Vega, Andrés de (VEGA, ANDRES DE) - Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. XII, p. 741

Machine translation of the 1948–1954 Italian original. The original text is authoritative.

VEGA, ANDRES de. – Franciscan theologian, born in Segovia in 1498, died at Salamanca in September 1549. He studied and taught at Salamanca; at the age of 40 he became a Franciscan religious of the Observance.

As theologian to Cardinal Pacheco, he was sent by Charles V to the Council of Trent, where he attended the first seven sessions; on 23 February 1547 he delivered the Ash Wednesday discourse. Because of his knowledge of Greek and Hebrew, he played a leading role in the biblical questions; his opinion was adopted in the decrees on the canonical books. He played a significant part

Article illustration — VEGA CARPÍO, LOPE FELIX de – Portrait. Engraving by Moreno Tejada, prefixed to the *Obras sueltas*, Madrid 1776 – Copy in the Vatican Library.
(photo Enc. Cult.)

in preparing the decree on justification; in fact, it appears that almost half of the canons on this decree (Session VI of the Council) are taken almost literally from V.’s draft; in the others, too, his influence is perceptible. At Trent he also disputed (25 January 1547) on the Sacraments in general and, in particular, on Baptism, Confirmation and (16 February) the Eucharist. From 1547 to 1549 he was in Venice to oversee the publication of his works; in 1549 he returned to Salamanca.

Among his principal works are the Opusculum de iustificatione, Gratia et meritis (Venice 1546) and the masterpiece Tridentini decreti de iustificatione expositio et defensio libris XV distincta totam doctrinam de iustificationibus complectentibus (there 1548). The final two books are directed against Calvin, who had written (13 October 1547): Antidotum in acta Synodi Tridentinae. Considering this twofold treatise on justification the finest of its kind, St. Pier Canisio undertook a new edition of it in Cologne in 1572, although modifying the title somewhat. Even today this work is regarded (M. Grabmann, Storia della teologia cattolica, Milan 1937, p. 209) as the best source for understanding the Tridentine doctrine of justification. Other works remain unpublished.

BIBL.: Wadding, Scriptores, p. 17; N. Antonio, Bibliotheca hispana, I, Madrid 1783, p. 88; B. Oromi, Los Franciscanos españoles en el Concilio de Trento, there 1927, pp. 87-121 (with bibliography); G. M. Pou y Marti, I Frati Minori nel primo periodo del Concilio 1545-47, in Il Concilio di Trento, 2 (1943), p. 206 (with bibliography); R. Varesco, I Frati Minori al Concilio di Trento, in Arch. Franc. hist., 41 (1948), pp. 99-104 (with bibliography); various authors, A. de V. en el IV centenario de su muerte, in Liceo Franciscano (Santiago de Compostela), 2 (1949), pp. 75-172. Gaudenzio Melani