Robert Bellarmine

:This article is about Robert Bellarmine, the Catholic Saint. For the San Jose, California boys' high school, see Bellarmine College Preparatory. For the Louisville, Kentucky college, see Bellarmine University.

In Rome - The Disputationes

Bellarmine's residence in Leuven lasted seven

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years. His health was undermined by study and

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asceticism, and in 1576 he made a journey to Italy to restore it. Here be was detained by the

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commission given him by Pope Gregory XIII to lecture on polemical theology in the new Roman College.

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He devoted eleven years to this work, out of whose activities grew his celebrated Disputationes de controversiis christianae fidei, first published at Ingolstadt, 4 vols., 1581-1593. It occupies in the field of dogmatics the same place as the Annales of Baronius in the field of history.

Related Topics:
Ingolstadt - 1581 - 1593

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Both were the fruits of the great revival in religion and learning which the Roman Catholic Church had witnessed since 1540. Both bear the stamp of their period; the effort for literary elegance (so-called "maraviglia"), which was considered the principal thing at the beginning of the sixteenth century, had given place to a desire to pile up as much material as possible, to embrace the whole field of human knowledge, and incorporate it into theology.

Related Topics:
Religion - 1540 - Sixteenth century

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Bellarmine's exposition of the views and arguments of the Protestants is surprisingly full and accurate, so much so that the circulation of the book in Italy was for a time not encouraged. He fails, like most of his contemporaries, in understanding the principle of historical development, and his belief in authority, pressed to an extreme, injured his sense of truth and allowed him to handle both the Bible and history in an arbitrary manner.

Related Topics:
Bible - History

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The first volume treats of the Word of God, of Christ, and of the pope; the second of the authority of councils, and of the Church, whether militant, expectant, or triumphant; the third of the sacraments; and the fourth of grace, free will, justification, and good works.

Related Topics:
God - Christ - Pope - Councils - Sacrament - Grace - Free will - Justification - Good works

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The most important part of the work is contained in the five books on the Roman Catholic pontiff. In these, after a speculative introduction on forms of government in general, holding monarchy to be relatively the best, he says that a monarchical government and the related temporal power are necessary for the Church, to preserve unity and order in it.

Related Topics:
Government - Monarchy - Temporal power

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Such power he considers to have been established by the commission of Christ to Peter. He then proceeds to demonstrate that this power has been transmitted to the successors of Peter, admitting that a heretical pope may be freely judged and deposed by the Church since by the very fact of his heresy he would cease to be pope, or even a member of the Church; this is almost like an echo of the great councils of the fifteenth century.

Related Topics:
Peter - Heresy - Fifteenth century

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The third section discusses the antichrist; Bellarmine gives in full the theory set forth by the Greek and Latin Fathers, of a personal Antichrist to come just before the end of the world and to be accepted by the Jews and enthroned in the temple at Jerusalem — thus endeavoring to dispose of the Protestant exposition which saw Antichrist in the pope.

Related Topics:
Antichrist - Greek and Latin Fathers - Jew - Temple - Jerusalem

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The fourth section sets forth the pope as the supreme judge in matters of faith and morals, though making the concessions (confirmed indeed by the First Vatican Council) that the pope may err in questions of fact which may be known by ordinary human knowledge, and also when he speaks as a mere unofficial theologian, doctor privatus.

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His assertions are much more unbounded in the last part, which treats of the pope's power in secular matters. While he says that the pope has no direct jurisdiction in such things, he yet stoutly contends for the power of deposing kings, absolving subjects from their allegiance, and altering civil laws, when these actions are necessary for the good of the souls committed

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to the charge of the chief pastor.

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