VEGA, Andrés de. - Franciscan theologian, b. at Segovia in 1498, d. at Salamanca in Sept. 1549. He studied and taught at Salamanca; at the age of 40 he became a Franciscan religious of the Observance.

As theologian of Card. Pacheco, he was sent by Charles V to the Council of Trent, where he was present at the first seven sessions; on 23 Feb. 1547 he delivered the discourse for Ash Wednesday. Because of his knowledge of Greek and Hebrew he played a leading part in the biblical questions; in the decrees on the canonical books his opinion was adopted. He played a significant part in preparing the decree on justification; it appears in fact that almost half of the canons on this decree (session VI of the Council) are taken almost literally from V.'s schema; in the others, moreover, his influence is noticeable. At Trent he also disputed (25 Jan. 1547) on the Sacraments in general and in particular on Baptism, Confirmation and (16 Feb.) the Eucharist. From 1547 to 1549 he was in Venice to oversee the edition of his works; in 1549 he returned to Salamanca.

Among the principal works are remembered 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 (ibid. 1548). The last two books are against Calvin, who had written (13 Oct. 1547): Antidotum in acta Synodi Tridentinae. Esteeming this twofold treatise on justification as the best of its kind, St. Peter Canisius in 1572 oversaw a new edition of it at Cologne, though modifying the title a little. Even at present this work is held (M. Grabmann, Storia della teologia cattolica, Milan 1937, p. 209) to be the best source for understanding the Tridentine doctrine on justification. Other works are unpublished.

Bibliography6 works

BIBL.: Wadding, Scriptores, p. 17; N. Antonio, Bibliotheca hispana, I, Madrid 1783, p. 88; B. Oromi, Los Franciscanos españoles en el Concilio de Trento, ibid. 1927, pp. 87-121 (with bibl.); 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 bibl.); R. Varesco, I Frati Minori al Concilio di Trento, in Arch. Franc. hist., 41 (1948), pp. 99-104 (with bibl.); 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

@incollection{ec12_vega_andres_de, author = {Melani, Gaudenzio}, title = {Vega, andres de}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {XII}, pages = {1158--1159}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1954}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/vega-andres-de} }

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Vega, Andrés de

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