The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1921-02-19
CARDINAL ROBERT BELLARMlNE
THEoLoGlAN AND coNTRo-
vERSiALIST.

(Dy TIE ~. U. w. news SefVlce.)
The cause of the Qualification of the
Venerable Cardinal Robert Bellarmine,
of whom Clement VIII declared that
1.-The Church of God has not his equal
in learning" has again been taken up
by the Holy See and has aroused new
interest in the work Of this champion
of democracy and defender of the Pa
pacy, whom Benedict XIV commends
as model to all those who seek to
spread the truth and combat error.
Robert Francis Romulus Bellarmine
was born on October 4, 1912, fifty
America. His birthplace was Monte
pulciano and it was in his native town
he entered the Jesuit College on Sep
TENDER 20, 1860. He began his theolo-
gy at Padua in 1867 and in 1869 was
sent to finish his course at Louvain
in order to gain better acquaintance
with the prevailing heresies.
His ability and training were such
that on his ordination he quickly gain
ed a wide reputation as a theologian
and preacher and in 1876 he was re.
called to Rome and given the chair of
Controversies recently founded at the
Roman College. His lectures in this
post grew into the work "De Contro-
VERSUS" the earliest attempt to sys.
temize the various controversies of the
time. 1t made such deep impress
sion upon Europe and dealt such a
powerful blow to Professionalism that
in many universities of Germany and
England, chairs were founded to pro-
vide replies to it. The discovery of
the fact that the work assigned the
Holy See had not a direct, but only an
indirect power over temporals, caused
Sixtus V, who had warmly accepted its
dedication, to consider putting it on
the index. This action was averted,
however, by the death of Sixtus, and
Gregory XIV, his successor, granted
to the work special appreciation.
Clement XIfIs great regard for the
learned Jesuit was shown when in
1897 he recalled him from Naples to
Rome and made him his own theologi-
an, two years later naming him as car
dinal priest. On the death of Clement
in 1906 Cardinal Bellarmine's name
was prominent among the candidates
for the Papacy, as it was also on the
death of Clements successor, Leo XI,
who reigned only twenty-six days.
Paul v, who succeeded Leo, made
Cardinal Bellarmine the chief advisor
of the Holy See in theology.
In this position Bellarmine took
part in two great disputes, in one of
which he defended the rights of the
Vatican against the Republic of Ven
ice, which, without consulting the
Pope, had presumed to abrogate the
law of clerical exemption from civil
jurisdiction and to withdraw the right
OF the Church To- hold real property.
The second great controversy was
that in which he replied to King
James of England, who defended the
law whereby English Catholics were
obliged to take an oath of allegiance
which was so craftily worded that a
Catholic refusing it might appear to-
be disavowing an undoubted civil OBJ
legation, whilst those taking it there
by condemned as ''impious and hereti-
cal" the exercises of powers that the
Holy See had claimed for centuries
with the approval Of Christendom.
Cardinal Bellarmine was also fig
ure in the earlier stages of the Calico
case. His letters to Galileo's friend
Foscarini show that he took the right
attitude toward scientific theories in
seeming contradiction with Scripture.
| If, as undoubtedly was the case then
with Galileo's heliocentric theory, a
scientific theory is insufficiently prov
ed, it should be advanced only as a
| hypothesis; but if it is solidly dem
| onstrated, care should be taken to in
terpret Scripture only in accordance
with it, But when the Holy Office
condemned the heliocentric theory, it
became Bellarmines official duty to
/ signify the condemnation to Calico
! and receive his submission. He lived
to see only one more conclave, that
which elected Gregory XIV in 1921.
| The same year, his health failing, he
| retired to SAINT Andrea, where he died
en- September II.
Cardinal Bellarmine was no less re.
markable for his holiness than for his
learning and it is for that reason that
the Pope, in holding him up as a model
for those who seek to spread the
faith, urges them to initiate his vir-
tue as well as his zeal. He had the
consolation of guiding the last years
i of st. Augustus GonZaga, who had died
/ in the Roman College in 1891 and he
i welded great influence for piety on
the lives of all with whom he came in
4 contact. His humility, as much when
a catdinal as when simple Jesuit,
and his charity to the poor, were nota-
BILE. In 1927, under Urban VIII, he
was given the appellation of Venera-
Bile, and the cause of his qualification
has been introduced several times but
never under such favorable auspices
as at present when the Holy See is
] making such great efforts to defend
the faith against error and to spread
the truth.