VIVES, JUAN BAUTISTA. — Born 3 May 1545 at Valencia (Aragon), died 22 Feb 1632 at Rome, belonging to the family of the humanist Juan Luis Vives (v.).
In 1588, already a doctor of both civil and canon law, he came to Rome.
VIVES JUAN BAUTISTA — VIVES JUAN LUÍS
Seeing that the College of secular priests was insufficient for its purpose, he proposed to the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith the establishment of a language school for missionary religious in part of the Capuchin convent of St Bonaventure, to be entrusted to the Premonstratensians. But the Congregation, at its session of 12 Dec 1628, did not accept the proposal, since the Pope had already disposed of the building for another purpose. More than eighty years old and confined to the Rector’s room in the Urban College, V. continued to think about the propagation of the faith. Indeed, in June 1645 he had proposed to the Congregation the establishment, alongside the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith, of a similar body “for the defence of the Faith,” staffed by twenty-four theologians, an office already effectively discharged by the Holy Congregation of the Holy Office. To interest the whole Catholic world in financially supporting the missions, in Feb 1628 he proposed that a 10% tax on all legacies, bequests and pious donations be assigned to the Holy Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith to aid the missions. He justified this tax by the missionary command of Jesus addressed to all members of the Church.