View source for Disputationes de Controversiis

{{Short description|16th-century work by Robert Bellarmine}}

{{Infobox book
| image = Bellarmine's Disputationes, volume 1, 1586.jpg
| language = Latin
| author = Robert Bellarmine
| country = Ingolstadt, [[Duchy of Bavaria]], [[Holy Roman Empire]]
| name = Disputationes de Controversiis Christianae Fidei adversus hujus temporis Haereticos
| caption = Title page of the first volume, 1586
}}
{{Separation of church and state in the history of the Catholic Church|expanded = documents}}

'''''Disputationes de Controversiis Christianae Fidei adversus hujus temporis Haereticos''''' ('Disputations on the Controversies of the Christian Faith against the Heretics of this Time'), usually referred to as '''''Disputationes''''', '''''De Controversiis''''' or '''''Controversiae''''', is a work on [[Dogmatic theology|dogmatics]] in three volumes by [[Robert Bellarmine]].

The ''Disputationes'' has been described as "the definitive defence of papal power".<ref name="THCB">Springborg, Patricia. [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/263155499_Thomas_Hobbes_and_Cardinal_Bellarmine_Leviathan_and_'the_ghost_of_the_Roman_empire' "Thomas Hobbes and Cardinal Bellarmine: Leviathan and 'the ghost of the Roman empire' "]. ''History of Political Thought''. XVI:4 (January 1995), pp. 503-531: 506.</ref> After its publication, Bellarmine's ''Disputationes'' was regarded as the Catholic Church's foremost [[Apologetics|defence]] of its [[doctrine]], and especially the [[Papal supremacy|papal power]].<ref>Springborg, Patricia. [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/263155499_Thomas_Hobbes_and_Cardinal_Bellarmine_Leviathan_and_'the_ghost_of_the_Roman_empire' "Thomas Hobbes and Cardinal Bellarmine: Leviathan and 'the ghost of the Roman empire' "]. ''History of Political Thought''. XVI:4 (January 1995), pp. 503-531: 515-516.</ref>

It was written while Bellarmine was lecturing at the [[Roman College]], and was first published at [[Ingolstadt]] in three volumes (1586, 1588, 1593<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/people/history/italian-history-biographies/robert-bellarmine|title=Robert Bellarmine {{!}} Encyclopedia.com|website=www.encyclopedia.com|access-date=2020-02-17}}</ref><ref>{{cite EB1911|wstitle=Bellarmine, Roberto Francesco Romolo, Duc de |volume=3 |page=695}}</ref>).<ref name="THCB" /> This work was the earliest attempt to systematize the various controversies of the time, and made an immense impression throughout Europe, the strength of its arguments against [[Protestantism]] so acutely felt in Germany and England that special chairs were founded to provide replies to it.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02411d.htm|title=CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: St. Robert Bellarmine|website=www.newadvent.org|access-date=2020-02-13}}</ref> [[Thomas Hobbes]],<ref name="THCB" /> [[Theodore Beza]], [[Conrad Vorstius]]<ref>{{cite journal|journal=The Dynamics of Aristotelian Natural Philosophy from Antiquity to the Seventeenth Century|publisher=Brill Publishers|year=2021|doi=10.1163/9789004453319_019|pages=393–395|isbn=9789004453319|title=The Erosion of Aristotelianism. Confessional Physics in Early Modern Germany and the Dutch Republic|author1=Cees Leijenhorst|author2=Christoph Lüthy}}</ref> and [[John Rainolds]]<ref name="THCB516">Springborg, Patricia. [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/263155499_Thomas_Hobbes_and_Cardinal_Bellarmine_Leviathan_and_'the_ghost_of_the_Roman_empire' "Thomas Hobbes and Cardinal Bellarmine: Leviathan and 'the ghost of the Roman empire' "]. ''History of Political Thought''. XVI:4 (January 1995), pp. 503-531: 516.</ref> were among those who wrote counter-arguments against the work.

"The complete edition, reviewed and corrected by the author, which became the standard for all further editions, appeared in Venice in 1596."<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last=Richgels|first=Robert W.|date=1980|title=The Pattern of Controversy in a Counter-Reformation Classic: The Controversies of Robert Bellarmine|journal=The Sixteenth Century Journal|volume=11|issue=2|pages=3–15|doi=10.2307/2540028|jstor=2540028|issn=0361-0160}}</ref>

== Content ==
The final edition of 1596 of the ''Controversiae'' contains a total of 17 controversies:<ref name=":0" />

# The Word of God
# Christ
# The Pope
# Councils
# The Members of the Church
# The Church Suffering
# The Church Triumphant
# The Sacraments in General
# Baptism and Confirmation
# The Sacrament of Eucharist
# Penance
# Extreme Unction, Orders, and Matrimony
# The Grace of the First Man
# The Loss of Grace
# Grace and Free Choice
# Justification
# Good Works

=== Content of the original three volumes ===

==== Volume I ====
The first volume treats of the [[Bible|Holy Scriptures]] and the [[Pope]].<ref name=":1" />

The third section discusses the [[Antichrist]]. Bellarmine gives in full the theory set forth by the [[Church Fathers]], of a personal Antichrist to come just before the end of the world and to be accepted by the [[Jews]] and enthroned in the [[Temple in Jerusalem|temple at Jerusalem]]—thus endeavoring to dispose of the Protestant exposition which saw in the pope the Antichrist.<ref name=":1" />

The most important part of the work is contained in the five books regarding the pope. In these, after a speculative introduction on forms of [[government]] in general, holding [[monarchy]] to be relatively the best, Bellarmine says that a monarchical government and the related temporal power are necessary for the Church to preserve unity and order.<ref name=":1" />

Such power, Bellarmine was considered to have been established by the commission of Christ to [[Saint Peter]]. He then proceeds to demonstrate that this power has been transmitted to the successors of Peter, admitting that a heretical pope may be freely judged and deposed by the Church since, by the very fact of his [[Christian heresy|heresy,]] he would cease to be pope, or even a member of the Church. The fourth section sets forth the Pope as the supreme judge in matters of faith and morals, though making the concessions that the Pope may err in questions of fact known by ordinary human knowledge and when he speaks as a mere unofficial theologian.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=Philip Schaff: New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, Vol. II: Basilica – Chambers — Bellarmine |url=https://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/encyc02.html?term=Bellarmine |access-date=2024-05-01 |website=Christian Classics Ethereal Library |language=en}}</ref>

==== Volume II ====
The second volume is about the authority of councils and the Church, whether [[Churches Militant, Penitent, and Triumphant|militant, expectant, or triumphant]].<ref name=":1" />

==== Volume III ====
This volume treats of the sacraments.<ref name=":1" />

==== Volume IV  ====
This volume is about [[divine grace]], [[free will]], [[justification (theology)|justification]], and [[good works]].<ref name=":1" />

== {{Anchor|Almost in the Index}}Almost in the ''Index'' ==
{{See also|Plenitudo potestatis}}

In 1590, [[Pope Sixtus V]] had, of his own initiative, placed the first volume on a new edition of the ''[[Index Librorum Prohibitorum]]'' for denying that the pope had direct [[Temporal power of the Holy See|temporal authority]] over the whole world. The entry concerning Bellarmine reads: "''Roberti Bellarmini Disputationes de Controversiis Christianae fidei adversus huius temporis haereticos. Nisi prius ex superioribus regulis recognitae fuerint.''" However, Sixtus V died before he could promulgate the [[Papal bull|bull]] which would have made this new edition of the ''Index'' come into force. The successor of Sixtus V, [[Pope Urban VII|Urban VII]], asked for an examination and after it was done, Bellarmine was exonerated and the book was removed from the ''Index''.<ref name=":4">{{Cite book|last1=Vacant|first1=Alfred|url=https://archive.org/details/dictionnairedet02pt1vaca|title=Dictionnaire de théologie catholique : contenant l'exposé des doctrines de la théologie catholique, leurs preuves et leur histoire|last2=Mangenot|first2=Eugene|last3=Amann|first3=Emile|date=1908|publisher=Letouzey et Ané|others=University of Ottawa|edition=2nd|volume=2|location=Paris|page=[https://archive.org/details/dictionnairedet02pt1vaca/page/563 563]-564|language=fr|chapter=Bellarmin}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Blackwell|first=Richard J.|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v1gFDgAAQBAJ&q=urban+vii+index+Blackwell+urban+viii&pg=PT123|title=Galileo, Bellarmine, and the Bible|date=1991-01-31|publisher=University of Notre Dame Press|isbn=978-0-268-15893-4|page=30|language=en|chapter=Chapter 2: Bellarmine's Views Before the Galileo Affair|doi=10.2307/j.ctvpg847x|quote=Bellarmine himself was not a stranger to theological condemnation. In August 1590 Pope Sixtus V decided to place the first volume of the ''Controversies'' on the ''Index'' 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 revised ''Index'' 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.}}</ref> Bellarmine reasoned that though the pope is the vicar of Christ, since Christ did not ''exercise'' his [[Temporal power (Papal)|temporal power]], nor may the pope.<ref>Springborg, Patricia. [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/263155499_Thomas_Hobbes_and_Cardinal_Bellarmine_Leviathan_and_'the_ghost_of_the_Roman_empire' "Thomas Hobbes and Cardinal Bellarmine: Leviathan and 'the ghost of the Roman empire' "]. ''History of Political Thought''. XVI:4 (January 1995), pp. 503-531: 516-517.</ref>

==Translation into English==

Though several books of this work have been translated into English in the past, only recently has it seen its first complete translation project in full, in an English translation made by Ryan Grant. Several parts of the work have been translated, and the whole project will be resumed after the translation project of ''Theologia Moralis'' by [[Saint Alphonsus Liguori]] is completed.<ref>{{cite web|title=Saint Robert Bellarmine Translation Project|url=https://mediatrixpress.com/?page_id=21|website=Mediatrix Press}}</ref>

In 2016, [[Kenneth Baker (Jesuit)|Kenneth Baker]]'s translation of the first three controversies was published as ''Controversies of the Christian Faith''.

==References==
<references />

== Sources ==

* {{Schaff-Herzog|title=Bellarmine|volume=2|article=Bellarmine|pages=34-35}}

== Editions ==

* {{Cite book|last=Bellarmine|first=Robert|title=De Controversiis - On the Roman Pontiff|date=2015|publisher=Mediatrix Press|volume=1: Books 1-2|language=en|translator-last=Grant|translator-first=Ryan}} [https://novusordowatch.org/de-romano-pontifice-book2-chapter30/ Extract of Book II, Chapter 30 (published online with permission)]
* {{Cite book|last=Bellarmine|first=Robert|title=De Controversiis - On the Roman Pontiff|date=2016|publisher=Mediatrix Press|volume=2: Books 3-5|language=en|translator-last=Grant|translator-first=Ryan}} [https://novusordowatch.org/de-romano-pontifice-book4-chapters6-7/ Extract of Book IV, Chapters 6 & 7 (published online with permission)].
* {{Cite book|last=Bellarmine|first=Robert|title=De Controversiis: Tomus I - On the Roman Pontiff: In Five Books|date=2016|publisher=Mediatrix Press|language=en|translator-last=Grant|translator-first=Ryan}}
* {{Cite book|last=Bellarmine|first=Robert|title=De Controversiis - On the Church Militant|date=2016|publisher=Mediatrix Press|language=en|translator-last=Grant|translator-first=Ryan}}
* {{Cite book|last=Bellarmine|first=Robert|title=De Controversiis: Tomus II - On the Church: On Councils, The Church Militant, On the Marks of the Church|date=2017|publisher=Mediatrix Press|volume=1|language=en|translator-last=Grant|translator-first=Ryan}}
* {{Cite book|last=Bellarmine|first=Robert|title=De Controversiis - On Purgatory: The Members of the Church Suffering|date=2017|publisher=Mediatrix Press|language=en|translator-last=Grant|translator-first=Ryan}}

== External links ==
'''In Latin'''

* {{Cite book|last=Bellarmine|first=Robert|title=Disputationes de Controversiis Christianae Fidei adversus hujus temporis Haereticos|date=1586|location=Ingolstadt|publisher=David Sartorius|volume=1|language=la|url=https://daten.digitale-sammlungen.de/0009/bsb00096083/images/index.html?id=00096083&groesser=&fip=eayaewqxdsydeayayztswxdsydensdasewqyzts&no=3&seite=5}}
* {{Cite book|last=Bellarmine|first=Robert|title=Disputationes de Controversiis Christianae Fidei adversus hujus temporis Haereticos|date=1591|location=Ingolstadt|publisher=David Sartorius|volume=2|edition=2|language=la|url=http://digitale.bibliothek.uni-halle.de/vd16/content/pageview/4150633}}
* {{Cite book|last=Bellarmine|first=Robert|title=Disputationes de Controversiis Christianae Fidei adversus hujus temporis Haereticos|date=1593|location=Ingolstadt|publisher=David Sartorius|volume=3|language=la|url=https://daten.digitale-sammlungen.de/0009/bsb00096085/images/index.html?id=00096085&groesser=&fip=eayaewqxdsydeayayztswxdsydensdasewqyzts&no=1&seite=5}}

{{History of Catholic theology|collapsed}}

{{Authority control}}

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