familiares); Admonitio ad episcopum Theanensem, nepotem suum, quae necessaria sint episcopo qui vere salutem suam aeternam in tuto ponere velit (Paris 1616); De officio principis christiani (Rome and Antwerp 1619), dedicated to Prince Ladislaus, son of the Polish king Sigismund III.
4. Oratory
St. Robert was an assiduous preacher, who cared less for elegance of style than for vigor of reasoning and solidity of doctrinal content: Conciones habitae Lovanii (Cologne 1615); Exhortationes domesticae (posthumous; Brussels 1899). Father Tromp is now editing the Opera oratoria postuma (10 vols., Rome 1940 ff.: several volumes have already appeared).
5. History
De scriptoribus ecclesiasticis (Rome 1613): a list of Christian authors from the origins to 1500.
(by courtesy of the Rev. Archivist of the Pont. Gregorian University)
ROBERTO BELLARMINO, saint. - Letter with which the Blessed offers his Disputationes to the Library of the Roman College (12 Dec. 1608). Rome, Archive of the Pont. Gregorian University.
At the request of Muzio Vitelleschi, then assistant for Italy, the Blessed wrote the Autobiography (1613), as documentation for the history of the Society of Jesus: this narrative, which reflects the Saint's candor, was a weapon in the hands of his adversaries. Recupero librorum omnium R. B. (ibid. 1607): a kind of retractationes of his entire scholarly output.
6. Catechetics
His works were widely circulated: Dottrina cristiana breve (Rome 1597); Dichiarazione più copiosa della dottrina cristiana (ibid. 1598). For other published and unpublished works v. X. le Bachelet, Auctarium Bellarminianum, Paris 1913.
The Opera omnia had the following principal editions: 7 vols., Cologne 1619-20; Paris 1619, Venice 1722-29; 8 vols., Naples 1856-62; 12 vols., Paris 1870-74.
EVALUATION
St. R. B., who by sharpness of intellect (as emerges from his personal stance in the de auxiliis controversy) and by theological sensitivity (he was quite capable of creating new theories, for example on Grace, on the power of the pope) could have been a second Cardinal Cajetan, preferred another path. While recognizing the high value of medieval speculation (his opposition to Scholasticism is a myth), in particular of Thomistic speculation, nevertheless, as a man sensitive to the problems of the hour, he intuited that after the attacks of Protestantism it was necessary to repel the adversary on the same field and with the same weapons. The direct contact he had, in the prime of his years, at Louvain with the Protestant heresy, in its various forms and derivations, helped to give his powerful intellect that unexpected success.
B., served by a particular sense of concreteness, fought the Protestantism of the second generation, which, through a kind of withdrawal into itself, had sought to give to the personal experiences of Luther and Calvin an apparatus of proofs, drawn from Scripture and from the early ecclesiastical writers, which were supposed to justify them in the eyes of their numerous followers. Accordingly, in B.'s Controversies one must not look for the Luther of history, the one of deep and at times sincere inner stirrings, but the Luther by then fixed in the features imposed on him by the admirers of the second hour. The theologian of the Roman College struggled against the cold and robed Lutheranism of Melanchthon, above all of Martin Chemnitz, of whom it was said: si Martinus [Chemnitz] non fuisset, Martinus [Lutherus] non stetisset.
His struggle was complete and was meant to be so, in order to force the enemy to fall back along the entire line. His predecessors had responded to this or that difficulty; B. wished to respond to all of them, and therefore his work is a true summa of all the anti-Protestant controversies. The method he followed reflects the demands of the moment, of that particular mental structure that humanism and the "Reformation" had created and spread throughout Europe: Scripture, documents, history, not quibbles, not speculations or school quarrels. Bellarmine's tactics kept this psychology of the opponent in mind, and therefore his responses are measured and pertinent. After the exposition of Protestant doctrine drawn from direct sources (perhaps no Catholic in the 16th century read more heretical works at Louvain than B.) and made with unusual assurance (so that some Catholics were scandalized), even if the parts do not always appear well articulated. The author sets against it the Catholic teaching, which he draws from the biblical texts, interpreted literally by the patristic writers, of whom, for that era, he shows broad and deep knowledge. Scripture is not taken in its full and complex meaning, as the modern biblical scholar can do, who has an organic knowledge of the whole written Revelation, but is used as a locus theologicus, in the sense of Melchior Cano, as an argument ad hoc. By the same criterion he draws from the Fathers, citing the characteristic text that responds to that particular denial; the context is neglected. Of reason B. made that use which could interest and move a Protestant mind: he brought out the moral aspect of Catholic doctrine, its intimate connection with real life, with the demand for a natural and incontrovertible logic. However poor and bare this equipment of the great controversialist of the 16th century may seem today, it should be remembered that it achieved the desired goal, since the success was immediate, broad and lasting. The Protestants implicitly recognized that the response was superior to the attack: at Heidelberg in 1600 a Collegium antibellarminianum was founded, and for half a century the Saint's work was the principal target of anti-Catholic polemic: more than 200 works were written against the Controversies.
Catholics felt all the pride of having such a defender; the flattering judgments of Cardinal Baronio and of St. Francis de Sales are well known. Praises not purely conventional, since the whole theology of the 17th-19th centuries, and in part of our own century, is indebted, in its fundamental structure, to the method established by B.
His work and his method have left a deep mark on the history of the Church and of theology; his doctrines on the Pope and on the Sacraments (for example, on the opus operatum) have enriched the doctrinal tradition of Catholicism; his spiritual opuscules have nourished the piety of many souls; his catechism, inspired by the mental concreteness of the people, has instructed for centuries a great part of Christendom; his devotion to Christ and to his Mystical Body was such as to be an example more admirable than imitable.
Bibliography22 works
Antonio Piolanti