Conciliar Infallibility and Error in the Thomistic Ecclesiology of St. Robert Bellarmine, S.J.
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Christian D. Washburn
Abstract
In the sixteenth century, St. Robert Bellarmine (1542–1621) in his Disputationes de controversiis Christianae fidei adversus huius temporis haereticos defended the authority of the conciliar magisterium. Bellarmine, like other sixteenth-century Thomists, held that there were conditions under which God necessarily protects a general council from teaching error, but he did not deny that councils can and have erred. This article explains Bellarmine’s classification of the different types of councils. It also examines the conditions under which he believes that God necessarily protects a council from teaching error. It then discusses Bellarmine’s teaching on what kinds of councils can err and under what conditions a council can do so. Finally, the article will discuss his historical examination of various alleged conciliar errors.
© 2021 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Research Articles
- Sebastian Münster and his Sources: The Messiah in Rome and the Convergence of Christian-Jewish Polemic and Intra-Christian Conflict
- Von Rossen und Wagen: Das Verhältnis von Stadt und Land in der Ulmer Reformation
- The Doctrine of Justification in the Neo-Latin Biblical Poetry of Silesian Reformation Poets and their Interpretation of the Biblical Theme of the Fall of the First Parents
- Teaching Romans 7 after Trent: Michael Baius and his Lecture Hall on Concupiscence and Original Sin in Early Modern Louvain (1552–1589)
- Maintaining the Common Peace: Security and the Religious Peace of 1578 during the Dutch Revolt
- Conciliar Infallibility and Error in the Thomistic Ecclesiology of St. Robert Bellarmine, S.J.
- Reforming the Holy Name: The Afterlife of the IHS in Early Modern England
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Research Articles
- Sebastian Münster and his Sources: The Messiah in Rome and the Convergence of Christian-Jewish Polemic and Intra-Christian Conflict
- Von Rossen und Wagen: Das Verhältnis von Stadt und Land in der Ulmer Reformation
- The Doctrine of Justification in the Neo-Latin Biblical Poetry of Silesian Reformation Poets and their Interpretation of the Biblical Theme of the Fall of the First Parents
- Teaching Romans 7 after Trent: Michael Baius and his Lecture Hall on Concupiscence and Original Sin in Early Modern Louvain (1552–1589)
- Maintaining the Common Peace: Security and the Religious Peace of 1578 during the Dutch Revolt
- Conciliar Infallibility and Error in the Thomistic Ecclesiology of St. Robert Bellarmine, S.J.
- Reforming the Holy Name: The Afterlife of the IHS in Early Modern England
