By Corazon Damo-Santiago
Robert BeLlarmine lived a life of poverty and simplicity despite the luxury in his work settings as professor in the University of Louvain, archbishop and rector of the Pontifical University. He sold the curtains of his room to clothe the poor. Asked why he had to do it, he said, “the walls won’t catch cold.”
Controversialist with charm
Roberto Francisco Romolo Bellarmino is the third of 10 children of Vincent Bellarmino of ancient noble lineage and Cinzia Cervini, a niece of Pope Marcellus II.
He was born on October 4, 1542, in Monte Pulciano, Tuscany, Italy. He wrote poems in Italian and Latin and was familiar with Virgil.
A hymn he composed about Mary Magdalene is included in the Roman Breviary. The rector of the Jesuit college described him as “the best of our school and not far from the kingdom of God.”
At 18, he studied philosophy and theology in the Roman College of Padua. After his ordination in 1570 he was sent to the University of Louvain in Belgium to complete his studies. Louvain then was the bulwark of Catholicism and he had access to the writings of Martin Luther, the father of Reformation, and John Calvin, whose teachings were spreading in Northern Europe.
In 1576 he was assigned by Pope Gregory XIII as rector of the Roman College, now the Pontifical Gregorian University.
He wrote the errors of Protestantinism. For 12 years he taught the controversial theology to German and English seminarians, which earned him the reputation as “Controversialist of Great Charm.”
A man of great intellectual courage and courtesy, people admired him for he did not use foul language in defending the Catholic faith which was common in those days. So both Protestants and Catholics admired and listened to his teachings.
He believed that “peace and union are the most necessary of all things for men. We live in common and nothing serves so well to establish and maintain these as a forbearing charity whereby we put up with another’s defect.”
His Disputations on Controversies, a bestseller among Protestants and Catholics, discussed the Catholic doctrine and errors of Protestantism.
His arguments were judged as “clear, doctrinal, persuasive and impressive.” In a quandary, special chairs in Protestant universities were founded to contrive scholarly answers.
On Church-state relations
In 1588 he was appointed spiritual director to Jesuits in formation in the Roman College and in 1592 as rector of the college charged to care for the spiritual wellness of 220 Jesuits.
Two years after he assumed the post of provincial of the province of Naples in 1599 he was appointed cardinal, then archbishop of Capua in 1602.
In 1605 the newly elected Pope Leo XI assigned him back to Rome to be the official theologian of the Holy Office. He defended the Apostolic See against the political pronouncements of King James I of England and anticlericals.
Imbued with intellectual courage, he spent considerable time doing research on controversial topics, opposing them with great courtesy and graciousness.
While Bellarmine agreed that authority originates with God, it is “invested in people who entrust it to fit rulers,” which is now a tenet of democracy.
From his ordination in 1570 until his retirement in 1621 in Saint Andrew Novitiate for Jesuits, he served nine popes in different capacities with utmost dedication, humility and detachment.
He died on October 17, 1621, Feast of the Stigmata of Saint Francis of Assisi, which he promoted for the universal church.
Pope Pius XI canonized him in 1930 and declared him doctor of the Church in 1931. His remains are in Saint Ignatius Church in Rome, next to Saint Aloysius Gonzaga, his student.
Santiago is a former regional director of the Department of Education National Capital Region. She is currently a faculty member of Mater Redemptoris Collegium in Calauan, Laguna, and of Mater Redemptoris College in San Jose City, Nueva Ecija.
Image credits: Wikimedia Commons