Bellarmine, Saint Robert
Bellarmine, Saint Robert
(bĕlär`mĭn), 1542–1621, Italian theologian, cardinal, Doctor of the Church, and a principal influence in the Counter ReformationCounter Reformation,16th-century reformation that arose largely in answer to the Protestant Reformation; sometimes called the Catholic Reformation. Although the Roman Catholic reformers shared the Protestants' revulsion at the corrupt conditions in the church, there was present
..... Click the link for more information. . His full name was Roberto Francesco Romolo Bellarmino. He joined the Jesuits (1560) and taught at Louvain (1569–76) and at the Roman College (1576). In 1599 he was made cardinal and from 1601 to 1605 he was archbishop of Capua. His theological works (in Latin) were polemical and widely noticed. His three-volume Disputationes de Controversiis Christianae Fidei (1586–93), the most lucid modern exposition of Catholic doctrine, called forth many Protestant replies. As Jesuits nearly always were, Cardinal Bellarmine was uncompromisingly ultramontane (see ultramontanismultramontanism
[Lat.,=beyond the mountains, i.e., the Alps], formerly, point of view of Roman Catholics who supported the pope as supreme head of the church, as distinct from those who professed Gallicanism or other tendencies opposing the papal jurisdiction.
..... Click the link for more information. ). He was an admirer of Galileo and a moderating influence at his trial. His devotional works have been translated frequently into English. Pope Pius XI canonized him in 1930 and declared him a Doctor of the Church the following year. Feast: May 13.
Bibliography
See biography by J. Brodrick (rev. ed. 1966).