4 October 1542 A.D. Robert Bellarmine Born—Rome’s Jesuit Lion & Reformed Anglican William Whittaker’s Antagonist (Cambridge)
4 October 1542 A.D. Robert Bellarmine Born—Rome’s Jesuit Lion & Reformed Anglican William Whittaker’s Antagonist (Cambridge)
Saint Robert Bellarmine, S.J. (Italian: Roberto
Francesco Romolo Bellarmino; 4 October 1542 – 17
September 1621) was an Italian Jesuit and a Cardinal of the Catholic Church. He
was one of the most important figures in the Counter-Reformation. He was canonized in
1930 and named a Doctor of the Church. Bellarmine is also widely remembered for his role in the Galileo affair.
Contents
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3 Death
·
6 Legacy
Early life
Bellarmine was born at Montepulciano, the son of noble,
albeit impoverished, parents, Vincenzo Bellarmino and his wife Cinzia Cervini,
who was the sister of Pope Marcellus II.[1] As a boy he knew Virgil by heart and composed a
number of poems in Italian and Latin. One of his hymns, on Mary Magdalene, is included in the Breviary.
He entered the Roman novitiate in 1560, remaining in Rome
three years. He then went to a Jesuit house at Mondovì, in Piedmont, where he learned Greek. While at Mondovì, he came
to the attention of Francesco Adorno, the local Jesuit Provincial Superior, who sent him to the University of Padua.[2]
Career
Bellarmine's systematic study of theology began at Padua in 1567 and
1568, where his teachers were adherents of Thomism. In 1569 he was sent to
finish it at the University
of Leuven in Flanders.
There he was ordained, and obtained a reputation both as a professor and a
preacher. He was the first Jesuit to teach at the university, where the subject
of his course was the Summa Theologica of Thomas Aquinas. His residence in
Leuven lasted seven years. In poor health, in 1576 he made a journey to Italy.
Here he remained, commissioned by Pope Gregory XIII to
lecture on polemical theology in the new Roman College
(now known as the Pontifical
Gregorian University.[citation
needed]
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New duties after 1589
Until 1589, Bellarmine was occupied as professor of
theology. After the murder in that year of Henry III of France, Pope Sixtus V
sent Enrico Caetani as legate to Paris[3] to negotiate with the Catholic
League of France, and chose Bellarmine to accompany him
as theologian.[4] He was in the city during
its siege by Henry of Navarre.
The next pope, Clement VIII, set great store by
him. He was made rector of the Roman College in 1592, examiner of
bishops in 1598, and cardinal in
1599. Immediately after his appointment as Cardinal, Pope Clement made him a Cardinal Inquisitor, in
which capacity he served as one of the judges at the trial of Giordano Bruno, and concurred in
the decision which condemned Bruno to be burned at the stake as a heretic.[5]
In 1602 he was made archbishop of Capua. He had written against pluralism and non-residence of bishops within
their dioceses. As bishop he put into
effect the reforming decrees of the Council of Trent. He
received some votes in the 1605 conclaves which elected Pope Leo XI, Pope Paul V, and in 1621 when Pope Gregory XV was elected, but
only in the second conclave of 1605 was he papabile.[citation
needed]
The Galileo case
In 1616, on the orders of Paul V, Bellarmine summoned Galileo, notified him of a
forthcoming decree of the Congregation
of the Index condemning the Copernican doctrine of the mobility of the Earth and the immobility of the Sun, and
ordered him to abandon it.[6] Galileo agreed to do so.[7]
When Galileo later complained of rumors to the effect
that he had been forced to abjure and do penance, Bellarmine wrote out a
certificate denying the rumors, stating that Galileo had merely been notified
of the decree and informed that, as a consequence of it, the Copernican
doctrine could not be "defended or held".[8] Cardinal Bellarmine
believed such a demonstration could not be found because it would contradict
the unanimous consent of the Fathers' scriptural exegesis, to which the Council of Trent, in
1546,[9] defined all Catholics must adhere.[10]
the Council [of Trent] prohibits interpreting Scripture
against the common consensus of the Holy Fathers; and if Your Paternity wants
to read not only the Holy Fathers, but also the modern commentaries on Genesis,
the Psalms, Ecclesiastes, and Joshua, you will find all agreeing in the literal
interpretation that the sun is in heaven and turns around the earth with great
speed, and that the earth is very far from heaven and sits motionless at the
center of the world.
and
I say that if there were a true demonstration that the
sun is at the center of the world and the earth in the third heaven, and that
the sun does not circle the earth but the earth circles the sun, then one would
have to proceed with great care in explaining the Scriptures that appear
contrary, and say rather that we do not understand them than that what is
demonstrated is false. But I will not believe that there is such a
demonstration, until it is shown me. Nor is it the same to demonstrate that by assuming
the sun to be at the center and the earth in heaven one can save the appearances, and to demonstrate that in truth the sun is at the center and the earth
in heaven; for I believe the first demonstration may be available, but I have
very great doubts about the second, and in case of doubt one must not abandon
the Holy Scripture as interpreted by the Holy Fathers.
In 1633, nearly twelve years after Bellarmine's death,
Galileo was again called before the Inquisition in this matter.
Modern physicist Pierre Duhem "suggests that
in one respect, at least, Bellarmine had shown himself a better scientist than
Galileo by disallowing the possibility of a 'strict proof of the earth's
motion,' on the grounds that an astronomical theory merely 'saves the appearances' without necessarily revealing what 'really happens.'"[11]
Death
In his old age he was bishop of
Montepulciano for four years, after which he retired to the Jesuit
college of St. Andrew in Rome, where he died on 17 September 1621, aged 78.
Works
Bellarmine's books bear the stamp of their period; the
effort for literary elegance (so-called "maraviglia") 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. His
controversial works provoked many replies, and were studied for some decades
after his death.[12] At Leuven he made extensive
studies in the Church Fathers and
scholastic theologians, which gave him the material for his book De scriptoribus
ecclesiasticis (Rome, 1613). It was later revised and enlarged by Sirmond, Labbeus, and Casimir Oudin. Bellarmine wrote
the preface to the new Sixto-Clementine
Vulgate.[citation
needed]
Dogmatics
From his research grew his Disputationes de
controversiis christianae fidei (also called Disputationes),
first published at Ingolstadt in
1581–1593. This major work was the earliest attempt to systematize the various
religious controversies of the time. Bellarmine devoted eleven years to it
while at the Roman College. The first volume of the Disputationes treats
of the Word of God, of Christ, and of the Pope; the second of the
authority of ecumenical councils, and of the Church, whether militant, expectant, or triumphant; the third
of the sacraments; and the fourth of Divine grace, free will, justification, and good works.[citation
needed]
Venetian Interdict
Under Pope Paul V (reigned 1605–1621),
a major conflict arose between Venice and the Papacy. Paolo Sarpi, as spokesman for
the Republic of Venice, protested against the papal interdict, and reasserted the
principles of the Council of Constance and of the Council of Basel, denying the pope's authority in secular matters. Bellarmine wrote three
rejoinders to the Venetian theologians, and may have warned Sarpi of an
impending murderous attack.[citation
needed]
Allegiance oath controversy and papal
authority
Bellarmine also became involved in controversy with King James I of England. From a point of principle for English Catholics, this debate drew in
figures from much of Western Europe.[13] It raised the profile of
both protagonists, King James as a champion of his own restricted Calvinist
Protestantism, and Bellarmine for Tridentine Catholicism.
Devotional works
During his retirement, he wrote several short books
intended to help ordinary people in their spiritual life: De ascensione
mentis in Deum per scalas rerum creatorum opusculum (The Mind's Ascent
to God) (1614) which was translated into English as Jacob's Ladder
(1638) without acknowledgement by Henry Isaacson,[14] The Art of Dying Well
(1619) (in Latin, English translation under this title by Edward Coffin),[15] and The Seven Words on
the Cross.
Canonization and final
resting place
Bellarmine was canonized by Pope Pius XI in 1930; the
following year he was declared a Doctor of the Church. His remains, in a cardinal's red robes, are displayed behind glass under
a side altar in the Church of Saint Ignatius, the chapel of the Roman College, next to the body of his student, St. Aloysius Gonzaga, as he himself had wished. In the Roman
Catholic calendar of saints Saint Robert Bellarmine's feast day is on 17 September, the day
of his death; but some continue to use pre-1969 calendars, in which for 37
years his feast day was on 13 May. The rank attributed to his feast has been
"double" (1932–1959) and its equivalent "third-class feast"
(1960–1968); in 1969 it was downgraded to an "optional memorial".[citation
needed]
Legacy
Bellarmine University in Louisville, Kentucky is named after him, as are Bellarmine
College Preparatory in San Jose, California and Bellarmine
Preparatory School in Tacoma, Washington. Fairfield University has a Bellarmine Hall dedicated to the saint.
St. Robert Bellarmine, a church in the New Orleans suburb of Arabi, Louisiana, was destroyed shortly after its completion by Hurricane Betsy in 1965. The church
was put completely underwater in 2005 by Hurricane Katrina and
took on more water from Hurricane Rita less than a month
later. The parish was permanently dissolved by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New Orleans immediately after Rita, and its territory was absorbed by Our Lady of
Prompt Succor in neighboring Chalmette.
Footnotes
2.
Jump up ^ Rule, William Harris (1853).
"A Jesuit cardinal: Robert Bellarmine". Celebrated Jesuits 2.
London: John Mason. p. 20.
6.
Jump up ^ Blackwell (1991, p. 126). The Vatican archives
contain an unsigned copy of a more strongly worded formal injunction purporting
to have been served on Galileo shortly after Bellarmine's admonition, ordering
him "not to hold, teach, or defend" the condemned doctrine "in
any way whatever, either orally or in writing", and threatening him with
imprisonment if he refused to obey. However, whether this injunction was ever
properly served on Galileo is a subject of much scholarly disagreement.(Blackwell, 1991, p.
127–128)
7.
Jump up ^ Fantoli (2005, p.119). Some scholars
have suggested that Galileo's agreement was only obtained after some initial
resistance. Otherwise, the formal injunction purporting to have been served on
him during his meeting with Bellarmine (see earlier footnote) would have
been contrary to the Pope's instructions (Fantoli. 2005, pp.121,
124).
8.
Jump up ^ Blackwell (1991, p.127). Unlike the
previously mentioned formal injunction (see earlier footnote), this milder
restriction would have allowed Galileo to continue using and teaching the
mathematical content of Copernicus's theory as a purely theoretical device for
predicting the apparent motions of the planets. Maurice Finocchiaro's English
translations of the purported formal injunction, the decree of the Congregation of the Index and Cardinal
Bellarmine's certificate are available on-line.
10.
^ Jump up to: a b Bellarmine's
12 April 1615 letter to Galileo, translated in Galilei,
Galileo; Maurice A Finocchiaro (2008). The essential Galileo. Indianapolis, Ind.: Hackett Pub. Co.
pp. 146–148. Retrieved 2013-10-25.
12.
Jump up ^ On Laymen or Secular
People; On the Temporal Power of the Pope. Against William Barclay;
and On the Primary Duty of the Supreme Pontiff, are included in
Bellarmine, On Temporal and Spiritual Authority, Stefania Tutino,
trans., Indianapolis, IN: Liberty Fund, 2012
References
·
Bellarmine,
Robert, Spiritual Writings, New York: Paulist Press, 1989. eds., Roland J. Teske and John Patrick Donnelly ISBN 0-8091-0389-3.
·
Blackwell, Richard J. (1991). Galileo,
Bellarmine, and the Bible. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press. ISBN 0-268-01024-2.
·
Fantoli, Annibale (2005). The Disputed
Injunction and its Role in Galileo's Trial. In McMullin (2005,
pp.117–149).
·
McMullin, Ernan, ed. (2005). The Church and
Galileo. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press. ISBN 0-268-03483-4.
·
McMullin, Ernan (2008). "Robert
Bellarmine". In Gillispie, Charles. Dictionary of Scientific Biography. Scribner &
American Council of Learned Societies.
·
Smith, Sydney (2009) [1907], "St. Robert Francis
Romulus Bellarmine", in Knight, Kevin, Catholic
Encyclopedia (online ed.), retrieved November 4, 2012
External
links
Media
from Commons
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·
"St. Robert Francis
Romulus Bellarmine". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. 1913.
Saint Robert Bellarmine: A Moderate in a Disputatious Age
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