Robert Bellarmine
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| Saint Robert Bellarmine, S.J. | |
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| Bishop, Confessor and Doctor of the Church | |
| Born | October 4, 1542, Montepulciano, Italy |
| Died | September 17, 1621, Rome, Italy |
| Venerated in | Roman Catholic Church |
| Beatified | May 13, 1923, Rome by Pope Pius XI |
| Canonized | June 29, 1930, Rome by Pope Pius XI |
| Major shrine | Chiesa di Sant'Ignazio, Rome, Italy |
| Feast | September 17; May 13 (Traditional Roman Catholics) |
| Attributes | Bishop; Confessor; Doctor of the Church |
| Patronage | Fairfield University; Bellarmine University; canonists; canon lawyers; catechists; catechumens; Archdiocese of Cincinnati, Ohio |
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Saint Robert Bellarmine (Roberto Francesco Romolo Cardinale Bellarmino) (October 4, 1542, Montepulciano, Siena, Italy – September 17, 1621, Rome) was an Italian Jesuit and Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He is a Saint and is one of only thirty-three Doctors of the Church.
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[edit] Biography
[edit] Early years
Saint Robert Bellarmine was born at Montepulciano to a noble though impoverished family, a nephew of Pope Marcellus II. His abilities showed themselves early; 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 Roman Catholic breviary.
His father destined him for a political career, hoping that he might restore the fallen glories of the family. His mother, however, wished him to enter the Jesuits, and her influence prevailed. He entered the Roman novitiate in 1560, remaining in Rome three years, and then went to a Jesuit house at Mondovì, in Piedmont. Here he learned Greek, and taught it as fast as he learned it.
St Robert Bellarmine's systematic study of theology began at Padua in 1567 and 1568, where his teachers were Thomists. But in 1569 he was sent to finish it at Louvain, where he could obtain a fuller acquaintance with the prevailing heresies. Having been ordained there, he quickly obtained a reputation both as a professor and a preacher, in the latter capacity drawing to his pulpit both Catholics and Protestants, even from distant parts.
He was the first Jesuit to teach at the university, where the subject of his course was the Summa of Saint Thomas Aquinas; he also made extensive studies in the Fathers and medieval theologians, which gave him the material for his book "De scriptoribus ecclesiasticis" (Rome, 1613), which was later revised and enlarged by Sirmond, Labbeus, and Casimir Oudin.
[edit] In Rome - The Disputationes
St Robert Bellarmine's residence in Leuven lasted seven years. His health was undermined by study and asceticism, and in 1576 he made a journey to Italy to restore it. Here he was detained by the commission given him by Pope Gregory XIII to lecture on polemical theology in the new Roman College, St Robert saw this as an honour and graciously accepted.
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St Robert devoted eleven years to this work, out of whose activities grew his celebrated "Disputationes de controversiis christianae fidei", first published at Ingolstadt in 1581-1593. It occupies in the field of dogmatics the same place as the "Annales" of Baronius in the field of history. This monumental work was the earliest attempt to systematize the various controversies of the time, and made an immense impression throughout Europe, the blow it dealt to Protestantism being so acutely felt in Germany and England that special chairs were founded in order to provide replies to it. Nor has it even yet been superseded as the classical book on its subject-matter, though, as was to be expected, the progress of criticism has impaired the value of some of its historical arguments.
Both were the fruits of the great revival in Religion and learning which the 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.
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.
The most important part of the work is contained in the five books regarding the Roman 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.
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.
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.
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. Robert Bellarmine took in particular the example of Pope Honorius I, who had been anathemized by the Third Council of Constantinople (680-681) as holding monothelitism views. He claimed that although monothelitism had been rightly condemned, Honorius was however orthodox as he had not really held these views, and that Papal authority did not extend itself to the factual interpretation of what was to be found in Honorius or not [1].
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 to the charge of the chief pastors.
[edit] New duties after 1589 - controversial writings
Until 1589, St Robert Bellarmine was occupied altogether as professor of theology, but that date marked the beginning rounded the new pope in his life and of new dignities. After the murder of Henry III of France, Pope Sixtus V sent Gaetano as legate to Paris to negotiate with the League, and chose Bellarmine to accompany him as theologian; he was in the city during its siege by Henry of Navarre.
The next pope, Pope Clement VIII (1591-1605), set great store by him. St Robert Bellarmine wrote the preface to the new edition of the Vulgate, and 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 this capacity he served as one of the judges at the trial of Giordano Bruno, and concurred in the decision which condemned him to be burnt to death as an obstinate heretic.[2]
In 1602 he was made archbishop of Capua. He had written strongly against pluralism and non-residence, and he set a good example himself by leaving within four days for his diocese, where he devoted himself zealously to his episcopal duties, and firmly executed the reforming decrees of the Council of Trent.
Under Pope Paul V (reigned 1605-1621), arose the great conflict between Venice and the Papacy. Fra 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 at the same time possibly saved Sarpi's life by giving him fair warning of an impending murderous attack.
St Robert Bellarmine had occasion to cross swords with a more prominent antagonist, King James I of England, who prided himself on his theological attainments. Bellarmine had written a letter to the English archpriest Blackwell, reproaching him for having taken the oath of allegiance in apparent disregard of his duty to the pope. James attacked him in 1608 in a Latin treatise, which the scholarly cardinal answered at once, making merry with delicate humor over the defects of the royal Latinity.
King James replied with a second attack in more careful style, dedicated to the Emperor Rudolph II and all the monarchs of Christendom, in which he posed as the defender of primitive and true Christianity. Bellarmine's answer to this covers more or less the whole controversy.
In 1616, Cardinal Bellarmine notified Galileo Galilei of the decree of the Congregation of the Index against the Copernican doctrine of the mobility of the Earth and the immobility of the Sun. When Galileo complained of rumors to the effect that he had been forced to abjure and do penance, Bellarmine wrote out a certificate denying the rumors, and outlining what had actually taken place—namely, 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".[3]
In reply to a posthumous treatise of William Barclay, the celebrated Scottish jurist, he wrote another Tractatus de potestate summi pontificis in rebus temporalibus, which reiterated his strong assertions on the subject, and was therefore prohibited in France, where it agreed with the sentiments of neither the king nor the bishops. He was among the theologians consulted on the teaching of Galilei when it first made a stir at Rome.
In his old age he was allowed to return to his old home, Montepulciano, as its bishop for four years, after which he retired to the Jesuit college of St. Andrew in Rome. He received some votes in the conclaves which elected Pope Leo XI, Pope Paul V, and Pope Gregory XV, but only in the second case had he any prospect of election.
During his retirement, he wrote several short books intended to help ordinary people in their spiritual life: The Mind's Ascent to God (1614), The Art of Dying Well (1619), and The Seven Words on the Cross.
Saint Robert Bellarmine died in Rome on September 17, 1621.
[edit] Canonization and final resting place
Over the years, the members of his order worked tirelessly to achieve his canonization. Finally he was canonized by Pope Pius XI in 1930; the following year he was declared a Doctor of the Church. His body rests 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.
[edit] Feast day
Since the reform of the Roman Catholic calendar of saints in 1969, Saint Robert Bellarmine's feast day was moved to September 17, the day of his death. Traditional Roman Catholics continue to celebrate St Robert Bellarmine's feast day on May 13, deemed a feast of the III class (see the General Roman Calendar of 1962) or a Double feast.
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ Pascal, 17th Letter of the Provincial Letters
- ^ Blackwell (1991, p.47-48).
- ^ Blackwell (1991, p.127). English translations of the decree of the Congregation of the Index and of Cardinal Bellarmine's certificate are available on-line.
[edit] References
Blackwell, Richard J. (1991). Galileo, Bellarmine, and the Bible. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press. ISBN 0-268-01024-2.
[edit] External links
- New Translations from Bellarmine's Writings
- Episodes from his life at Catholic forum web-site.
- De Laicis (treatise on civil government) in English translation
- The Seven Words on the Cross
- The Eternal Happiness of the Saints
- The Art of Dying Well
[edit] References
This article includes content derived from the Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, 1914, which is in the public domain.
