Robert Bellarmine | |
|---|---|
| Cardinal,Archbishop Emeritus of Capua | |
_-_MPM_V_IV_110_(cropped).jpg) 17th-century portrait of Robert Bellarmine, Antwerp,Museum Plantin-Moretus | |
| Church | Catholic Church |
| Archdiocese | Capua |
| Appointed | 18 March 1602 |
| Installed | 21 April 1602 |
| Term ended | August 1605 |
| Predecessor | Cesare Costa |
| Successor | Antonio Caetani Jr. |
| Other post | Cardinal-Priest of Santa Prassede |
| Orders | |
| Ordination | 19 March 1570 |
| Consecration | 21 April 1602 by Clement VIII |
| Created cardinal | 3 March 1599 by Clement VIII |
| Rank | Cardinal-Priest |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1542-10-04)4 October 1542 |
| Died | 17 September 1621(1621-09-17) (aged 78) Rome, Papal States |
| Coat of arms |  |
| Sainthood | |
| Feast day | 17 September; 13 May (General Roman Calendar, 1932–1969) |
| Venerated in | Catholic Church |
| Title as Saint | Confessor andDoctor of the Church |
| Beatified | 13 May 1923 Rome,Kingdom of Italy by Pius XI |
| Canonized | 29 June 1930 Rome,Vatican City by Pius XI |
| Patronage | Bellarmine University,Bellarmine Preparatory School,Fairfield University,Bellarmine College Preparatory,St. Robert's School, Darjeeling,canonists,canon lawyers,catechists,catechumens,Archdiocese of Cincinnati,St. Robert Catholic High SchoolScranton Preparatory School |
| Shrines | Chiesa di Sant'Ignazio,Rome, Italy |
Robert BellarmineSJ (/ˈbɛlɑːrmiːn/;Italian:Roberto Francesco Romolo Bellarmino; 4 October 1542 – 17 September 1621) was an ItalianJesuit and acardinal of theCatholic Church. He wascanonized a saint in 1930[1] and namedDoctor of the Church, one of only 27 at the time. He was one of the most important figures in theCounter-Reformation.
Bellarmine was a professor of theology and laterrector of theRoman College, and in 1602 becameArchbishop of Capua. He supported the reform decrees of theCouncil of Trent. He is also widely remembered for his role in theGiordano Bruno affair,[2][3] theGalileo affair, and the trial of FriarFulgenzio Manfredi.[4]
Robert Bellarmine was born inMontepulciano, the son of noble, albeit impoverished, parents, Vincenzo Bellarmino and his wife Cinzia Cervini, who was the sister ofPope Marcellus II.[5] As a boy he knewVirgil by heart and composed a number of poems inItalian andLatin. One of his hymns, onMary Magdalene, is included in theRoman Breviary.
Bellarmine entered the RomanJesuit novitiate in 1560, remaining in Rome for three years. He was then sent to a Jesuit house atMondovì, inPiedmont, where he learnedGreek. While at Mondovì, he came to the attention ofFrancesco Adorno, the local Jesuit provincial superior, who sent him to theUniversity of Padua.[6]
Bellarmine's systematic studies oftheology began at Padua in 1567 and 1568, where his teachers were adherents ofThomism. In 1569, he was sent to finish his studies at theUniversity of Leuven inBrabant. There he was ordained and obtained a reputation both as a professor and as a preacher. He was the first Jesuit to teach at the university, where the subject of his course was theSumma Theologica ofThomas Aquinas. He was involved in a controversy withMichael Baius on the subject ofGrace andfree will, and wrote aHebrew grammar.[7] His residency in Leuven lasted seven years. In poor health, in 1576 he made a journey to Italy. Here he remained, commissioned byPope Gregory XIII to lecture onpolemical theology in the newRoman College, now known as thePontifical Gregorian University. Later, he would promote the cause of the beatification ofAloysius Gonzaga, who had been a student at the college during Bellarmine's tenure.[5] His lectures were published under the titleDe Controversias in four large volumes.[8]
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Until 1589, Bellarmine was occupied as professor of theology. After the murder in that year ofHenry III of France,Pope Sixtus V sentEnrico Caetani aslegate to Paris[9] to negotiate with theCatholic League of France, and chose Bellarmine to accompany him as theologian.[10] He was in the city during its siege byHenry of Navarre.
Upon the death of Pope Sixtus V in 1590, theCount of Olivares wrote toPhilip II of Spain, "Bellarmine ... would not do for a Pope, for he is mindful only of the interests of the Church and is unresponsive to the reasons of princes."[11]
PopeClement VIII, said of him, "the Church of God had not his equal in learning".[5] Bellarmine was made rector of theRoman College in 1592, examiner ofbishops in 1598, and cardinal in 1599. Immediately after his appointment as Cardinal, Pope Clement made him aCardinal Inquisitor, in which capacity he served as one of the judges at the trial ofGiordano Bruno, and concurred in the decision which condemned Bruno to beburned at the stake as aheretic.[12]
In 1602 he was madearchbishop of Capua. He had written against bishops failing to reside in theirdioceses. As bishop he put into effect the reforming decrees of theCouncil of Trent. He received some votes in the 1605conclaves which electedPope Leo XI,Pope Paul V, and in 1621 whenPope Gregory XV was elected, but his being a Jesuit counted against him in the judgement of many of the cardinals.[5]
Thomas Hobbes saw Bellarmine in Rome at a service on All Saints Day (1 November) 1614 and, exempting him alone from a general castigation of cardinals, described him as "a little lean old man" who lived "more retired".[13]
In 1616, on the orders of Paul V, Bellarmine summonedGalileo, notified him of a forthcomingdecree of theCongregation of the Index condemning theCopernican doctrine of the mobility of the Earth and the immobility of the Sun, and ordered him to abandon it.[14] Galileo agreed to do so.[15]
When Galileo later complained of rumours to the effect that he had been forced to abjure and do penance, Bellarmine wrote out a certificate denying the rumours, 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". Unlike the previously mentioned formal injunction(see earlier footnote), this certificate 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.[16][17]
According to some of his letters, Cardinal Bellarmine believed that a demonstration for heliocentrism could not be found because it would contradict the unanimous consent of theFathers'scriptural exegesis, to which theCouncil of Trent, in 1546,[18]defined all Catholics must adhere. In other passages, Bellarmine argued that he did not support the heliocentric model for the lack of evidence of the time ("I will not believe that there is such a demonstration, until it is shown to me").[19]
Bellarmine wrote toheliocentristPaolo Antonio Foscarini in 1615:[19]
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 onGenesis, thePsalms,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 supposing the sun to be at the center and the earth in heaven one cansave 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. Galileo produced Bellarmine's certificate for his defense at the trial.[20]
According toPierre Duhem andKarl Popper "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".[21] Philosopher of scienceThomas Kuhn, in his book,The Copernican Revolution, after commenting onCesare Cremonini, who refused to look through Galileo'stelescope, wrote:
Most of Galileo's opponents behaved more rationally. Like Bellarmine, they agreed that the phenomena were in the sky but denied that they proved Galileo's contentions. In this, of course, they were quite right. Though the telescope argued much, it proved nothing.[22]
Robert Bellarmine retired toSant'Andrea degli Scozzesi, the Jesuit college of Saint Andrew in Rome. He died on 17 September 1621, aged 78.[23] He was buried in theChurch of St. Ignatius in Rome.[24]
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.[a] At Leuven he made extensive studies in theChurch Fathers andscholastic theologians, which gave him the material for his bookDe scriptoribus ecclesiasticis (Rome, 1613). It was later revised and enlarged bySirmond,Labbeus, andCasimir Oudin. Bellarmine wrote the preface to the newSixto-Clementine Vulgate.[5] Bellarmine also prepared for posterity his own commentary on each of the Psalms. An English translation from the Latin was published in 1866.[25]
From his research grewDisputationes de controversiis christianae fidei (also calledControversiae), first published atIngolstadt in 1581–1593. This major work was the earliest attempt to systematize the various religious disputes between Catholics and Protestants. Bellarmine reviewed the issues[11] and devoted eleven years to it while at the Roman College. In August 1590,Pope Sixtus V decided to place the first volume of theDisputationes on theIndex because Bellarmine argued in it that the Pope is not the temporal ruler of the whole world and that temporal rulers do not derive their authority to rule from God but from theconsent of the governed. However, Sixtus died before the revised Index was published, and the next Pope,Urban VII, removed the book from the Index during his brief twelve-day reign.[26]
In 1597–98, he published a catechism in two versions (short [it] andfull [it]) which was approved byPope Clement VIII[27] and used as a standard catechetical text for centuries.[28]
UnderPope Paul V (reigned 1605–1621), a major conflict arose betweenVenice and thePapacy.Paolo Sarpi, as spokesman for the Republic of Venice, protested against the papalinterdict, and reasserted the principles of theCouncil of Constance and of theCouncil 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, when in September 1607, an unfrocked friar and brigand by the name of Rotilio Orlandini planned to kill Sarpi for the sum of 8,000 crowns.[29] Orlandini's plot was discovered, and when he and his accomplices crossed from Papal into Venetian territory they were arrested.[30]
Bellarmine also became involved in controversy with KingJames I of England. From a point of principle forEnglish Catholics, this debate drew in figures from much of Western Europe.[31] It raised the profile of both protagonists, King James as a champion of his own restrictedCalvinist Protestantism, and Bellarmine forTridentine Catholicism.[32]
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 by the Ladder of Created Things; 1614) which was translated into English asJacob's Ladder (1638) without acknowledgement byHenry Isaacson [d],[33]The Art of Dying Well (1619) (in Latin, English translation under this title byEdward Coffin),[34] andThe Seven Words on the Cross.
Robert Bellarmine wascanonized byPope Pius XI in 1930;[35] the following year he was declared aDoctor of the Church. His remains, in a cardinal's red robes, are displayed behind glass under a side altar in theChurch of Saint Ignatius, the chapel of the Roman College, next to the body of his studentAloysius Gonzaga, as he himself had wished. In theGeneral Roman Calendar Saint Robert Bellarmine'sfeast 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. Therank assigned to his feast has been "double" (1932–1959), "third-class feast" (1960–1968), and since the1969 revision "memorial".
Bellarmine himself was not a stranger to theological condemnation. In August 1590 Pope Sixtus V decided to place the first volume of theControversies on theIndex because Bellarmine had argued that the pope is not the temporal ruler of the whole world and that temporal rulers do not derive their authority to rule from God through the pope but through the consent of the people governed. However Sixtus died before the revisedIndex was published, and the next pope, Urban VII, who reigned for only twelve days before his own death, removed Bellarmine's book from the list during that brief period. The times were precarious.
Il Breve pontificio che lo accompagnò, lo impose nelle diocesi dello Stato pontificio, augurandosi inoltre che molti Vescovi lo adottassero per le loro diocesi e ciò avvenne in tal misura per cui si poté pensare un tempo che il Catechismo del Bellarmino stesse per diventare il Catechismo universale della Chiesa Cattolica.
Per di più S. Roberto Bellarmino insieme con S. Carlo Borromeo veniva da S.S. Pio XI di v.m. con Breve del 26 aprile 1932 dichiarato Patrono non solo dell'Arciconfraternità Romana della Dottrina cristiana ma di "tutte le altre Opere di istruzione religiosa esistenti per tutto il mondo". In detto Breve la Santità del Papa, dopo aver ricordato i meriti insigni di S. Carlo, così si esprime a proposito del Bellarmino: "Il Santo «Maestro delle controversie» poi, oltre alle altre opere di insigne sapienza, per le quali va meritamente celebre nella Chiesa di Dio, compose quell'aureolo catechismo, che dal giudizio di Sommi Pontefici e di numerosi Vescovi e dall'uso di circa tre secoli è stato così ampiamente raccomandato ed approvato che giustamente lo si può ritenere come modello della catechesi"
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