VALENCIA (Valentinus, Valentianus), Gregorio de. - Jesuit, one of the most distinguished theologians of Germany in the early post-Tridentine era, b. at Medina del Campo (Castile) in March 1545, d. at Naples on 25 April 1603.
Having entered the Order in 1565, as soon as he was a priest he went to Germany for the chair of dogmatics, first at the University of Dillingen (1573-75), then at that of Ingolstadt (1575-92). A six-year period of freedom from teaching followed, so that he might attend to the publication of his works; then in 1598 he was called to Rome as professor of dogma and prefect of studies at the Roman College; in 1602 he took part, by order of the general Claudio Acquaviva, in the Congregations "de Auxiliis," where he proved himself a strenuous defender of Molina (v.) and earned from Clement VIII the title of "doctor doctorum." But he did not long withstand this new labor, and, sent to Naples at the end of 1602 to recover, he died there instead a few months later.
The V.'s principal merit is the scientific defense of the faith by word and writings. Among these: De rebus fidei hoc tempore controversi (Lyons 1591; Paris 1610), where he collected 34 monographs already published separately and revised, adding 13 others unpublished. There he treats especially the cult of the saints, of relics, of the Sacrament of the altar and of the Sacrifice of the Mass. The work may be set beside the Controversiae of St. Robert Bellarmine; but there are passages and sallies too virulent against the Protestants. However, the most important writings, which give him a true pre-eminence, are two: Analysis fidei catholicae (Ingolstadt 1585), a methodical treatise, in which two principles predominate: only in the Roman Church is the faith found with infallible certainty, and only union with it assures eternal salvation; assertions that coincide almost to the letter with those of the Vatican Council on pontifical infallibility; Commentarii theologici (4 vols., Ingolstadt 1591-97; appearing in various editions: 12 in twenty years), a systematic theology that also includes philosophy and follows the order of the questions of the Summa of St. Thomas; but within the bounds of each question it treats of many other topics more suited to the times and brings a greater wealth of explanations. The work imposed itself very quickly for the acuteness of its observations, its ample erudition, its order, its clarity; yet it still suffers too much from the weakness of the old scholasticism, not deepening the thought of the Fathers by taking into account the whole body of their works, and sometimes showing an elementary critical sense in the face of ancient traditions that do not hold up. In it he also defends, before Molina, a particular theory of his own concerning human freedom and divine concurrence, resorting to an "activa determinatio" of the will under the stirring of prevenient Grace; a theory called "Valencianism" and followed down to our own times by other Jesuit theologians of worth.
In the economic question, then only in its beginnings, he knew how to defend, among the first, against very determined adversaries, the legitimacy of a certain interest on loaned capital, and his opinion ended by triumphing. In the question, however, of witches, very burning then and become almost a phobia, he did not show himself equal to what was due; but he followed (in an "opinion" of 1590 to Duke William V of Bavaria and in his Commentarii [III, Ingolstadt 1595, pp. 2002-10]) the exaggerated and accepted ideas of his time, harassed by the terror of witches, and he could neither distinguish nor make others distinguish the few persons truly guilty from the hundreds of innocents, whom he ought rather to have saved.
To the V.'s credit, on the other hand, must be ascribed the fact of having formed in Germany a said host of professors of theology and philosophy, insisting that they attend, besides doctrine, to nobility of form, and awakening the critical sense and the return to ancient sources.
Bibliography7 works
Celestino Testore