St Robert Bellarmine (1542-1621) Jesuit theologian and bishop
Once a spiritual director at the English College, Rome, he encouraged
the student priests there who were later to become martyrs. A Jesuit
theologian and then a bishop who was almost elected pope. He also
concurred in the condemnation of Galileo. Still, a saint.
Early life
Born in Montepulciano in
Tuscany, Robert's father was a chief magistrate and his mother the
sister of Pope Marcellus II (1555). After a broad education, he entered
the Jesuits at 18. He taught classics, studied theology at Padua and
Louvain, where he was ordained.
Theologian to Pope Clement VIII
Robert taught
controversial theology - it was the Reformation time - and was recalled
to teach at the Gregorian University. He was also spiritual director to
the English College when many of the students were facing martyrdom when
they went back to their home country.
Then after three years as Jesuit
provincial in Naples, Pope Clement VIII (Ippolito Aldobrandini, pope
1592-1650) called him to be his personal theologian. Subsequently he
became a cardinal and archbishop of Capua.
Almost elected pope in 1605,
the new pope, Paul V, appointed him prefect of the Vatican Library.
Concurred in Galileo's condemnation
Although
Galileo was a personal friend, Bellarmine accepted the Ptolemaic view of
the earth as the centre of the universe and though he tried to
persuade Galileo to present the Copernican view as theory and not as
fact, he concurred in Galileo's condemnation.
Later life
Towards the end of his life he retired to the Jesuit novitiate in Rome and wrote a devotional work on The Art of Dying Well.
He died on 17th September 1621 and is buried in the Lady Chapel of the
Gesù, the main Jesuit church in Rome.
He was canonised in 1930 and
declared a doctor of the Church the following year.