SALMERON, ALFONSO. — Jesuit, exegete, born at Toledo on 8 September 1515, died at Naples on 13 February 1585.
While studying theology in Paris, he joined the first companions of S. Ignazio, with whom he took his vows at Montmartre on 15 August 1534. Ordained a priest at Venice (1537), he preached successfully in various cities of Italy; in 1546 he attended the Council of Trent with Lainez, as the Pope’s theologian; in 1549 he received his doctorate in theology at Bologna; thereafter he preached at Ingolstadt on the Epistle of S. Paolo to the Romans (1549–50); he returned to the Council (1551); he founded and directed the College of Naples (1551–55); he accompanied the nuncio Lippomani to the Diet of Augsburg and to Poland, and Cardinal Caraffa to Belgium (1555–58); he was provincial at Naples (1558–76), in the meantime taking part in the Council for the third time. From 1576 until his death he devoted himself to composing his works.
His principal work consists of the 16 volumes of Commentaries on Sacred Scripture, in which he not only explains the biblical passages but also, when occasion arises, treats the dogmatic, moral, and ecclesiastical-law questions connected with them: volumes I–XI, in evangelicam historiam (Madrid 1597–1601, Cologne 1602–04); XII, in Acta Apostolorum (ibid. 1604); XIII–XV, in omnes epistolas b. Pauli (ibid. 1604); XVI, in epistolas canonicas et in Apocalypsim (ibid. 1604). Other works: Sermones in parabolas evangelicas (Antwerp 1601); the Epistolae were printed in Monumenta hist. S. I., 2 vols., Madrid 1906–07; the treatise on justification according to the Epistle to the Romans, in Concilium Tridentinum: Diariorum, Actorum, etc., XII, edited by V. Schweitzer (Freiburg im Breisgau 1929), pp. 727–36. Most of his other works remains unpublished: sermons, controversies, etc.